I respectfully disagree. Web browsing is just fine in Emacs (ezbl - uzbl embedded inside a slightly patched emacs - is sweet). And the best and most scalable mail reader I have ever encounter just happens to be Gnus, which is also an Emacs application. I have found no other program that would allow me to work as efficiently as I do with Gnus (and I'm just a novice Gnus user, with a lot to learn about it still).
I have Gnus set up to pop up a desktop notification when important mails arrive (either in my inbox, or on any of the various lists I am on) - but only when it's deemed important by my filters. There's no status area flashing, there's a desktop notification, like in every other email client out there.
I believe the same could be done for Twitter aswell. I know I've done similar things with my IRC client (ERC rocks too, by the way), I can't see why I couldn't do it with Twitter. It's also possible to just run it in a buffer in the background, with no notifications at all.
Emacs works very well with real-time stuff too. And being written in lisp, it's very easy to customize how it behaves to suit one's needs.
I have Gnus set up to pop up a desktop notification when important mails arrive (either in my inbox, or on any of the various lists I am on) - but only when it's deemed important by my filters. There's no status area flashing, there's a desktop notification, like in every other email client out there.
I believe the same could be done for Twitter aswell. I know I've done similar things with my IRC client (ERC rocks too, by the way), I can't see why I couldn't do it with Twitter. It's also possible to just run it in a buffer in the background, with no notifications at all.
Emacs works very well with real-time stuff too. And being written in lisp, it's very easy to customize how it behaves to suit one's needs.