VENUS WILLIAMS and Andy Murray are among the tennis stars using Twitter to update fans at Wimbledon this year.

Updates from the competitors are being compiled into one simple application for mobile phones to keep fans up to speed while on the move.

The IBM Seer, which can be downloaded for any mobile phone that is Java-enabled, aggregates Twitter updates from players, officials and staff whom IBM has operating at the championships.

The IT giant has worked with Wimbledon for over two decades now. This year the firm is focusing on finding more ways to deliver information and updates to fans.

While the application is available to anyone seeking information from SW19, IBM says the Seer will prove most useful to those attending the tournament.

“We discovered there were quite a lot of people twittering about Wimbledon,” said Alan Flack, IBM Wimbledon client and programme executive.

“We wanted to try and use Twitter to help people who were in the ground to make more of their day.

“This year we have people running around the ground twittering about points of interest,” Flack added. “We want to enrich the overall experience of anyone attending.”

A related application that has been developed for phones using Google’s Android G1 and G2 operating system, which are currently unavailable in Ireland, has all the functions of Seer tied along with a GPS element.

This is designed to prioritise information delivered based on where the user is within the grounds of the All England Club.

While the motivation for creating the applications came from fans posting tweets about Wimbledon, there is no means for users to communicate back and feed in their own information.

Flack said IBM wanted to make sure the Seer was effective at delivering information in its first year before considering adding an interactive element.

“In a sense it’s a bit of one-way traffic,” he said. “We weren’t sure what would happen if we opened it up to the whole world.”

IBM is considering means to allow fans to interact with future versions of the application.

For those that miss the action during the day, IBM has also created an application to deliver video highlights.

The Official Wimbledon 2009 Championships App is available solely to iPhone users. The iPhone application, along with the Seer, is available for free.

Further information on how to download these applications can be found at www.wimbledon.org/ ibm

The website is also home to the Slamtracker application for desktop and laptops which provides live updates from all courts.