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Firefox's Web Push Notification System Announced

Posted by Soulskill on from the convergent-alert-evolution dept.

eldavojohn writes "Describing Notifications as 'somewhere between email and IM,' Mozilla has announced this push technology as a way to receive notifications from websites without having to keep them open in your browser — as well as receiving them on your mobile device. A JavaScript API reveals early interface ideas by the team. This core concept is not new — both Google and Apple have their own push notification systems for Android and iOS respectively. However, 'It's important to note that this push notification system is distinct from the existing desktop notification mechanisms that are already defined in pending standards. The desktop notifications that websites like GMail and Seesmic Web display to Chrome users, for example, will only work when the website is left open in a tab. Mozilla's push notification system moves beyond that limitation.' Mozilla is attempting to take push notifications to the entire web for any website to use."

6 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. WebSlices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft did this with WebSlices in Internet Explorer 8.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc956158%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

    As you can tell from how prominent they are, this idea really took off among web users.

    1. Re:WebSlices by Anaerin · · Score: 5, Informative

      IE may have introduced it in IE8, but Netscape (Remember them?) introduced it in 1995 in NS1.1, and it's supported in every browser except IE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology#HTTP_server_push

  2. Interesting Concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's like we're fighting with ourselves though. "I really love these web apps, but I really wish they weren't web apps"

  3. Im not opposed by james_van · · Score: 5, Interesting

    but i feel like we're back in the late 90's/early 2000's with all the different web technologies from different companies, almost to the point of having to add the old "best viewed in derp derp browser" messages to websites. i know this sort of thing is necessary to move things along, but i kinda hate this limbo phase where we have all kinds of new/interesting/exciting/annoying technologies, and no standards yet to bring them together. that's my rant, ill be quiet now.

  4. What a great idea: Syndication! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now if there were only a way to make this syndication Really Simple.

  5. Re:more spam please! by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Riiiight. Because it couldn't at all be possible to have a settings page like this:

    From which sites do you wish to permit push notifications?
    slashdot.org
    news.google.com
    cnn.com

    No, your browser would have to accept (and display!) every single notification ever sent to you. Makes perfect sense.

    And for each little notification bubble, why couldn't there be a little button? "Don't allow any more notifications from this service." Done.

    It's like saying you just have to deal with spam emails. No, you don't. That's what spam filters, whitelists, etc. are for. This sort of service sounds like it would be whitelist-based to begin with, so anyone who abuses the service can easily be blocked.

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