Tech Week in Review: Twitter Replies, FriendFeed Stalking, Contenture

Twitter Replies Kerfuffle

Not sure what a “kerfuffle” is, but I’m pretty sure it means Twitter screwed up a fundamental feature of the service. They’re saying only 3% of users are actually affected by the change, but I think those 3% might be the ones who actually use this thing. In the past, you had a few options as far as what replies you would see from those you followed:

• You could see all @ replies
• @ replies to people you’re following
• No @ replies

Well, it seems this was causing excessive load on Twitter’s servers, confusing some users,  and messing up other unrelated features, so @ replies now work as follows:

• Updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account
• There will be some new feature in the future to give us further control over what we see from specific accounts

All this sounds pretty confusing but, even with the replies feature suddenly crippled, you may still be able to discover new people to follow based on who your friends are talking to. It just depends on if they actually hit “reply” or not. This means that #followfriday is still alive and kicking.

FriendFeed Enables Stalking Individual Notifications

You now have the option to receive email, IM, and desktop notifications for individuals and groups. Hit “Email / IM” on any profile page and you’ll see all the options available for keeping tabs on an individual feed. Once you have turned on the notifications for a feed, you can manage them on your notification options page.

Contenture emerges from the shadows…

“Adsense is nonsense.” “Goodnight AdBright.” These are a couple of messages featured on the Contenture home page. This new service from the creators of Clicky web analytics wants to help bloggers make money without all the flashy ads. Let’s face it, most sites won’t see much income from page views and ad-placement. It’s good to see something new in this area. Also, their web comic ends with the Twitter fail-whale having a cocktail in a hammock. They’re officially launching on May 21st.