HelloTxt is a simple service that allows you to post a message directly to Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Facebook and Plaxo at the same time. Now one has to ask why anyone would need this functionality but I find myself in a situation where I have an account with all of these sites and posting messages to each one individually is not only a mission but also not happening.

Over time Twitter has become my medium of choice simply because it has the highest adoption rate in South Africa for micro-blogging platforms. Personally I prefer Pownce over all these services but there are almost no people using the service that I know.

The HelloTxt service works brilliantly and does what it claims to however the down side to it is that you can only post messages from the HelloTxt website. This is a major issue for me as I prefer to post messages via Instant Messaging and after doing some research I found that there is no way to integrate this service into an IM client.

In a random set of events I stumbled upon Twhirl, the micro-blogging application to rule them all. Twhirl is primarily a Twitter application that allows you to post to the site and the latest version also includes integration with Jaiku and Pownce.

The Twhirl desktop application uses Adobe’s Integrated Runtime (AIR) that enables a cross-platform experience that is gaining big traction with developers and users. One AIR application I use religiously is the Google Analytics Reporting Suite and I’m sure there are many more cool applications out there.

Twhirl features multiple Twitter accounts and once you’ve added one you’re presented with a super-cool interface with full Twitter functionality including; replies, direct messages, favourites and re-tweeting.

By clicking on the settings icon on your Twitter window you can change various settings including adding your usernames for Jaiku and Pownce.

What is really smart about this integration is that replies to Twitter users (i.e. @username) are not posted to either Pownce or Jaiku. As a user of all three services I quickly became aware that replying to someone with the @ symbol is a unique Twitter way of doing things and Pownce evangelists hate it when you try and reply to them in this fashion. This is sure to keep your Pownce buddies happy.

I’m loving Twhirl and I’ve finally found a micro-blogging application that works the way I want it to.

While Pownce has a very similar profile page to Twitter the overall structure seems more intuitive to me. There is a bio of who I am, better structured friends listing plus the added column of other social networking profiles that I belong to.

The site is still in Alpha stages so I’ll forgive them for only having a choice of four themes to select from.

One of the best tools I like about Pownce is the Social Network profiles. There is a selection of almost every social network site out there and you can setup all the ones you belong to. You also have the option of adding your Instant Messenger contact details as well as various websites that you own.

The net result of this is a Profile box which appears on your main profile page.

Website aside I think Pownce’s best value comes in the desktop application they’ve created. Instead of writing their own software Pownce decided to build their desktop application using Adobe’s Integrated Runtime (AIR) environment.

AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to use existing web development skills to build and deploy rich Internet applications for the desktop. The result is a really slick user interface that just works.

From the desktop application you can send messages, links, files (up to 10MB) and create events that can go to individual contacts, all friends or the public in general.

What has become clear through applications like this is that if Twitter is to survive it better start playing catchup as Pownce and Jaiku are hot on their heels.