Twitter Explorer lets you indulge your microblogging needs without being tied to a full browser. The little UI lets you see recent mentions and contact activity. Crammed into the Sidebar, everything can look pretty tiny, so drag it onto the Desk-top and play with the different size and theme options. We like that the “wide mode” lets you see full usernames and thumbnail pictures.

Twitter Explorer makes smart use of fly-out windows for things such as Post and Retweet Text, because trying to cram even 140 characters into a conventional widget box would stink. The tool can take a couple of minutes to update, which may seem a half-eon in Twitter time, but the greater convenience can be worth the wait.