Twitt’d: Twitter, IM-Style

Twitter is back on IM, thanks to a new utility just launched in beta mode.

Twitt’d is a surprisingly simple little tool that lets you send and receive tweets through several instant messaging platforms. All you do is IM anything to the username “twittd.” An automated response then prompts you for a username and password. Once you provide that information, you’ll start receiving updates from everyone you follow. Any future IMs you send will also be translated into tweets and posted from your account.

There’s not much more to this program, nor does there need to be. It has a few command options that will let you turn the service on or off, update a changed password, or disable the service altogether.

Twitt’d supports Skype, Google Talk/Jabber, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. AIM, surprisingly enough, is thus far excluded from the list.

We sent a request for an interview to the e-mail address listed on the Twitt’d page four hours prior to publishing this story, but we’ve yet to hear back. The domain is registered to a California hosting company, but no owner information is provided. The parent company, NodeHub, has a web page that’s blank except for text saying: “l8r :-)”

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Our vote: An interesting application, no doubt, and one with the potential to come in quite handy for regular Twitter users. Our one (fairly substantial) concern: Do you want to trust sending your password to a company that we know so little about? The only mention of password security on the Twitt’d page is “sssh! we’ll keep it in secret!” The parent company’s blank web site certainly doesn’t provide reassurance. Twitt’d is an intriguing idea, but its developers need to do a far better job of being transparent about who they are and what kind of security they provide. I wouldn’t send in my password at this point. Would you?