Yo notifications from sites without native apps

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It has been an interesting couple days to experiment with receiving a Yo on my iPhone each time a comment or thread has been posted to Toledo Talk.

The simple Yo API creates a lo-fi method to implement a smartphone notification system for a website that does not provide a native app.

And apparently, a site owner does not have to create programming code to add this support.

Aug 2, 2014 Yo tweet

Don't know how to code? you can still easily send your readers a Yo every time your website or blog gets updated http://www.rssyo.com/

Depending upon how the site owner implements the Yo API, anyone with the Yo app can subscribe to the site and receive the notifications.

For example with Toledo Talk, a user can receive Yos from TT by sending a Yo to TOLEDOTALK. I don't provide a callback URL (programming stuff), so the site does not actually receive a Yo.

Sending a Yo to TT just subscribes a user within the Yo service to receive notifications via Toledo Talk.

When a new post is made at TT, my code makes an API call to Yo, and the Yo service sends out the notifications. Swiping the username from the app unsubscribes.

Maybe some concerned agency will implement a Yo early warning alert system, regarding algae blooms. If you receive a Yo from GreenDeath, then you know that it's time to buy water.

If a local entity created a blog site with daily updates about Lake Erie during the algae bloom season, then a user could be alerted to this info by multiple ways:

• access the blog directly, although that's not an alert
• receive an e-mail from the site when new content is added
• subscribe to the blog's RSS feed
• assuming the site auto-syndicated its content to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc, then a user could follow the site, using those other social media services
• receive a Yo or a text message each time a new post is made, and then the user would access the site directly

Such a site may offer native mobile app options too.

For people without cell phones and Internet access ... I don't know.

I have no idea what percentage of area residents either don't have a cell phone or don't have a way to access the Internet easily.

A cell carrier and/or an Internet service provider would have to create a localized version of something like Internet.org to get as many people as possible connected to the Internet. But I'm guessing that such an issue would be wrought by politics.

Jul 31, 2014 - Internet.org - Introducing the Internet.org App - for Zambia

Maybe everyone around here is already easily connected to the Internet. Word traveled fast somehow very early Saturday morning about the water issue, which caused some local stores to be out of water by 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. Impressive, I think.

How did the water ban message spread so quickly between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on August 2? Cellphones and social media? Mobile app notifications from Facebook, Twitter, and local media sites?

I'm not that plugged in, or I sleep heavier than I realize. I just happened to wake up around 4:30 a.m., and I saw the Yo alerts on my phone, so I checked Toledo Talk first, and I saw taliesin52's thread post. That's how I first learned about the water issue.