Toluu Blog

We have just launched a re-aligned ‘Match’ page with a cleaner UI and greater functionality. We have also made updates to ‘Contacts’ and feed ‘Subscribers’.

We recently made major changes to the architecture of matching to make it load dramatically faster. Today we have made design and functionality improvements. The new design is simpler and cleaner which should make it easier to hone in on the people and feeds that matter to you. 

We have also introduced 3 filtering options. Now you can see your matches based on when they joined Toluu. Filtering by ‘This Month’ or ‘This Week’ shows only users who have joined in that period who match with you, surfacing fresh feeds and people. This makes matches more useful for users with many feeds or those who have been with us since the beginning.

Also new with ‘Matches’ is the ability to add a user as a contact in-line. Many of you asked for it and we listened. No more clicking through to a user’s profile to add them as a contact!

We also revamped the ‘Contacts’ view with the new UI conventions and in-line contact adding functionality. We also now show how many contacts you have.

Not to be left out, the feed ‘Subscribers’ view got some love too, it now has in-line contact functionality too.

We hope you find these improvements useful and they help you find more interesting people and feeds!

We have just launched Twitter integration and a redesigned activity stream. You can now connect with your Twitter account so every time you add a new feed to Toluu, via the site or the bookmarklet, your friends on Twitter can know what great taste in blogs you have. We have also redesigned the activity stream to make it more scannable and give the important information more breathing room. There is also a new tab system that allows you to switch between the recent activity of you and your contacts, but also see the activity happening across the entire Toluu universe. Let’s dig a little deeper.

The Twitter integration makes it super easy to share with your friends who are not on Toluu yet what new feeds you are finding interesting. One of the great bits about the Twitter integration is the ability to customize the message that gets sent to Twitter. Many services simply send a canned message, however we felt this wasn’t want people really wanted, what people really want is to have control over what is said on their Twitter stream. We are excited to see how you express yourselves with this feature. We have also added little details to the implementation such as checking that your Twitter username and password are correct before saving your settings, so there won’t be any head scratching as to why your activity isn’t showing up in your stream. 

After using the activity page on Toluu for the past month with real data we wanted to see if we could make it more readable. We wanted to put more focus on the important information and remove the visual clutter. We now use the full size avatar photos which makes it easier to at a glance see who has been recently active. We also made the activity entries themselves more balanced and legible. Adding the ability to see the activity across all of Toluu makes it possible for new users to get a better sense of what feeds are gaining traction as well as find individuals who they may want to add as a contact. 

With all of these new links being posted to Twitter we realized many of the people who would click on the links would not be Toluu users, and may have never heard of Toluu. Today we are also rolling out a feature that will help orient new visitors to Toluu. When unlogged in visitors land on a Toluu feed page they will see a simple module that will give them a 1 sentence explanation of Toluu as well as a way to get an invite. 

Needless to say, we are super excited about these new features and how they will help you share your activity better. Making it easier to discover new and interesting feeds as well as connect with your friends in new ways. Please try out the new functionality and leave a comment below with your thoughts we would love to hear what you think.