I actively manage three different Twitter accounts at a go and am always on the lookout to see what Twitter clients can help me spot important tweets efficiently, be it from my follows or from keyword searches. My preferred desktop client is Tweetdeck and I run Tweetbot on mobile. So, when the news of Twimbow‘s public release came about I had to check out how much color this web-app added to my Twitter-fied life.

Twimbow is a web-based Twitter app that allows users to quickly filter out the information that they deem important through the application of color-coding. Think about how Google+ allows you to sift out information flowing on your newsfeed via Circles.

The application has three main streams of Twitter feeds. The left stream is all about the user. You are able to monitor your tweets, retweets, direct messages and mentions all on one stream. Although I don’t really see much use of it from an individual account user, it certainly helps when it comes to corporate accounts accessed by multiple users. This allows all the users to view what is being broadcasted from their side in order to avoid any duplications.

The center stream is your usual Twitter feed but with the ability to group followers using colors. The interface is pretty simple: click on the bar beside the profile pictures and set the color. You can add, edit and delete colors at the top of the column. Each color is assigned a group label to help in the classification. The right stream is generally used for keyword searches with the ability to send the search streams to your ‘Monitor’, a pop-up screen that show all your monitored keywords on one panel.

The pros:

• Grouping and filtering of Twitter follows
• Multiple monitoring of keyword searches
• Easy tracking of your own activity (Good for accounts handled by multiple users)

The cons:

• Being solely a web application (My opinion is that Twitter was build to be used mainly on the mobile, and not having a mobile app for Twimbow is a missed opportunity)
• Colors can be a little too glaring (Would pastel be more soothing to the eyes than neon?)

The verdict:

Twimbow is a great app on the web to help companies and severely Twitter-addicted individuals monitor their stream of information. However, I don’t really see the “hook” of the application especially since it does not have a mobile app version.