Twitter has just rolled out a small, but somewhat meaningful update to the way it sends email notifications. This includes both direct message notifications and new follower notifications. Both now carry the Twitter logo and turquoise background in each update, rather than just plain text. But more importantly, the new notifications contain a lot more information about the person sending you the message or following you.

For example, previously when someone followed you, you received a message like:

Hi, MG Siegler (parislemon).

XXXXX XXXX (xxxxx) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out XXXXX XXXX’s profile here:

http://twitter.com/XXXXX

You may follow XXXXX XXXXXX as well by clicking on the “follow” button.
Best,
Twitter

The only thing that was a hyperlink in all of that was the actual profile URL. Now, when a new person subscribes to you, you see what is in the image below.

As you can see, this now gives you how many followers they have, how many people they are following, and how many tweets they’ve sent. You can also see their profile picture. Previously, you would had to click through to a person’s profile on Twitter to see all of that. This certainly will save me a lot of time in checking out the people who follow me. And it actually should help me follow more people that I want to, as it’s not such a hassle to screen through new users now.

Direct messages aren’t that much different substance-wise, but they do also contain the Twitter logo now, as well as the Twitter user’s icon (pictured, below).

Update: As commenter Jeff notes below, these notifications would be even more useful if Twitter had added the “Bio” data that users include in their profiles.

[Thanks Adam]