You Do The Dishes

How do you feel about email notifications?

I thought about them when using the new Disqus 2012 interface. I left a comment on a blog and forgot that I had left that comment until I returned to the site a few days later to read a post. That’s when I saw a notification that someone had replied to my comment.

I probably would have responded to their reply had I found out about it earlier, but given the delay, I lost motivation to continue the conversation.

So, a notification would have solved the issue, right?

I’m certainly not going to log in to the Disqus site very day to see what comments of mine have triggered interaction.

An email notification is a possible solution. Inboxes around the world are already stuffed to the gills. And, often times, my notifications get routed into a separate folder in my Gmail that I check periodically but not every day.

Would a Twitter notification system work? Disqus could send an @reply to me every time there’s an interaction with a comment I’ve left. I’d probably me more likely to check the comment that way. Plus, I wouldn’t get the junk in my inbox.

There might be privacy issues with this solution (but, maybe not, given the fact that I’ve already left a comment on a public-facing site). I suppose the key issue is what the open rate differential would be between email and Twitter notification.

I also wonder if this could go one step further. Instead of signing up for, say, the J Crew email list, can I sign up for a Twitter notification? Instead of sending me an email – they Tweet a link to that same content at me. Or bill notification messages – AT&T could just Tweet me to let me know my bill is available. I don’t need the email.^[1]

I like the Twitter system for daily emails because of the social sharing mechanism. If there’s a great deal on shirts at J Crew, I can just Tweet the link at friends in an open environment where others might see as opposed to the closed network of email.

Any thoughts from you guys? Would you mind if you had notifications Tweeted at you instead of emailed to you? Could you have a Disqus app that sent you push notifications? Are there privacy concerns with moving notifications outside of the realm of email? Would you be more likely to open the content if it wasn’t sent to your inbox?