Upon clicking on the TwitBin icon for the first time, you’ll be prompted to enter your Twitter account details. Click on Add Account and it should open the Twitter Authorization page. Log in with your user name and password and wait for the extension to verify using a PIN. The numbers automatically show up on the sidebar so there’s need to manually type them in.
Once this is set up, you can now view your Twitter feed on the left sidebar while browsing the web. Note that any open website will adjust to make room for the TwitBin sidebar. The top of the TwitBin app has the basic Twitter functions – the text field to tweet, the @ tab for replies and mentions, the message tab for Direct Messages and the Favorites, Lists and Search buttons. The user interface is quite clean and simple and very user friendly.
The default setting for the sidebar position is to the left, but this can be changed under Preferences by clicking on the wheel button on the top right corner of the screen. Other settings can also be changed here such as reload time, photo client and setting a local password. A local password is an extra password to open your account when TwitBin is used. This does not apply to your actual Twitter account.
TwitBin also support multiple accounts so you can add other Twitter accounts you may have. However, the Twitter feeds are viewed one account at a time, so you’ll have to sign out from your current account and sign in to the other one to view the appropriate timeline.
Another thing I like about this extension is the notification feature. As long as TwitBin remains open, there are indicators for incoming tweets. One is the red pop up icon that shows the number of new tweets, and another is the blue bar below the text field. Click on this to push your timeline to the top portion where the newest tweets are.
Before TwitBin, tweeting was a tedious task for me, especially when maintaining online presence for different accounts. For novice and advanced users alike, TwitBin proves to be a very helpful tool for easier, more productive tweeting.
