

A Real-Time API for Next-Generation Apps - ssclafani
http://instagr.am/blog/42/realtime-api

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soulclap
(One hour and no comments yet. Intimidating.)

This seems like a great idea with benefits for both sides. I haven't messed
with too many APIs yet but are they the first to use POST requests this way?

I'll definitely try and hack something later tonight as I don't own an iPhone
and would like to keep up with friends' instragr.am updates.

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jmathai
It's really just webhooks, no? I know Github offers this for post commit
hooks.

I love the idea of webhooks and think they're really underutilized. But it's
been around.

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technoweenie
I dig the use of PubSubHubbub. It's very similar to some ideas I've been
kicking around (I have an experimental/incomplete Node.js PSHB
implementation). Take out all the stuff about hub discovery, feed content
notifications, and xml, and you're left with a simple protocol for users to
subscribe to updates on a given topic.

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arrel
This sounds like one more step to making push something that's expected on the
web. BlackBerry did it to email when they created the "interactive pager", but
it took a few years before people realized what was happening.

It's great to see hot companies like Instagram jumping onto a coming wave like
this to popularize it sooner.

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Raphael
Excellent. Hardware and software independence.

