Lately I have been hearing a lot of noise about the Alert Thingy. A desktop client, build on Adobe AIR, which allows you to monitor updates on your FriendFeed, and as a side bonus of its latest release you can also post to Twitter and Flickr. FriendsFeed, for which Alert Thingy was build, is profile activity aggregator. You sign up with FriendFeed and add the usernames to a number of web services like Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku and number of other others. Then when there is any activity on the linked profiles, it is distributed to FriendFeed and any other site via API or a RSS feed. FriendFeed takes those feeds and mashes them up into one.

Image via WikipediaBut back to Alert Thingy. The app has been hyped up so much by Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch, in the last two weeks that I decided to turn off my Twhirl and try it out. As I finished installing it, Twhirl had an update, so I installed it, too. Looking through Alert Thingy I found myself with very limited options and customization choices. I mean Alert Thingy counterpart, MySocial 24×7, which is a FireFox plugin, offers more options. Yes Twhirl requires two different windows for each service, but I will stick with it. Especially after tonight’s update, which added few new features, and now I can get my FriendFeed through it as well. Not that I care much about FriendFeed, at least at this time. If anyone is interested in adding me as a friend on FriendFeed, this is my profile.

So Michael, why all the hype? Other than freeing desktop space, I just don’t see how Alert Thingy is better than Twhirl.