Twimailer is a new service that provides a simple, yet extremely useful function: It enhances the standard Twitter email notification with lots of good information on the new follower including recent tweets, follower and following stats, and more. Thanks go to Amber Case (@caseorganic) for the heads-up.]]>
Twimailer is fairly ingenious, and set-up is simple. You start by providing the service an email address. Next, Twimailer gives you an email address to stick in to your Twitter settings for sending notifications. Once you've confirmed everything and Twitter is updated, that's it. Sit back and wait for your next follower.
We love things that make our life simpler, and Twimailer is about as straightforward as you can get. The enhanced email provides a bounty of information about the person that has followed you, and of course provides a link to their profile so you can follow them back. However, we do have to mention some security considerations with a service like this.
First, it stores your email address. Although the site says that it doesn't spam or store email bound for you, it doesn't mention what it does (if anything) with your actual email address. Especially with no fine print, Twimailer may just disappear tomorrow with that information in tow. Second, more than just new follower notifications are sent from Twitter. What happens to direct messages and password reset confirmations? These are risks you will need to think about before signing up.
Amber also wrote about Twimailer and points out a method using Google Mail (or Gmail) that lets you get around having to hand over all email control to Twimailer. Although a bit technical, Chris Messina (@chrismessina on Twitter) describes the process here.
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