Seesmic Blog

After much hard work, Seesmic Desktop 2 (SD2) is finally ready to emerge out of beta. The inspiration to build SD2 came from the understanding that our users desired support of many different social services, more than just Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. And so, SD2 was born. With the plugin architecture in SD2, you can easily add, remove and customize the platform to include only the services that matter to you.

Here's a quick video explaining the awesomeness that is SD2…

At launch, SD2 will contain all of the core services you've come to love like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Foursquare, Google Buzz, Ping.fm, Bit.ly and TwitPic, by default. 

Alongside that, is the SD2 plugin marketplace. The marketplace boasts over 40 plugins at launch, with dozens more to join in the upcoming weeks. As you begin browsing the marketplace, you'll notice services like Zappos, Salesforce, Topsy, Klout, Socialcast, MySpace, Formspring, OneRiot, SocialWok, YouTube, Google Reader, Techmeme, Ning and many more — and we haven't even scratched the surface. Don't see a service in our marketplace that you want? Check out our developer SDK for the platform here, and take a stab at building a plugin of your own or have our team help out with development by emailing us at bizdev@seesmic.com.

Finally, for all of you that were worried that SD2 is only compatible for Windows, we've got good news. SD2 is compatible on both Windows and Mac OS X machines. Yes, both Windows and Mac. Apple fanboys, rejoice. 

Now, the fun part. To download SD2 for yourself, visit seesmic.com/desktop. Let us know what you think, we hope you love the new Seesmic Desktop as much as we do.

Several exciting plugins are currently being developed for Seesmic Desktop 2, helping you easily manage your online experience. We've received great feedback on the release of the preview version of SD2, and as we get closer to releasing to beta, we're anticipating some awesome plugins from both companies and the development community.

We'll be showcasing a few leading up to release. Last week, John Papa, a Senior Technical Evangelist for Microsoft, developed this simple but cool plugin called "Sticky". Here's a video that gives you an idea about what the plugin does.

John posts the details in his blog, including recent updates and how to download and install Sticky

Check out: http://johnpapa.net/sticky/

He's also made an update recently – details of the newest version are here:

http://johnpapa.net/silverlight/updates-and-new-home-for-sticky-plugin/

“Sticky” is a plugin for Seesmic
Desktop 2 that I created. I’ll
be keeping this page updated with the overview of Sticky and adding
“how-to’s” and other resources for Sticky as it evolves.

Feel free to use this plugin as you like. It is a simple plug in
that, shows information about the Twitter user right inline with the
Tweet. 

Collapsed State

When the Sticky plugin is in its collapsed state you will see a small
icon for the plugin and a summary of the Twitter user’s information
(see below). It shows the number of Twitter followers, the number of
friends and the number of updates for a Twitter user.

Here is a zoomed in close up of this information and the icon. When
creating an icon you can customize the collapsed text as makes sense for
your plugin.  

Expanded State

In its expanded state, the Sticky plugin hides the collapsed view and
transitions to a larger view. The expanded state shows the user’s
friendly name, a link to their web page, a link to the TwitterCounter
for the user, a link to their Twitter page, and the user’s Twitter
profile bio (see below).

I used some visual states to subtly animate the sticky note when you
move your mouse over it. This is a pretty simple use of visual states,
easing, and effects which I’ll explore in an upcoming post when I dive
into the details of how the plug in is created.

Choose Your Stick Color

The Sticky plugin now allows you to choose a custom color for the
Sticky note. First, go to the Settings for the Sticky plugin. Find the
Sticky plugin in the list and click the Settings link.

Then you can set the color or revert to the default color.