To avoid the suspense: Seesmic Desktop has won my heart. 

To be honest: TweetDeck rocks, too.

The differences between TweetDeck and Seesmic are so minor that it is down to personal aesthetic preference and some minor functionality.  The two seem to be in a friendly competition to see who can add the greatest features and functionality as quickly as possible.  TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth (left) and Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur (right) even made a prank video claiming TweetDeck had been acquired by Seesmic:

TweetDeck holds the number one spot when it comes to applications used to manage Twitter accounts.  Seesmic was not even in the top ten last month.

And, rapidly adding functionality they are; Jennifer Van Grove wrote a great article last month comparing TweetDeck and Seesmic but it is already obsolete as both have been adding and updating their product by leaps and bounds in the weeks since the article’s release.

Both desktop applications run on Adobe Air, allow you to manage multiple Twitter accounts, manage one Facebook account and give you control over tweeting, following, retweeting, favoriting, searching, the list goes on...from any or all of the accounts you manage. 

TweetDeck currently has the one up for iPhone integration.  It has an app that you can sync to your accounts and thus run it seamlessly from your PC or Mac and your iPhone.  But, wait!  Seesmic released its very own iPhone app at Tech Crunch’s Real-Time Stream and CrunchUp on July 10th and it will be only a matter of time before all iPhone users have access.

So, why have I chosen Seesmic as my personal account manager over TweetDeck?  I’ve been told I cannot simply reply, “I love their raccoons.”  Although, they are damn cute. What makes Seesmic work for me is the user interface. 

You can make it as small as a single column or have a single “home” column with one detached column that has a scroll bar so you can move back and forth between all of your accounts, search columns, groups and any other column topic you’ve created, or, you can have it set up to have all columns in one window to scroll through (TweetDeck has only this option, but you can resize the window).  You can also drag and drop columns if you want them in a different position. Finally, Seesmic has a “home” column that lists the tweets and status updates of all of the Twitter users and Facebook friends all of my accounts are following.  

There you have it; it’s a matter of personal preference.  If you are a power Twitter user and need a desktop application this is what I hope you get out of this:

1. It is worth your time to try out the various applications available to find exactly what you need.
2. TweetDeck and Seesmic are listening to their users and adding functionality to suit our needs.
3. Raccoons are cool.