I just noticed a new feature of Facebook – the ability to reply to email notifications to comment directly on the item in Facebook:

This is a nice touch – something I’m noticing many services doing more often (see using email to send SMS with Google Voice).

I’ve always been a proponent for “smart” emails – those that do more than just notify you of something. For example, instead of just telling you some activity occurred in your account, provide more information like exactly what happened, and anything relevant that does not require me to visit the site, log in, etc – just to see what’s going on.

In other words, make bacn more useful!

Facebook allowing commenting via email is a perfect example of using email more effectively.

Since I’m already reading the comment via email, why not let me reply in the same program, instead of having to switch to Facebook just to submit my comment?

More services need to adopt this level of usability – which benefits both the user, and the service. If it’s easier to interact with your service, I’m likely to use it more, and refer others to it.