Tweetdeck has announced something called deck.ly, which promises to let you tweet in more than 140 characters, something I welcome.  

Beyond that the website is pure confusion.  

1. Do I need to use Chrome to access this service, or can I get there from Firefox (the browser that I use all day every day)? 

2. Is this a proprietary thing, i.e. what if one of their competitors would like to offer the same service. Do they have to create something completely incompatible, or can they interoperate in some way. In other words have they created yet-another silo (boo). Is this just an attempt to break out of the grip of Twitter, Inc or is it something bigger with a future beyond one vendor? 

3. What if, god forbid, Twitter wanted to support this? What would Tweetdeck say to that? 

I guess that's enough to begin with. Once we know the answers others may come to the surface. 

One thing that it definitely is -- an awful name. Sickly pops to mind. Dickly. Deadly. For a short URL (presumably why they chose this name), "deck" seems pretty long. And the fact that it's the end of their product name pretty much nails the answer to #2. Even if they offer an API, it's hard to imagine their competitors signing up for a service that's named after another vendor's product. 

PS: A personal note -- white text on a black background is really hard on my poor eyes. Have some pity!