SheGeeks

Services are updating like crazy this week! The new updates should keep fans and users excited for the rest of the week and also help with user productivity. Here’s a look at the recent changes from some of my favorite services.

Toluu Adds More Tabs

  Toluu, my favorite social RSS discovery service, has rolled out a very complimentary update to the service. Previously, Toluu revamped the activities page by adding more tabbed views. They also integrated Twitter into the service. Now, when I add a feed, it’s also “tweeted” on Twitter.

Today the service has added the tab interface to the Feed pages. Head to the SheGeeks feed page on Toluu and you’ll see a tabs for the most recent posts, popular posts, and Toluu subscribers.

According to the Toluu blog,

Also in this release we have added the greatly requested date stamps, improved YouTube embed compatibility, improved the loading time of the contacts page by roughly 5x, and fixed some bugs surrounding the invitation page.

For more information on Toluu check out TheSocialGeeks podcast. If you’d like to join Toluu, I have 115 Toluu invites. Just leave a comment below to snag one.

More Discussions:
Toluu Adds More Features, Helps You Decide How to Subscribe
Toluu Just Got Better: New Feed Page Views and More!
Subscribe or Not? Toluu Just Got Better at Helping You Decide

FriendFeed Adds More Services

  FriendFeed, a social aggregator and lifestreaming service, has also added more features and fixes. In the past week the FriendFeed has added rooms (or groups) and and personalized recommendations. Now the service has added 5 more services to include in your lifestream: Intense Debate, Brightkite, Diigo, Mister Wong, and Tipjoy.

Other updates include a FriendFeed feed revamp, highlighted comments of those that you subscribe to, along with a host of other fixes and minor updates.
      

Twhirl Ands More Support & Functionality

The latest update of Twhirl features a host of features that will help out a ton when Twitter starts going wonkers on you without warning. For Twitter, Twhirl has introduced auto throttling. This feature allows Twhirl to automagically reduce your API requests per hour so that you get less timeout errors.

You can also hide messages from previous sessions when you start a new one, search via Summize, XMPP support, a new color theme (Orange Gray), Twhirl status message updates, and more.
         

On the FriendFeed side of things there have been more drastic improvements. I haven’t used Twhirl for FriendFeed since it’s second update. I decided to give it a try this time around and can agree that it’s much more stable. For one, the trash icon actually works. When I click it, the entire screen goes blank. +1 for Twhirl! Other updates include inline commenting, user information, a button to see more comments inline, support for FriendFeed rooms, and better stability for not killing your comment text when an update rolls in and you just so happen to be in the middle of writing a comment.

More Discussions:

Twhirl Catches a Much-Needed Performance Update

Twhirl Gets a Fresh Coat of Paint

Roundup Completed

So there’s your roundup of the latest service updates. If you’re using any of these services are you enjoying the updates so far?

For me, the Toluu update is impressive and as a subscriber stat addict, I like knowing how many people are subscribing to my feed in Toluu. The new views also provide ways for me to know what articles are popular and find more feeds to subscribe to.

With FriendFeed, I can finally add my Diigo bookmarks to the service, though I was hoping Toluu would be in there too. I also like the highlighted comments from those that I subscribe to. It’s great for pointing out others that may be of interest to me.

With Twhirl, what’s not to like about this update. It’s way more stable and actually makes using Twitter a lot easier, especially when Twitter is taking on too much. The most productive feature of the update has to be the Twitter API usage icon. If you hover your mouse over this icon you can see how many requests are currently allowed and how many requests you’ve used up so far. It’s great for keeping track of when you’re coming close to going over your limit.

Popularity: 10% [?]

RSS discovery service Toluu has released two great updates to the service. The first is a revamp of the activities page, which goes a long way to help some of the complaints I reviewed in TheSocialGeeks Podcast reviewing Toluu. The second update, Twitter integration is also a great addition to the service for keeping others updated. Here’s a closer look at both features.
    

Revamped Activities Page

The activity page on Toluu has been revamped. While not a complete makeover on the design side, there are now two separate ways to get updates:

• Recent updates
• Everyone’s updates

The ‘Recent’ updates tab is a bit like the old Activities page, where you see all of your friends most recent updates. For the ‘Everyone’ tab, you get a more streamlined overview of what’s going with Toluu community members including your friends. The ‘Everyone’ tab is a great addition to the service and better helps members to network with one another and discover more feeds without having to view your matches.

Connect With Twitter

It’s just wrong these days to not have some sort of Twitter integration with a service that you may be using. Twitter’s in popular demand and the guys over at Toluu have smartly implemented a way to share your Toluu updates on Twitter.

Essentially, just add your Twitter account to the "Connect with Twitter" page, and be sure to specify a prefix to the Twitter updates that you will send. The Twitter updates will consist of your prefixed message alongside your latest feed subscription with a link to the page of the feed on Toluu.
   

These are just a few moderate updates to the Toluu service. On the back-end of things, adding and synchronizing your feeds should be a lot faster and more efficient for users. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to keep you posted on more Toluu goodness!

See more coverage at:

Louisgray.com: Toluu Embraces Twitter With New Integration Option
CenterNetworks: Toluu Helps You Like What Your Friends Like
ReadWriteWeb: 10 Reasons Why You’re Going to Love Toluu
Jeff Is a Geek: Toluu Adds Twitter And Strengthens Its Streams

I HAVE 20 TOLUU INVITES! IF YOU NEED AN INVITE JUST LEAVE YOUR INFO IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OR SEND ME A TWITTER DM (@Corvida)

Popularity: 6% [?]

“Social site reviews with a side of dipping sauce!” - TheSocialGeeks Podcast Series

If you’re a reader of SheGeeks.net and The Social Networker, we’ve got great news for you! Chris (@IdoNotes) and I (@Corvida) have teamed up to release our very own podcast titled "TheSocialGeeks". (More on TheSocialNetworker)
        

TheSocialGeeks Podcast

TheSocialGeeks podcast series will feature reviews of some of the hottest sites and services on the web to date! We’re scheduled to release an update for the podcast every two weeks and each podcast will have a timelimit of 15-20 minutes. We examine areas such as usability, functionality, and stickiness (will you come back to it) for each site review. After all is said and argued about, a rating is given by both myself and Chris. Our rating scale is as follows:

• Awesomesauce - great
• Bastagesauce - so, so
• Bastage - don’t even bother

Sites and services that get the awesomesauce rating will also receive a highly coveted "Awesomesauce Badge" that you may have seen floating around quite a few sites.
   

Our First Review: Toluu

Our first review is of the highly talked about social RSS discovery tool Toluu. So head on over to TheSocialGeeks to hear all about it. To stay up-to-date don’t forget to subscribe to the series via iTunes or FeedBurner. Subscriber Here!
   

Get Your Toluu Invite

We’ve got 30 invites (a piece) to the Toluu service! So, if you’d like an invite leave a comment or send us a message on Twitter and we’ll get you set up!
    

What Would You Like To Hear About?

Got a site, service, or app you’d like us to review? Give us a shout on Twitter (@IdoNotes @corvida) and we’ll add it to our already growing list. If you’d like to guest speak on the show doesn’t hesitate to ask. ;)

If you’d like to be a sponsor for TheSocialGeeks podcast series, you can by twittering us or shooting us an email at podcast [at] thesocialgeeks [dot] com.

Thanks to JeffisaGeek for the awesomesauce review of TheSocialGeeks podcast, Podcasting The Social Web: The Social Geeks Podcast.

Popularity: 12% [?]