I knew Buzz Anderson was making a Twitter app for the iPhone. When the months rolled on and Tweetie came out and Twitterrific got better I really wondered how the hell Birdfeed was going to compete in the crowded marketplace. I figured that out within a few seconds of launching the app. Birdfeed competes by being excellent. The word that keeps popping into my head is “fluid.” The experience is so fluid and so smooth. Everything works exactly as you’d expect. The interface is so clear and unambiguous, there is no wondering how something works or what an icon means. New tweets automatically load when you get to the bottom, fulfilling my next request a priori. I never realized how clunky other Twitter clients were until I tried Birdfeed.

I also wish more developers lived in New York City like Buzz. I can only guess that the tweet caching feature was at least partially inspired by the fact that most of us New Yorkers find themselves with a lot of idle time on a train underground and therefore off the network. It’s amazing how many apps become utterly useless without a network connection.

Add to all this the fact that Birdfeed is lightning fast, especially on launch, and it’ll take a lot now to make me switch back to anything else.

(Oh and the icon is just wonderful too.)