Gwibber is the closest thing to tweetdeck that we have since Adobe dropped AIR support on linux. I used to have multiple columns and could set up columns for various hastags etc but this functionality seems to have disappeared.
The latest version on Gentoo is working fine, this seems to be a ubuntu specific issue.
I had a similar question and I could find the answer here:
How do I change Gwibber themes or column settings?
Gwibber's developers changed the core of the program, and so they have "downgraded" the functionality of it. You will either have to install v2.3 or wait a bit until they include the old functionality into the new core. Hope it helps!
