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With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

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Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#21

Post by eli »

kevinebaugh wrote: post #17
lazerwalker wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This exactly. I understand why they haven't done it, but the number of things I'd love to build as a hobbyist if only I could get a REST endpoint to trigger or enter a webhook URL to receive actions...

We're building a way for others to build and take ownership of their Channels: https://ifttt.com/platform Hobby or personal Channels are an interesting idea!

A generic REST Endpoint action and a generic Webhook trigger would pretty much do it, but I can imagine why you wouldn't want to offer that.

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#22

Post by jeswin »

> While IFTTT’s dream is for all companies to play nicely together via its open platform...

A closed-source integration service is not an open platform, and this is especially relevant when it is an integration platform. I am betting (and building something towards the same ends) on more people embracing and promoting open alternatives than at any time before. IFTTT's market is huge. There are millions of programmers around the world who'll never write any code outside work, and they vastly outnumber the rest of us. The next step in open and free software will be making coding, forking and deploying apps as easy as editing Wikipedia.

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#24

Post by [deleted] »

ericHosick wrote: post #8
idlewords wrote: post #6

IFTTT strikes me as the canonical example of a useful, small project that people would pay for that instead got stars in its eyes. For the moment, it's a great example of venture capitalists subsidizing a useful adapter cable for Internet services. But I get nervous when infrastructure gets delusions of grandeur. If 'cron' suddenly acquired a staff of 40, I would start looking for alternatives.

> If 'cron' suddenly acquired a staff of 40, I would start looking for alternatives. How accessible is Cron to people? For the consumer, almost all aspects of computing are becoming ubiquitous: except programming. Tools like those provided by IFTTT are enabling people to do more with their devices. Someday, programming will also be ubiquitous (it probably won't even be called programming anymore).

[deleted]

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#25

Post by toomuchtodo »

jeswin wrote: post #22

> While IFTTT’s dream is for all companies to play nicely together via its open platform... A closed-source integration service is not an open platform, and this is especially relevant when it is an integration platform. I am betting (and building something towards the same ends) on more people embracing and promoting open alternatives than at any time before. IFTTT's market is huge. There are millions of programmers…

> The next step in open and free software will be making coding, forking and deploying apps as easy as editing Wikipedia.

Github?

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#26

Post by nmjohn »

namityadav wrote: post #11

IFTTT is at a great spot to bring simple programming & logic to non-programmers who just want to customize how they interact with technology just a little bit. Looks like Yahoo Pipes missed a big opportunity there. However, the IFTTT homepage and WTF page are still too complicated for a casual visitor. The WTF page throws all these terms like Channels, Triggers, Actions, Ingredients, Recipes, etc instead of focusing…

I completely agree - I don't necessarily know what better would exactly look like - but explaining the why as opposed to the what is a great place to start.

IFTTT really is not that complicated, it is something that many people realistically could utilize, even if they aren't very tech savy. Something as simple as a beginner mode which hides everything except complete recipes from the user might go a long way in appealing to a broader user base.

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#27

Post by bluetidepro »

Congrats to IFTTT. I really love all the integrations they have going for them. They are making some great progress with their product.

Slightly off topic, but has anyone figured out a good way to use IFTTT to do "If this AND this then that" type of recipes?

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#29

Post by benologist »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25
jeswin wrote: post #22

> While IFTTT’s dream is for all companies to play nicely together via its open platform... A closed-source integration service is not an open platform, and this is especially relevant when it is an integration platform. I am betting (and building something towards the same ends) on more people embracing and promoting open alternatives than at any time before. IFTTT's market is huge. There are millions of programmers…

> The next step in open and free software will be making coding, forking and deploying apps as easy as editing Wikipedia. Github?

Even better: Github + Heroku Button (or similar but more open)

https://blog.heroku.com/archives/2014/8/7/heroku-button

Re: With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things

#30

Post by gdilla »

eli wrote: post #21
kevinebaugh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're building a way for others to build and take ownership of their Channels: https://ifttt.com/platform Hobby or personal Channels are an interesting idea!

A generic REST Endpoint action and a generic Webhook trigger would pretty much do it, but I can imagine why you wouldn't want to offer that.

Would pubnub or dweet.io work for you?
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