Show HN: Roost – Safari push notifications via drop-in JavaScript | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Roost – Safari push notifications via drop-in JavaScript

roost.me

11 pointsmillisecond6 comments

If your application/website asks me to enable desktop notifications without my specific request for such a feature, or without explaining that this will become another spam source, I will blacklist it and never come back. On my phone, if an app causes spammy notifications, I uninstall it. Apps and websites can't spam without my permission, and I'm not about to start letting them.

This might be nice for you as a marketer, but as a user, I want nothing to do with it.

The opt-out controls are built into the web push system, which should keep the channel relatively clean. If marketers are abusing it, users will very quickly deny their future pushes (after the fact, Safari -> Preferences -> Notifications). If email had such a built-in opt-out feature, I doubt spam would be what it is today.

Beyond that, we're definitely aware that there needs to be a steward of the channel. If people abuse it, we lose. There are things that can be done with throttling that we hope to implement soon. Hasn't been necessary to this point.

It's very interesting, how are you going to implement this for other browsers (Chrome, Firefox) and other OSes. Safari push notifications are safari-only and os-x-mavericks-only. I am not aware of any new standard being in works, which millisecond is talking about in comments.

One of the founders here, open to any questions!

Looks pretty sweet, just installed it on one of my WP sites. Do you know when you will finish Chrome/Firefox integration?

We're waiting on some tech inside Chrome / FF. Our stuff relies on a new standard that the browser manufacturers have to integrate. We know they're all (even MS!) working on it, but hard to give a definitive timeline - hopefully measured in a few months.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com