Twitter application TweetDeck has been updated with new functionality, which the company claims makes it an even better tool for business users who want to follow the 'Twittersphere'.

The Adobe Air desktop application allows Twitter users to stay on top of conversations by splitting the main Twitter feed into topic or group columns, such as direct messages and replies.

TweetDeck can now translate 'tweets' at the click of a button, and can be viewed as just one column, which users argue is particularly useful because it is unobtrusive and easy to watch. According to reports, email capabilities have also been added.

The update follows a denial by Twitter that it will start charging businesses for its services, and a promise from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone that the service will be kept free for all.

Google, meanwhile, has given web site developers who use Google Friend Connect an easy way to display conversation updates on their sites in a similar way to Twitter.

Friend Connect is an application for web site owners who want more visitor interaction on their site, and offers a quick way to authenticate users. Visitors to Friend Connect sites can use an account password issued by Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID.

The update will be useful for designers who do not want to sacrifice content for social interaction, according to Google.

"You need your users to sign in, to interact with your site, and to find those like-minded strangers," said Christopher Wren, a software engineer for Google Friend Connect, in a post on Google's new Social Web Blog. "But pixels are precious, and you're not sure how to make more space alongside the wonderful content that brought people to your site in the first place."

The update includes a 'social bar' that allows designers to install social gadgets in one small strip at the top or bottom of their web site. This can host a discussion for the whole site, a section of pages or each individual page, said Google.

The gadget will also allow visitors to see other members on the site and check out their profiles. Google offered Mussie Shore as an example of a web site running the new bar.