TweetDeck ditches Adobe, launches new HTML 5 Twitter apps

Coinciding with the launch of a new Twitter interface, TweetDeck has also undergone a drastic redesign.

Along with the redesigned desktop version of the client, TweetDeck has also finally launched a web-based version 1 after months in beta. The web-based service is designed for those unwilling to install the serive on their hard-drives. Previously, the only way to access TweetDeck without downloading the client onto your computer was to install a Google Chrome plugin. With this new service, any browser can be used to access TweetDeck.

At the time of writing, no changes had been made to the TweetDeck for Android or iPhone applications.

Though the new TweetDeck retains much of the same look and feel of the client which Twitter “power users” — the client’s primary demographic — have come to know, there are some subtle key changes.

The first, and most obvious, change is the new logo. Replacing the black and orange logo, TweetDeck, now in line with other Twitter owned properties, also sports the little blue Twitter bird. Following a bidding war with UberMedia, Twitter acquired the service earlier this year for a rumoured US$40-50 million.

All links, hashtags, and @-mentions are now blue. Previously they had been underlined and white.

In the new TweetDeck, native Twitter services are now the primary option. Previously third-party applications for photo sharing and URL shortening were used. The choice to revert to these other services is now behind a settings option. Real names, as opposed to a user’s Twitter handle, are now also the default setting though this can also be changed back by clicking on settings.

An option that never existed before, clicking on a tweet itself now gives you a raft of new options such as emailing the tweet or creating a link to the tweet.

Speaking at the Le Web tech conference, Twitter head-honcho Ryan Sarver explained the recent raft of changes to TweetDeck, Twitter.com, and Twitter for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone as being informed by a philosophy of “simplicity”.

Image: TweetDeck