If you are interested in keeping up with all the new web services that are coming online, and possibly even help out with beta testing, you might find this discussion channel useful. The channel itself is on a brand spanking new web service called tangler. It is yet another discussion network. I say yet another because a while back I had looked at the new web service the JanRain guys had put out called Pibb. Pibb’s authentication is OpenID based, whereas tangler is not.
So let’s take a look at both of these:
From pibb.com
Pibb combines the best features of instant messenger, chat, email, and bulletin boards.
- Messages are delivered instantly, or can be retrieved later
- New threads are stored and searchable like email or bulletin board
- Start public channels about your favorite subjects
- Use private channels to communicate with groups or your social network
- Send private messages to your friends
- Pibb will notify you when you have new messages
From tangler.com
Tangler is a discussion network. It’s like having all your discussion forums in one place, but better. It’s real-time so you can have a live conversation, and also lets you add in pictures and videos.
Tangler’s notification works using a app that you download and install. Why ? Its a freaking web service. Behave like one.
Tease
Tangler’s feature presentation is their channel on web 2.0 betas.
Pibb’s feature is that it is completely OpenID based service.
It’ll be really really cool if tangler did the following TWO things:
- Allow web-based notifier. I am not downloading another stupid notifier.
- Get on the OpenID bandwagon and start supporting OpenID.
Both of these suggestions can be optional and you will still make a lot of those people happy.
Thanks for the feedback, a couple of comments.
The notifier is very optional and obviously not for everyone. We have a standalone notifier so that notification will work regardless of where you have a browser open or closed. We could have built a browser based notifier, but the nature of HTTP would require such a notifier to have a heavy network load. The standalone notifier allows instant notification, by opening a TCP/IP socket.
We definitely plan to support OpenID, but we will wait until supporting libraries mature a little. JanRain are craetors of OpenID solutions so it is a little easier for them to support.
Hey, thanks for the review and comparison. Definitely fair. All I can say is that Tangler is currently at about version 0.3 so we’ve got lots to add.
OpenID is definitely something high on our list.
Web based notifier is a good idea too. How would that work? Could be a firefox extension but I’m not sure how you do a notifier that a topic you’ve been tracking has been updated via the web.
We thought also about letting you get notification via skype or other IM.
Cheers,
What about RSS/trackback based notification ? On a simplest level, isn’t it what an RSS reader there for ? To see if a particular item on a particular blog/website has been updated ? It is conceivable to use that mechanism. For example, co.mments provides a facility to track the comments on a post.