I got an alpha preview of Twimbow, a new web-based Twitter client. It’s really slick-looking and allows you to color-code tweets based on hashtag, username, or keyword. Great so you don’t skip over a tweet you might actually be interested in.
At home, I have Twimbow setup as a Fluid site-specific browser. This is good because it gives me a dock icon for quick access to the site and it throws it into a different window and process so it’s separate from my regular web browsing and developing. Plus, it makes it feel more like a desktop app than a web app.
Anyway, I found myself switching back to the window every so often to see if I had any new tweets or mentions. It got annoying. So, I wrote a Fluid Greasemonkey script to check for new tweets and then display the count as a badge on the Twimbow dock icon and it also pops up a Growl notification! It was quick and easy!
To use this, download Fluid and install it. Set up a new SSB by launching the app and filling in the details. Make sure you select my PNG file as the Application icon. After you save the new SSB and launch it, from the menubar, click the Script icon and select “Open User Scripts Folder”. Drag and drop the twimbow.notifications.user.js file to this folder. Refresh the Twimbow app (Command+R) and go to the Script icon menu and select “twimbow notifications” and it’ll place a checkbox next to it in the menu. Refresh once more and now you’re done! The script will be loaded automatically every time you launch Twimbow.
You can download the script below, as well as an application icon I made from their favicon.
Twimbow Fluid Greasemonkey script: Download (Right-click, save as)
Twimbow Fluid application icon: Download
