Oneupweb Reviews: Brizzly, a Social Media Reader

You’ve worked hard to build your Twitter fan base. Still, you get aggravated by a handful of followers: the people who insist on sharing pictures from ICanHasCheezburger. Or worse, the ones who won’t let Michael Jackson die. If you’re like me, too nice to hit the “unfollow” button, then you’ll appreciate Brizzly.

Recently launched in private beta, Brizzly lets you do more than just “mute” your Twitter followers. This social media reader organizes what’s important in your Twitter & Facebook streams.

Unlike TweetDeck, which organizes Facebook and Twitter posts side-by-side, Brizzly uses a one-column format, allowing users to shift between Facebook and Twitter. For me this one-column format is less overwhelming and is just one of the many ways Brizzly simplifies browsing.

Using this social reader adds another level of functionality to Twitter. For example, you can read what’s going on in your Twitter stream while instantly direct messaging contacts. You can also save drafts of tweets to post at a later time, mute followers and segregate tweets containing videos and pictures.

Beyond organizing what’s coming into your stream, Brizzly simplifies how you share. The camera icon by the update button lets you upload photos from Flickr and Twitpic and video from Vimeo and YouTube without clicking away to another page. Brizzly hosts the media and gives you a shortened Bit.ly link to share.

Saved searches are another Brizzly feature that will become more important as social search is refined. Brizzly lets you perform and save search results for both Twitter and Facebook. Once saved, those results update as new messages about that topic are posted.

These saved searches are useful for staying updated on breaking news or industries changes. As you may have guessed, though, you aren’t performing advanced searches. Brizzly’s search function, like Twitter Search, is limited to general queries such as “yoga studios” as oppose to “yoga studios Traverse City Mi.”

Overall, Brizzly makes a suitable option for anyone looking for an easy way to manage both their Twitter and Facebook accounts. For anyone still complaining about how Facebook’s redesign makes it harder to find recent activity, you’ll appreciate this simplicity. Brizzly shows posts you’ve participated in along with comments your friends have made on your posts.

Just keep in mind that you will sacrifice some of the advanced features you’ll find on applications like TweetDeck.

Oneupweb Reviews: Oneup Thumbs-Up! (People looking for an easier tool than TweetDeck will like Brizzly.)