One of the most conspicuously absent apps since the early days of the iPad has been an official Twitter app. Sure, Twitterrific  has helped assuage the needs of free users and Twittelator seems to have become the favorite of paid users, but for those demanding the official twitter touch, there was little recourse. Fortunately, Twitter finally deigned to grace the iPad with an official app this week, and their efforts have proved to be quite satisfying.

What distinguishes the official Twitter app from its third-party ilk is in the interesting paned user interface it utilizes. On the left side of the app is a sort of home row, with the account name and icon, Timeline, Mentions, Lists, Messages, Profile, and Search. When you open your timeline, a list of the most recent tweets opens on the right side of the screen.  When you select a specific tweet, another overlapping pane opens up either showing the Tweeter’s profile, opening a browser window to the URL they’re linking, or opens the conversation they’re participating in using a hashtag.

What works so well about the interface is that it manages to keep the entire Twitter experience, including the back and forth conversations and linking out to outside content, contained within the app itself. It can get pretty busy if you start following links and tweets in several layers deep, but the use of the panes allows you to jump back to your starting point with a few flicks of your finger.

The app is a smash in its own right, but using it correctly, especially for those who aren’t overly familiar with the Twitter experience, requires some tweaking. Outside of your direct stream of tweets from people you’re following, the biggest sources of content generally come from saved searches and lists to which you can subscribe. Unfortunately, users actually have to visit Twitter itself to save searches and subscribe to lists – the functionality is not available in the app itself.

For those who are completely new to the whole idea of Twitter, the app actually does hold your hand pretty well. It offers a list of subject areas into which one can dive without ever having to follow a single person. Why this option is available to registered Twitters is somewhat baffling, but it’s worth checking out if you’re still skeptical about the Twitter phenomenon.

In all, the official Twitter app provides most of the bells and whistles you’d hope from an official app, including an intuitive and exciting interface, for the low price of Free. Users of paid alternatives may be too entrenched in their old habits to make the switch, but it still comes highly recommended.