Going Social On My Mac

For What It’s Worth Department, Suite 143. Mac users are, by nature, social animals, therefore, we need social tools.

There’s Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Tumblr, MySpace, and a dozen more semi-quasi-ways to keep in touch with friends, family, acquaintances, strangers, thieves and predators. Leave it up to Mac developers to make it easy to socialize.

Social for Mac is a compelling Mac app that attempts to bring popular social network access to a single app. I’m not sure that’s even a good thing, but it is more efficient than doing the same thing using half a dozen different apps. The premise is solid, the execution is wanting.

If you’re on Facebook and Twitter and use Gmail, Social for Mac is worth a look, and you won’t spend much money for the look. It’s simple. The app resides in your Mac’s Menubar. Once click gives you access to Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail (though not for all capability).

An app that brings multiple social networks to one location.

It’s an elegant way to do two things. First, following is easy and notifications tell you when someone has updated Twitter, Facebook or when Gmail has arrived.

Second, adding to Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail is a click and a selection away. That’s an efficient use of the Menubar if you’re a Mac user who frequents only those social locations.

Social for Mac also does GTalk and Facebook Chat, but what you won’t get are all the options for each. For that, you’ll have to have a dedicated Mac app, or open each service in a browser window, which defeats the purpose of efficiency gained by using a single app.

Another trend in Mac apps is Mac App Store only apps. Social for Mac is available only on the Mac App Store, the price is cheap, but there’s also a free lite version available for download.

My Mac social life is busy enough without having to bounce back and forth between apps, so Social for Mac is a useful solution.