

Introducing Yip: A Unified Notification System for the Web - abi
http://abcdefu.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/introducing-yip-an-unified-notification-system-for-the-web/

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kyro
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.

~~~
jodrellblank
_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?

~~~
alexandros
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.

------
codahale
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?

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aristus
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.

~~~
abi
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...](http://abcdefu.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/introducing-yip-an-unified-
notification-system-for-the-web/#comment-1529)

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

<http://specto.sourceforge.net/>

------
zmimon
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.

------
doodyhead
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.

~~~
sho
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.

~~~
spon
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.

~~~
sho
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.

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

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

------
jlc
Shouldn't that read, "A Nunified?"

~~~
raffi
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.

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

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

~~~
raffi
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.

------
blhack
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.

~~~
abi
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...](http://abcdefu.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/introducing-yip-an-
unified-notification-system-for-the-web/#comment-1529)

~~~
blhack
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.

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

