There's no shortage of ways to keep up to date with your Twitter contacts without actually visiting Twitter.com. And TwitterFox is... well, it's another one of them. But what sets TwitterFox apart from Firefox add-ons like TwitBin is that TwitterFox doesn't take up space in your browser sidebar. Rather, it hangs out in your system tray and pops up only when your contacts post a new tweets or when you click on the icon to read your latest messages.

In fact, TwitterFox feels a lot more like an Adobe AIR-based application like Twhirl or Snitter than a Firefox add-on. The little T icon in your sidebar will display the number of your unread messages. And when you click the icon a window will pop up showing your latest tweets, sorted by Recent, Replies, and Direct messages. You can send a message by typing in the box, and you can include a link by hitting the link button.

TwitterFox doesn't include some of the more advanced tools you'll find in application like Twhirl, such as snipurl integration or a user lookup feature. But if you don't feel like installing Adobe AIR just to use a Twitter client, TwitterFox might be worth checking out.

[via Geek Bargain Bins and Mixx]

You are reading this post about Twitter. That's what you would answer to Twitter's simple question, "What are you doing?", which is the entire premise of Twitter's existence. Getting people to answer in 140 characters or less, by IM or logging onto Twitter.com, what it is they are doing at that particular moment. Big stuff, right?

Constant stream of consciousness chatter is the lifeforce of Twitter. And this constant feed of the bright and banal is turning a lot of people into Twitter addicts. What makes this so? It could be the sheer ease of use to Twitter. You don't have to construct an entire blog post or for that matter, even a full sentence. Just a thought, a word, an impulse to share and you can Tweet (or post something on Twitter).

To Tweet or not to Tweet
Warning: if you're the compulsive type, you may want to move onto the next post and stop your habit before you even have a chance to start it. (We're not making this up. According to Alexa, Twitter's user reach has increased 526% in the last three months). Now, for those of you who aren't the addictive type or who like to throw all caution to the wind, let's investigate what awaits you in the world of Twitter.

Tools for Twitter are cropping up all over the place to help you get your Twitter addiction game on. Twitbin is one of those enablers tools. As an extension in your Firefox browser, it allows you to post Twitter messages (or tweets as they are called) within the browser and receive tweets as well.

Once you download the extension, the Twitbin icon shows up in your browser. When you click on it, Twitbin opens as a sidebar and displays a toolbar. The gear icon allows you to set your preferences, either public or friend streams, and auto refresh settings.

The home icon lets you log into Twitter and once you do that, Twitbin streams your tweets. Sweet. When you close Twitbin, it stops gathering your tweets, and when you reopen, it will restart the tweet stream.

Twitbin works on Windows and Mac OS X, and possibly Linux as well (anyone test it out yet?). Stay tuned for a comprehensive "All things Twitter" post coming soon.