Does Seesmic's new browser client look familiar?

Seesmic's got a new browser-based client out, to go with their desktop client for Twitter and Facebook. Before you even consider the features of Seesmic Web, though, you might notice something quite familiar about the interface: there's a single-column mode that looks a heck of a lot like Gmail. Timeline, replies and direct messages are in a sidebar, like Gmail's folders, and the text of the tweets or Facebook posts themselves goes right where you'd expect to see a subject line.

Seesmic isn't the first Twitter web client to try this approach. Just a few months ago, Brad wrote about TwitteReader, a Google Reader-esque Twitter site that even incorporated Google Reader's familiar keyboard shortcuts. Seesmic has more bells and whistles than TwitteReader does, but both gain something by copying Google's approach: users are instantly familiar with the UI, and it probably doesn't feel entirely like learning to use a new app, or even a new service.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: facebook, gmail, seesmic, twitter, twittereader