With $30M More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:05 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #57

ericHosick wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

fair enough, but how many people who can't setup cron need ifttt's functionality? I'm somewhat skeptical. And even if they do need ifttt, investors need to turn that $30m into $300m. It's almost a sure bet -- unless you believe that somehow advertising is going to pay the bills -- that ifttt will start taxing users, publishers, or both. Which will end up sucking for all of us. Too bad craigslist didn't implement this…

[deleted]

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

#62

Post by x0x0 » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:05 PM UTC

grinich wrote: post #20

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.

You could say the same about rsync/ftp and Dropbox, but they seem to be doing fine.

Except many people need what dropbox does (conveniently move files between ios/android and your computer; conveniently share some files between a work and personal computer), while I don't see the common need for ifttt. The latter may be due to my lack of vision, of course...

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

#63

Post by angryasian » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:09 PM UTC

LokiMH wrote: post #60

My personal feelings on IFTTT after using it are that it has a massive potential as an incredible handy tool. However, at the moment the focus seems to be primarily on social media interaction and optimization. This is all well and good, but I would love to see more integration with the features of my Android device. At this precise moment an example is not jumping to mind, but I know several times now I have seen a…

I think what you're looking for is tasker https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....

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

#64

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:15 PM UTC

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by LokiMH » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:16 PM UTC

angryasian wrote: post #63

LokiMH wrote: post #60

My personal feelings on IFTTT after using it are that it has a massive potential as an incredible handy tool. However, at the moment the focus seems to be primarily on social media interaction and optimization. This is all well and good, but I would love to see more integration with the features of my Android device. At this precise moment an example is not jumping to mind, but I know several times now I have seen a…

I think what you're looking for is tasker https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....

That looks interesting, thanks for sharing.

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

#66

Post by frankdenbow » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:26 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #57

ericHosick wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

fair enough, but how many people who can't setup cron need ifttt's functionality? I'm somewhat skeptical. And even if they do need ifttt, investors need to turn that $30m into $300m. It's almost a sure bet -- unless you believe that somehow advertising is going to pay the bills -- that ifttt will start taxing users, publishers, or both. Which will end up sucking for all of us. Too bad craigslist didn't implement this…

There are lots of folks, who are not developers, who would want to send a linkedin invite to every new twitter follower, or get emails about the top apps in the app store, or log all your text messages to google drive. Heck, developers who don't want to spend the time to build and maintain a system would use it also.

Check out their recipes for a better understanding of how people are using the service: https://ifttt.com/recipes

Agreed on your second point.

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

#67

Post by aw3c2 » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:32 PM UTC

angryasian wrote: post #63

LokiMH wrote: post #60

My personal feelings on IFTTT after using it are that it has a massive potential as an incredible handy tool. However, at the moment the focus seems to be primarily on social media interaction and optimization. This is all well and good, but I would love to see more integration with the features of my Android device. At this precise moment an example is not jumping to mind, but I know several times now I have seen a…

I think what you're looking for is tasker https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....

Or the free-of-cost Llama https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kebab.Llam...

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

#68

Post by lubujackson » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:37 PM UTC

joshdance wrote: post #50

How is IFTTT going to make money?

Volume.

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

#69

Post by radiorental » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:39 PM UTC

x0x0 wrote: post #57

ericHosick wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

fair enough, but how many people who can't setup cron need ifttt's functionality? I'm somewhat skeptical. And even if they do need ifttt, investors need to turn that $30m into $300m. It's almost a sure bet -- unless you believe that somehow advertising is going to pay the bills -- that ifttt will start taxing users, publishers, or both. Which will end up sucking for all of us. Too bad craigslist didn't implement this…

If you go to the accounts page, you'll see this text

"Premium accounts are on the way!

We are working to make IFTTT even more valuable to you. "

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

#70

Post by abad79 » Thu, Aug 28, 2014, 8:52 PM UTC

IFTTT looks like a great concept that will be replicated in the near future from other services following the massive growth that the internet of things, specially wearable devices will bring to the internet ecosystem.