There are lots of ways to keep up with your favorite websites—RSS readers, magazine-style apps, and good old fashioned typing in the URL—but developers at Mozilla think there might be a better way. The team is currently creating prototypes of a push notification system for Firefox, which would allow sites to broadcast their updates to a subscribed audience. Unlike pull technologies (RSS, for example), where the user has to request new information, this service would let sites send post notifications right to the browser. The system would likely be similar to the quick pop-ups generated by Gmail’s Desktop notifications, except the user wouldn’t have to keep the subscribed websites loaded for it to work.
The idea of sites beaming constant chirps to your computer or mobile device might sound scary, but the service as-described would definitely require the user’s approval.
The proposed push system would require that Mozilla, or someone else, maintain a notification server that stays connected to active browsers. When users visit a website that supports the service, they’d get a JavaScript-powered prompt asking to allow its notifications. If a user approves, Firefox would contact the notification server and get a unique URL for that user/site combination, then pass it to the website. From that point on the site would be able to deliver updates to the custom URL, which the notification server would then push out to all the user’s devices.
Would you use a system like this to track your favorite sites, or are the current methods more than enough? The service is definitely in an early developmental phase, but you can find information about the API on Mozilla’s blog post and wiki.