Seesmic and Tweetdeck, which were early players in building third-party software to read tweets and status updates from social networks, are showing off fresh versions of their software that can interact with Google Buzz among other new abilities. The two companies seem to be taking divergent strategies, however, with one company focusing on HTML5 and the other still pushing to support multiple platforms.
San Francisco-based Seesmic debuted a new desktop edition today (pictured top right), based entirely on Microsoft's Silverlight platform. That framework allows Seesmic to have rich plug-ins; it's adding Socialwok today, which is an enterprise-focused service that creates a private Facebook-like experience for sharing messages, files, email and Google Docs. There are also "Channels" that can track activity around specific brands across Twitter. That means users will be able to track activity across all of their social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Buzz and interact with co-workers through the SocialWok plug-in.
U.K.-based Tweetdeck also added support for Buzz and is in the process of building an HTML5-based version of its client. (A video of the app is shown below.)
Tweetdeck is joining a growing cohort of companies that are putting their weight behind HTML-5. With a deep upfront investment now, the company will avoid the hassle of developing multiple editions for Android devices, the iPhone and the iPad among other platforms. Web-based apps also are easier on battery life too.
This version will include some of Tweetdeck's longtime features like pop-up notifications; it will also have the ability to display geotagged tweets on a map.