Part of the big buzz surrounding Web 2.0 has been pull alerts as opposed to push alerts.
Push alerts / messages – I send you a message. This is how email and IM work. I choose when, where, and how the message is sent and largely control how you receive it. I send an email, you get it in your inbox.
Pull alerts / messages – I send a message which may (or may not) be intended for you primarily. You decide when, where, how, and IF you receive it. This most common form of this is RSS/ATOM feeds. I publish to my blog / Twitter / whatever and you subscribe to me if you want to. You can receive alerts via email, IM, Xanga, Facebook, Google Reader, BoxtheWeb, Sage, or a myriad of other options.
Some have said that push alerts are dying.
This makes some sense. When I post on a forum, I don’t want to have their system email me every time there is a reply (email/push). What I really want is to have easy access to a list of posts replying to mine to look over (RSS/pull).
However, this can go a bit too far. Pull IM does exist to some extent, but it defeats the purpose. I want you to see something NOW, it’s URGENT, INSTANT. Pull does not fit this.
Push alert systems, however, just refuse to die! Facebook/Myspace messages/wall posts. Blog comments. New friend-group messaging systems like Pownce. Push is extremely popular.
The masses are rarely right, but perhaps we shouldn’t brush off push alerting altogether at this point.
2 Responses
If you remember my idea, it was all based on that concept passing to a full pull/push and universal model, but i guess that what i thought is sitll a little too advanced in terms of actual social use. social use is always more reactionary than actionary..
and it is extremely complicated and long to resume in a comment and even in a short post.
@Avatar – I do remember something like that from you. I’m still trying to decide exactly where I stand on it. I definitely favour pull to push for now in most areas.