The social media/networking desktop wars continue to heat up with more applications popping up that offer the ability to interact with popular networks from outside the network itself. The newest entrant is bDule from Sobees.Swiss-based Sobees created bDule (the name comes from combining their mascot bee plus module) to combine several of the top social services into a desktop application. In their blog post regarding the launch, Sobees notes the goal of bDule, "(to) offer a "start simple" experience making it easier for users to enjoy desktop aggregation without creating an account". They continue with a note that they wanted to create an application that netbook users would find beneficial while traveling.

bDule provides Twitter access with groups, multiple accounts and the ability to view the accounts in one aggregated column or multiple columns per account. Twitter search is also available including the ability to save searches. The Facebook integration pulls in your full feed with the ability to post status updates directly to Facebook from within bDule. Also included is the option to post comments on your friend's content and "like" it.

bDule is built using Microsoft's .net platform and is only available to computers running Windows. My hope is that they will eventually build a Mac version which I think will help the company to grow virally. It seems like these types of applications grow faster when they are platform agnostic.

From my discussions with Facebook and Twitter power users, these new desktop applications appear to be the only way to use the service. For the record I use the .com websites and don't have any desktop application currently installed.

bDule faces stiff competition from valley-darlings Seesmic and Tweetdeck.