A few months ago, Twitter significantly updated its new follower email alerts to show you information such as how many followers that person has, how many tweets they’ve sent, and how many users they were following. It’s a decent indication of if the person is someone you actually would want to follow back, rather than making you click through to the site to get that information. However, it was still lacking some context, such as what that person actually tweets about. The service FriendFeed has rolled out an update that adds this context.
Now, when get an email alert from FriendFeed that you have a new subscriber, you get a big FriendFeed logo, followed by the user’s icon and a link to easily “Subscribe back.” Below that though is the key part. You now see: “Here are some of the things XXXXX has recently shared on FriendFeed,” followed by three recent FriendFeed updates from that user. On each of those items there are also links to easily comment or “like” any of the items.
This three element context is a great addition to these updates because it shows you if that user is actually worth following or not. If Twitter had this you could see if that person was simply a spammer as well. Update: There’s also the ability to see which of your friends is subscribed to the person subscribing to you in the email, which is very useful. More on it at the bottom of the post.
FriendFeed has a history of beating Twitter to the punch on a lot of things it should be doing. It had a search that could search tweets well before Twitter, has a functional IM service, and has at least partial “track” functionality right now. Some third-party services like Topify and Twimailer already add this advanced email notification functionality to Twitter, but most user still don’t know about such services.
The new way:
The old way:
The Twitter way:
Update: Oh and I initially missed this, but this is huge as well. The emails will also tell you if people you know are subscribed to the person who is subscribing to you. Obviously, Facebook has had such functionality on its site for a while, but in a notification email, it’s very useful.
friendwho
You must be a GigaOm or VentureBeat reader
it is similar to notifying mutual friend of a newly added friends…
It is like email notification about mutual friends when a new friend is added. friendfeed is more about “friends” than followers/fans when compared to twitter, not when compared to fb.
You know I’ve been using http://twimailer.com/ to enhance my follower notifications for months now and the email they generate for you is even nicer than this new one from Friendfeed
I second twimailer. It works very well for me.
I agree, Twimailer works well.
Beta One-Ups VHS again- WAKE UP SHEEPLE
I’m sorry the service you guys like better isn’t the popular one.
IMHO, FriendFeed has always been much more technologically advanced than Twitter, so no surprise it has beaten Twitter in subscription notification feature as well.
Honestly the emails don’t offer enough variety, thus Friendfeed email will remain in an unread filter, just like the ones from Twitter
Oh and search… Friendfeed still can’t provide me with all the conversations/likes and other social media mentions that happen on my content.
“FriendFeed One-Ups Twitter Again”
MG it’s obvious you joined the friendfeed twitter hater’s club recently, we all know that.
Too bad, you were sharp last year/ early 09.
At least tell us; if this was “again”
what the heck was the first time they ‘one upped’ twitter?
And how can a company that lives off and copies another like a remora be said to one up the original?
I was never able to get into FriendFeed. There was something about it that I did not like. When on the other hand, Twitter is simple there are great 3rd party applications for it. Also Twitter has a more clean and friendly UI, when FriendFeed is plan gray and blue…
Why would you use FriendFeed when Twitter has so many more subscribers. For example there are more people to follow you, and in return more people that you can follow.
So, personally I think regardless that FriendFeed has more bells and whistles in there E-Mail Alerts , Twitter is still the one stop location on the web that dominates when it comes to real time user updates.
Another killer feature from FriendFeed that Twitter and Facebook will use to enhance their services…
Is there a concern here about spam? By subscribing to someone’s feed, you can now send them three spam messages right to their inbox (i.e., they don’t have to click through to a profile like twitter spam).
Also, I liked that the three messages in the example all came from Twitter.
And what do you do when someone sends spam on your behalf hacking your email account?
My gmail account got hacked, and by the ‘Activity Log’ feature of Google, I could figure out the IP address from where my email account was logged in.
The IP was 204.15.23.171
I do not know how to figure out which browser is this. Is there any software that can figure out whose machine is this where my account was opened?
Twitter is garbage.
Friendfeed just needs more traction. There’s plenty of room for competition! I use both Twitter and Friendfeed and like them both for different reasons
One of the recent myths of social networking is that there will be one platform to rule them all. But look at the history of online social networking, going way back to Usenet in the 1980s: social networking tends to follow the second law of thermodynamics.
Meaning: online social networks naturally tend to break apart and segment themselves, rather than aggregate in one big bowl of soup.
Sure, we’ve recently had massive aggregate platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. But the power of online social identity is not in the faceless, lowest-common-denominator aggregate, but rather affiliations, passions, and niche areas of interest.
Back to the topic at hand here, hey — great for FriendFeed. They don’t need to be the biggest. In fact, I have a FF account, but I use iminta instead. Same difference. But my niche interests have aggregated more there than on FF.
Oddly, one of MySpace’s biggest reasons for survival right now is that they are NOT Facebook. That’s become a sort of asset for those who wish to identify themselves separately. Still, I spend more time on online forums that talk about niche subjects more than I do on any unwashed mass of digital humanity social network.
Friendfeed is going backwards. It should certainly not get as much press as it does. Better to write about Hi-5.
Friendfeed providing a richer experience than Twitter
big deal. it can one up all it wants will never beat out twitter. why even bother with comparisons. it was never a contest.
Friendfeed will never catch on because it too hard to say…
twitter is very easy for Oprah, hillary clinton, ashton, all rappers and pop divas, and every other celebrity to say.
I can’t imagine the Jonas brother telling people to join their friendfeed, but I can, and do, see them telling people to follow them on twitter.
The battle between FF and twitter is pointless as far as technology goes… they are 2 different apps
Yeah,
Friendfeed is going to rock the world once people realize it’s actually a great product!
Twitter is like a breath of fresh air on the Social Media scene. I have been on it for just a few weeks now and I have met several interesting people. It is a platform to network with people you would like to meet in real life.
KZ
How do you see the list of people that have subscribed to your feed in Friendfeed?
I swear I don’t understand this site, and there are no instructions on how to use it.