Apr 27 2009
Real-time
One of the promises of the Internet was instant communication. And while there are a few rays on real-time action on the internet, we spend way too much of our online lives waiting for pages to load or email to be returned.
Well, we’re not gonna take it, right? With the promise of AJAX and instant response its time to take the net to task with instant applications.
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Feedxs is a feed building service. You open an account and can add things to your own custom feed. Not a new idea, I know. But you can post items to your feed directly (and instantly) from MSN. Once you get it set up you can add articles right to your feed from MSN Messenger.
InstantFeed and immedi.at
InstantFeed and immedi.at are web services that update you via chat when a feed is updated. Both support AIM, ICQ, MSN and Jabber. Its a great way to monitor important feeds. I’ve been getting errors from immedi.at lately, so InstantFeed maybe your best bet.
This new Firefox extension is bringing immediacy to the web by allowing you to chat, in real-time via IRC with others viewing the same page you are.
Its a great way to find and converse with like-minded people. In fact, why not try it out on MacMerc.com?
Gmail recently rolled out in-browser AJAX powered chat in Gmail. For Mac users, its an opportunity to use the Google client for chat. It’s a great way to get in instant contact with others. Instead of email, you can now chat immediately if they are online. If for some odd reason you lack a Gmail invite, shoot me an email (brian AT macmerc DOT com) and I’ll invite you.
Finally, text chat is great but… OpenWengo is here with a Mac (Tiger-only for now) Firefox extension that lets you take and make SIP compliant VoIP calls from inside Firefox. Now you can ring up a friend without leaving your browser. The Wengo kids aren’t the only one with this idea. Look for a similar extension coming for the Mac from Zoep.
Ah, isn’t instant gratification great? Enjoy your new instant ‘net services but remember that microwave popcorn will still take two and a half minutes. Sorry.