Web App of the Week: Topify

Posted 11/30/2009 at 10:15am | by David Murpy

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Being on Twitter is tough. If you post with a decent amount of frequency and do your best to jump into the crowd discussions when possible, then you'll often find yourself facing down a sea of "so and so has followed you!" messages in your Inbox. Deciding whether or not you want to follow said Twitter users back becomes a huge process in itself. You have to open the email, check out their Twitter handle, click on the link to their account, read the last few Tweets, make a decision, and repeat this process for every person that wants to be your online buddy. Unless, of course, you adopt the firehose approach to Twitter and just befriend everyone regardless of who they are--shame on you.

A web app called Topify attempts to ease this process by delivering you as much information as possible whenever someone new follows your Twitter stream. You'll be able to check out a quick bio of said follower, as well as their personal stats (followers / following / updates), how long they've been on twitter, a link to their Web site of choice, and a few their last updates as an example of what it is they write about. Better still, if you like what you see, you can just reply to said email to make them your Twitter pal -- no need to log into the actual Twitter service whatsoever.

Another neat feature is the ability to reply to direct messages people send to you via a simple email. I've often longed for a way to handle my Twitter through my email, as it can be frustrating to read a direct message in your inbox and then have to go through the whole Twitter login process just to reply. Topify removes this step with its email functionality--and believe me, I'm not sad to see it go.

The only downside? Topify is still in beta, so signing up for the services gets you put on the list for registration codes. Still, if you're patient, this web app can't be beat!

Every Thursday, Maximum PC picks a new Web App as its favorite of the week. Have a Web App that you can't live without? Twitter David Murphy @acererak with your latest suggestions.