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Last month the new Bargain Chat was introduced, when the whole thing was moved  over to Twitter. This change brings with it many new ways to read and post to the chat, but was also sudden enough to be met with a bit of resistance from the community.

With the end of financial year sales just beginning it would be senseless to ignore the new Bargain Chat because it is different. Give Twitter a go and see what powerful new options are possible.

Set yourself up to never miss another bargain again. This article has some examples of ways you can interact with the new Bargain Chat.

Why Twitter?

The true power of the new Bargain Chat comes when you leave Economical Gamer behind and focus on what Twitter has to offer. You can read Twitter anywhere, post to it from anywhere, display it how you want and filter what you want to read. Twitter is not just popular, it is an independent information source that is frequently the first place to report important world news and events.

Why not use this for bargain hunting?

Economical Gamer isn't the only Twitter channel that contains bargains, nor are we the first to find out about broken street dates. Twitter is a platform where you can create your own search queries to isolate consoles, games, locations, authors or channels you want to read about. There is enormous potential when you consider everyone can be using different search queries to find bargains, but then retweet it to our central designated #ecogamer channel.

Pictured: TweetDeck

The search query we suggest you use to set up your application is "ecogamer" without the quotes. You can then work on making your own queries.

• http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ecogamer

On Your Phone:

Twitter is known for its portability and nothing highlights that more than the tight integration it has with virtually every phone on the market (through one means or another). Some providers also offer unmetered downloads for Twitter. So now you can report bargains while out on the field! There are a myriad of different Twitter apps for the different phones out there, plus the option of always using RSS for older phones.

Pictured: Official Twitter iPhone app

Dekstop Applications and Pop-Up Notification:

There are a number of dedicated Twitter applications that allow you to chat and receive updates without having to visit Twitter. They give you status updates in the form of pop-ups on your computer and allow you to post tweets just as easily as any instant messaging service. They come with different interfaces, so choose one you like.

Pictured: Twhirl

On Your Desktop:

Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS all have built in desktop widget engines, and it is possible to download others like Adobe AIR or Yahoo! Widgets if you use something else. There is a collection of both dedicated Twitter widgets and simple RSS widgets that even come with your computer. All allowing you to have Bargain Chat as a permanent fixture on your desktop.

Pictured: Official Windows Vista RSS Sidebar Widget

Inside Firefox:

There is a small collection of both Twitter and RSS applications you can use to check chat inside Firefox. You will need a Twitter plugin that allows you to do search queries to get more than our official tweets. Twitbin or Twitkit+ are two nice sidebar plugins you can toggle on and off and provide pop-ups when updates are noticed.

Pictured: Twitkit+

RSS Users:

Twitter provide an RSS feeds for any search query you desire. If you would prefer to check Twitter with your current RSS or Atom reader it is very easy to do so. Just do a search on Twitter and click the "Feed for this query".

Find one you like, there are thousands:

Due to the popularity of Twitter there are thousands of different applications on the internet you can use, millions if you include RSS readers. I use Tweetdeck myself and think it highlights how powerful cross-channel tweets and custom search queries are for collecting and spreading information.

Already Using Bargain Chat?

I would like to thank everyone who has already begun to use the new Bargain Chat, or plans to do so after reading this article. It will be dedicated and progressive members like yourself who will provide the conversations and appeal that will convince the rest of community to eventually jump on board.