Comments on: Twitter changes its email notifications

By: WasatchGirl

WasatchGirl — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:56:07 +0000

I agree fully. I still have to visit the person's profile to see if I have any interest in following them back. The biggest pain, in my mind, is I have two different profiles, one for work related tweets and one for my climbing tweets (as I am currently on a 10 month climbing road trip). They have removed which profile the notification is for, meaning that I have to look at which email it was sent to (as both are forwarded to the same inbox) in order to know if the new follower is following my WasatchGirl account or my CragBaby account. Frustrating!

By: mleis

mleis — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:43:29 +0000

Since that comment, I actually clicked on one of the links in the emails. The web URL is appended with a UTF tracker (can't remember which analytics package appends with UTF). So they're not only looking at email metrics, like deliverability, opens, and clicked links, but they're also tracking paths into site usage.

Will be interesting to see how this affects future service iterations.

By: Whitney Hess

Whitney Hess — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:15:30 +0000

Yes, I think the option for a text-only email in the Settings would be very
nice.

By: Whitney Hess

Whitney Hess — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:15:27 +0000

Mike, that's a really smart point. It could very well be about analytics
that they have enabled now that it's an HTML email. I didn't think of that!

By: Whitney Hess

Whitney Hess — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:15:26 +0000

Johnny, I love the common friends idea. In the meantime, check out my friend
@Yoni's app TwinCommon (http://twitter.infinityplusone.com/TwInCommon) --
lets you see which friends and followers two usernames have in common.

By: martinpolley

martinpolley — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:35:27 +0000

I think the new mail is an improvement. But it could be better. Which is why I like @topify (http://topify.com). Its visual design is nothing special, but it contains that extra info that saves you having to visit the profile page.

It also lets you block or follow back right from the mail. Definitely worth a look.

By: obilon

obilon — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:58:44 +0000

I like the new email format. Makes it better branded and nicer to look at. I also would like to see the bio and say the last five tweets they sent listed as well. But the follower info is useful to see if the person is a spammer. But most important is the fact that I now get the persons avatar, which to me is big. I like to “see” my new followers. For the command line set of peeps out there who like plain text, they should add a text only option.

By: Tejas Shukla

Tejas Shukla — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:08:58 +0000

Agreed with Matt. They could have a Bio and also why not including last 3-4 tweets that makes me decide whether or not to check the profile.

By: mleis

mleis — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:03:54 +0000

Making the email more visual is just okay. At least it's a little more information with the same amount of speed in the readability as the text emails.

Most of all, I think it's about collecting data on the email usage. Hopefully, the analytics that come back now will help them see some patterns and help them make changes that are really beneficial to the experience.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:59:59 +0000

Agreed. I use the new info to determine if the user is a spammer. I like Matt's point about including the bio. That would be really helpful.