Tweet Library for iPad makes Twitter useful

I've long been fascinated by the idea of using Twitter as both a social platform and a means of archiving my life on the web. I've played with using favorites, searches, backup services, my own bots for archiving links and direct messages ... I know it goes against the grain of the original vision of Twitter, but it's grown to be something that really has the potential to be more than a flighty (excuse the pun) social network. I haven't, however, really found a solid way to make Twitter work for me the way I think it could. That seems to have changed today, with my discovery of Tweet Library for iPad.

Tweet Library is a Twitter client, but its main feature set revolves around archiving and organizing your tweets. You can see your last few thousand tweets (3,000 tweets on import, which I believe is the limit of the API - Ed), and you can search and filter your timeline, lists, favorites and mentions, as well as search all of Twitter. When you run across words of wisdom, links of interest, general hilarity, or any tidbit you'd like to save, you can send them into custom Collections. Create as many collections as you need, and let them serve as a means of organizing the flurry of information you come across on a daily basis. You can archive and export your collections and timelines, too. I won't list every feature here (there are a lot of them), but I'll note that support for TextExpander and Instapaper is among a host of other niceties.

Manton Reece (Riverfold Software), the developer of Tweet Library, is no stranger to TUAW, nor to polished and useful applications. There's obviously a good bit of his heart and soul in this latest endeavor. I've come across a couple of minor bugs in this initial version, but he's been very responsive and is already working on the next update with more features and fixes. The app is priced at US $9.99 ... a bit pricey for the timid, casual Twitter surfer, but a solid investment for anyone who spends more time there than they'd readily admit. If you fly with that flock, have a peek at Tweet Library on the App Store, and check out the website for screenshots and a short video.