Introducing Yip: A Unified Notification System for the Web | Hacker News Reader

Introducing Yip: A Unified Notification System for the Web

abcdefu.wordpress.com

47 pointsabi31 comments

I'm going to go ahead and give you my feedback, since everything else here is nonsense crap.

I think it's a great idea. I've definitely wanted something of this sort for a while now. A notification system that alerts me when someone has written on my facebook wall, messaged me on meebo, replied to my HN comment/submission, posted a blog post, etc - a consolidated system. You should start integrating it with more services and give users the option the to pick and choose which ones they want to use your service for. I'm not quite sure how feasible that is from a technical standpoint, but from a consumer's point of view, that flexibility to hook my various services into a consolidated notification system would be awesome.

Good start.

A notification system that alerts me when someone has written on my facebook wall, messaged me on meebo, replied to my HN comment/submission, posted a blog post, etc - a consolidated system.

Did you watch the Google Wave introductory video?

Wave requires that the services integrate Wave to begin with. This is a very high barrier. Building a notification service that binds to the various APIS is much more feasible in the near-term, regardless of the fact that the human effort needed makes it problematic to scale to a very large number of services.

That's similar to what I had in mind. In order for it to become reality, as you point out, more services need to support it (right now, we just have to wait for the website owner to add support but soon, there'll be a way for users to add support for websites). Another important component is a log that persistently stores all the notifications you receive so that you can go back and check out all your history.

You'll like the next version. :)

No.

It integrates with a system (GrowlHelper.app) which runs with all your permissions and hasn't received any security scrutiny and was designed to take input from a few, trusted sources. What could possibly go wrong?

This is impressive, but how will this not be abused for spam? Fluid's window.fluid.addDockMenuItem() is alarming, but even just growl support for arbitrary sites will get spammed to death pretty quickly... it's just a new species of popup.

For the Fluid API, Yip only supports window.fluid.showGrowlNotification() so you don't have to worry about dock menu items.

This is a very preliminary release. Rate-limiting messages from a single website is the crucial first step in preventing message spam (and this will likely be implemented pretty soon). As for more advanced "spam prevention", check out the discussion I had with one of the commenters on my post.[1]

I think a beter solution can be found for notifications than for the existing problem with window.alert which can not only be spammed incessantly but also completely freeze up your browser.

[1] http://abcdefu.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/introducing-yip-an-u...

If you're using linux, then Specto does this for anything at all, including websites:

http://specto.sourceforge.net/

Maybe I'm just jaded but all these things just seems like tired old rehashes of the same ideas dressed up with new names to try and make them sound cool.

If you send me an email, I will get a notification popup because my email notifier does it. If you send me an instant message notification I will also get a small notification popup because I am running an IM client. If there is a way Yip works better than those then I'm struggling to think of it. I really don't need more ways to receive small notification popups. We have XMPP, we have SMTP. Stop reinventing wheels.

It sounds good, but I don't see why he needs to curse in his introduction. I almost stopped reading. It's unprofessional and unnecessary.

F that!

Are you fucking kidding me? He's the person who has spent months of his life coming up with his free and open source software, then just giving it away. And who on earth says "curse"? Are you like 70 years old?

"Unprofessional"? What the hell are you talking about? It's free software you nong, that's F.L.O.S.S. and until you release your own blockbuster "professional" library, you can put a sock in it.

Well said. Let's not live in our cubicles any longer than we have to.

I love the fact that this guy feels there is a huge gaping hole out there, and that he intensely wants to do something about it. For me, that counts for more than fitting in as a company man.

Well exactly. Even if the code sucks, someone who spends 6 months of his own time implementing something he thinks will be good, and then just giving it away, deserves respect.

But man, what really gets my goat is people looking past the effort, looking past the code and the project, and just zeroing in on some absolute red herring like "cursing" or what not. Christ, it's his project, he can say whatever he wants. If it's good, use it, if not, don't, it's not rocket science. "Cursing" is about the most irrelevant thing you can possibly judge a project on. Geeze.

It's just gratuitous. It doesn't add anything. I don't have anything against profanity, but it doesn't really work well in that introductory phrase. With all the problems in the world, "notifications for web apps" is just not enough on my list for the f-bomb. Also, good writers can find plenty of ways to evoke emotion and passion without resorting to swear words.

> "Unprofessional"? What the hell are you talking about? It's free software you nong,

Plenty of free software is very professional. I should hope so, I've worked on a variety of open source projects in a professional capacity.

It's people Like you who make me feel that HNers are FOSS haters. You too should exist to keep the balance, anyway.

I do not understand your reasoning. Firstly, I am not representative of HN as a whole, and secondly, I am a huge FOSS fan. Explain?

> It sounds good, but I don't see why he needs to curse in his introduction. I almost stopped reading. It's unprofessional and unnecessary.

Unprofessional and unnecessary? May I remind you, sir, that your username is "doodyhead"!

I like to curse. But I'm sorry if it offended you. I have removed it from the post. (note to self: don't be so fucking immature next time around).

Curse. And Don't give a shit at what others say.

We're getting off topic but here you go: http://www.scribd.com/doc/389762/Steven-Pinker-What-the-Fuck...

Hey, am I wrong or did merely visiting this site try to install a Browser Helper Object? Not cool.

Yes, you are wrong. It will install something (with your permission) if you click the "Download" link.

Shouldn't that read, "A Nunified?"

Yes. According to http://www.polishmywriting.com (which is mine):

Try: "A Unified" A and an are indefinite articles. An indefinite article is an adjective that says you want any of some noun. For example "I want a pony" means I want any pony.

You select a or an based on the sound of the first letter of the following word.

If the first word starts with a vowel sound you use an. If the first word has a consonant sound use a.

Thanks for pointing that out guys. I've changed the title.

P.S. It's sad that we're discussing this rather than Yip.

I wasn't trying to beat you up, I just saw it as an opportunity to talk about myself which apparently is something I like doing. Does this make me a bad person? Yes.

Ok, two minutes have passed and I just returned from your website. I really wanted to talk about you for a minute (since this is your spot). I think what you're doing looks neat. I also like the Zed Shaw style chutzpah in your announcement. However, I'd consider shying away from the expletives and find other words to convey your edgy personality without reflecting negatively on your professionalism.

Groaaaann....

Please tell me that this sort of thing is not going to become the norm on websites...

This is the reason that I migrated away from facebook.

Text.

It works.

Facebook has browser/Growl notifications? Or do you mean their email notifications?

Of course, there will always be ways to turn it off or turn it on only for particular sites. See http://abcdefu.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/introducing-yip-an-u...

they have something that pops up at the bottom of your screen to tell you that something has happened on the page.

It only works when you actually AT facebook.

Having that sort of "functionality" follow me around sounds like some sort of hellish nightmare.

There's a simple method of avoiding that: don't install this.

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