Earlier this year, we reported on the new OPML sharing and matching service called Toluu, giving you “10 Reasons Why You’re Going to Love Toluu.” For anyone who remembers the now defunct site, ShareYourOPML, Toluu is a big improvement, providing you with a much easier way to discover new feeds. Since we last covered Toluu there have been several improvements to the service, and more have just launched today.
Our earlier coverage of Toluu brought about something we’ve dubbed “the RWW effect,” initially taking Toluu down as a flood of users rushed to try out the new service – a clear sign of pent-up demand for a more social RSS experience, and one that doesn’t solely rely on already established relationships – a la Google Reader – but allows you to actively discover new feeds via a matching algorithm.
Since that time, Toluu’s creator has not been idle, having added new features like RSS feeds for you and your contacts’ activity on the site, feed reader integration, a personalized daily digest, an extended Activity page, the addition of a feedback page, hCard-enabled profiles, and more. Additionally, last week, 60,000 duplicate feeds were removed from the service and measures were put into place to make sure that duplicate feed issues would now be handled during the feed importation processes.
Today, Toluu gets more updates which include an improved UI for the Activity page, an easy way for non-Toluu members to get invited to the service, Twitter integration, and a new tab and feed for “Everyone.”
The improved UI for the Activity page aims to make seeing the information on that page easier. Avatars are bumped up in size and some additional alignment and legibility changes have also been made, and not just on the Activity page, but site-wide. However, the bigger news here is the addition of the “Everyone” tab to the Activity page, which helps you to see all the activity that is occurring across Toluu, not just the activity of you and your contacts. This is especially important for new Toluu users who are looking for people they may be interested in adding as contacts. Of course, this activity tab, like the others, also offers an RSS feed.
Another feature designed with new users in mind is the landing page for non-logged in users. If someone who is not a member of Toluu clicks a link to see a feed’s page, the page displays just as it would for anyone except for the addition of an “invite box” at the top. A quick one-sentence explanation of Toluu is provided as is a button for getting an invite to the service. (Need an invite? I hear Louis Gray has some, as does jeffisageek and Corvida).
And if you’re wondering just why someone might be clicking links that go to Toluu in the first place, the answer lies in the last of today’s updates: Twitter integration.
You can now have Toluu post to Twitter whenever you add a feed on the service. You can even customize the message to make it more personal and have it say something like “check out this great new feed,” for example. This new ability is sure to bring even more interest to Toluu’s service, as any app that finds a way to appeal to the Twitter crowd seems to have a better shot at early adopter appeal (just ask Brightkite about this).
The addition of these new features on top of the slew of others that have been added over the past couple of months show that Toluu is continuously working towards becoming the best service of its kind.
