April 4th, 2008
AIR Twitter client Twhirl gets bought by Seesmic
I think this is the first case of an AIR application being acquired so it’s a pretty cool day for RIAs on the desktop. Twhirl has been gaining a ton of momentum because it’s so well designed and I think it shows off why RIAs on the desktop are going to be a big deal. You’re empowering a whole lot of people to build brand new kinds of applications. One excellent developer, Marco, was able to put together Twhirl, integrate a lot of community feedback and have it running cross platform all using web technologies.
In Loic’s post (the founder of Seesmic and purchaser) he gave a bunch of reasons for the acquisition including the first one, “Staying in touch with your friends using microblogging is much easier using a client than through your browser”. I think he nails it. We’ve got a ton of APIs floating around the web. Shouldn’t we be able to provide the best possible experience using those APIs? It doesn’t matter how you interact with the data, only that it’s there. The web ecosystem that has been built up is such a great fit for RIAs on the desktop because we’ve exposed data at its most basic level and let people create great experiences around it. Regardless of the platform, those APIs make it easy to create the right blend of desktop and browser.
Congrats to Marco. This is a cool day for RIAs.
