Sharing is caring, right? Well, Scott Carter certainly thinks so. He’s created a bookmarklet that you can start using in just seconds that works with all the major browsers on the market (Firefox, IE, Safari, and Chrome). This tool, called BigTweet, allows users to post an update to Twitter about the website they’re currently viewing.

Background Info

BigTweet was launched one month ago on November 9, 2008. Carter said he’d been working on the service for around 6 months prior to launch. Instead of releasing early and refining, he refined prior to release. When asked why he chose a bookmarklet over an app, he responded:

… a bookmarklet offered me just as much control and was easier for the user to install. The BigTweet bookmarklet also works seamlessly on all major browsers including Firefox, IE, Safari, and Google Chrome.

BigTweet finds inspiration from other bookmarklets such as TwitThis and TwitThat, but offers a richer experience to the user. There’s also inspiration from FriendFeed and Magnolia Roots. When asked about the character limitations, Carter said:

While I believe that I am able to express my thoughts in 140 characters most of the time, I occasionally wanted the ability to go beyond this limit. BigTweet lets me do it.

The Good

BigTweet is very simple to use. It offers built-in URL shortening using bit.ly, the ability to send big tweets up to 240 characters (sent as two tweets), and access to many unicode characters. To use BigTweet, click the bookmark you created and enter some text. If you want to add the shortened URL, click the Add link by the bit.ly link that it provides and it’ll add it to your tweet. A new feature released this week allows you to paste highlighted text from the current page into BigTweet, just remember to highlight before you open it.

There’s nothing complex about what BigTweet does, which is fantastic because it’s not trying to do too much. This is a simple, effective way to share things you like directly from your browser. There’s no hassle with going to another site to shorten the URL, then pasting that into your client. One click, type some text, and send it. Tweeting doesn’t get any easier than this.

The Bad

Some people will say the biggest problem with BigTweet is that it’s ugly. Carter acknowledges the fact that he’s a programmer, not a designer (link to discussion). Being in a similar circumstance, I don’t find any flaw in the design he’s created. You’ll find some who will argue that look and feel is a big part of the impression people get about a tool. Either way you look at it, just be warned that BigTweet wasn’t built with beauty in mind.

In terms of glitches or flaws, I only noticed that session management is a little wonky when using Safari and not changing your cookie settings. While I don’t feel that I should have to accept all cookies just to use the service, it solves the minor issues I was having with logging in and out. In case you run into session issues in Safari, be sure to go back and follow the directions.

The Verdict

This tool is all about simplicity and shouldn’t be muddied with a ton of extra features. One thing that could be included is support for multiple accounts. Just give me a dropdown of accounts I’ve supplied credentials for and let me select one when I tweet. I could resort to logging in/out for each, but that’s kind of a pain.

If you’re in the market for a quick bookmarklet to send tweets from any web page, this is one of your best options. I plan on using this more frequently in the future in supplement to my TweetDeck addiction.

Accounts to Follow:

@scott_carter, @bigtweet

To leave feedback for Scott, you can go to BigTweet’s UserVoice page.