louisgray.com - Latest Comments in louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Ben Stock of Brainpower — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:46:01 -0000

I love the unsubscribe forms from commercial email sites that tell you your name will be removed from the database in a matter of weeks. Pharaoh was faster. So it shall be written so it shall be done.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

c wylie — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:07:04 -0000

I have only once non-recurring site that sometimes gets to me: Twitter. Having to refresh twitter is rediculous, but I assume that is more of a challenge to pull off b/c everyone's individual stream is different. Hopefully 2009 will be the year more people program with live refreshing in mind, myself being a webdesigner, included.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Eric Berlin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:34:45 -0000

THis is a great topic and something I think about too Louis. Even my beloved Twitter isn't really "real time," due to caching rules or simple latency.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Dominic/IRWebReport — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:42:00 -0000

Sorry I couldn't comment earlier, but my life has not been real-time lately. :)

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

hardaway — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:20:48 -0000

Well, Louis, you might be talking about two different things. The banks hold on to your cash and don't transfer it instantaneously because they make significant money on the "float," the time they keep your money without sending it to the next guy. I recently had an experience where Wells Fargo put a hold on a check that had been paid to my company for services by a city in the Phoenix metro area. The hold was over a week. I'm what's known as a "high value" customer, and the city is probably good for the money (although one never knows these days, does one). So I can only conclude it's the float.

As for Feedburner, there it seems as if someone is asleep at the switch.

But there's another problem: expectation management. We in the tech community know what's possible, and our expectations are almost impossible to manage. We know that our health records should be electronic, our wire transfers should be immediate, and our blog posts should hit Google Reader as soon as they hit Twitter. I'm not a technologist, but as a humanist I venture to guess we just aren't there yet from a systems point of view.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Ed Richardson — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:27:19 -0000

The banking institutions inability to transfer cash any quicker than the time it would take for me to travel to the recipients place of work and deliver the cash myself has been an issue I have grumbled over for years.

The UK banking infrastructure has just reduced this time to clear cheques (I much prefer the UK spelling :-p) just as they are going into extinction.

But these after all are ancient (in online terms) institutions, online web services such as stat facilities and Feedburner do not have the same excuse.

I'd recommend GetClicky, I started using them last year and was impressed, but still haven't got round to subscribing to a premium account.

There is still a place I believe for RSS in this Real Time Web world, but we need to keep the services efficient.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Kristian Luoma — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:17:17 -0000

I'm with you.

Real-time web is just around the corner.. it has been waiting to happen for a very long time. To me it's been pending due to the mindset of how we build stuff in the web. Things like RSS, REST APIs, etc. just take us to the opposite direction from what real-time web is supposed to be like.

You want "real" real-time? Related to this, I saw recently an interesting presentation about this topic and how we could choose different tools for making it happen more effectively ("beyond RESTful", http://www.slideshare.net/k.... In short, the argument of the presentation (by a guy working for Flickr I think) was that instant messaging technology "exploits" would deliver the speed and scalability we need for real-time web revolution. I think so too. I also believe XMPP, as an open technology, is the vehicle to take us there.

As an example of this, I'm using FriendFeed with my Nokia Chat (go check it out from Nokia Betalabs). FriendFeed aggregates nicely all the social network updates (or other RSS feeds for that matter) over IM to my mobile. I can also update my status and comment back via the IM channel. Just imagine what we can do if we'd have a dedicated UI for the experience, and just use the real-time communications (like Nokia Chat) as basis of all of this.

Anyway my two cents is that we just need to pick the right ingredients to build the solution and I think the web of flow, as some call it, is on its way.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Natalia Corres — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:00:46 -0000

Most financial institutions make their money on the "float" - i.e. the money made on interest on your money in that time between when you transfer it and when it is "available" in your other account. No matter how good the technology is, I cannot imagine the banking industry would give up that enormous money machine.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Tutivillus Grift — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:46:00 -0000

The MacClusterF seems to have damaged Twitter. Of course, in reality, it's probably their PATHETIC security.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Susanne "Renee" Bullo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:45:00 -0000

At this particular point in time, I'd just be happy if Twitter would get back to working properly and not dropping my tweets. Once yesterday and once today. Grrrrr. I'm not asking for instantaneous - just asking for it to actually happen at some point.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

andy brudtkuhl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:29:00 -0000

Feedburner sucks. I've said it before - someone needs to come in and take back this market while feedburner is blowing it.. there's a huge market opportunity there. (sorry a tad off topic)

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Mathew A. Koeneker — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:04:00 -0000

The interest earned on "credit floats" are amazing not that anyone would do that or anything. In terms of the stock market, there are specific SEC guidelines dealing with a lot of the maneuverings that you mentioned.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

gregorylent — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:29:02 -0000

am fairly sure waiting is here to stay ...

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Tyler Sid — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:27:45 -0000

It really depends on the mindset at the people at those institutions...people at banks are usually behind the curve and Google has gotten so bloated...

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

ChangeForge | Ken Stewart — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:07:32 -0000

I have to think this will get better, but I also know it won't be quickly. Banks make money by holding yours - is my belief. Nice article on the fact that many things that have been technology enabled still have a long way to go.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

LeeBautista — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:57:33 -0000

"simplicity of the web" is not the problem. the problem revolves around people and process. come on. don't blame the internet. there's much more going on behind the scenes of *any* business; be it regulation, process, cost, infrastructure ... if that's what you meant, you didn't say it.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Guest — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:45:00 -0000

I just wish I knew how you felt!
Lol, I agree. Actually today I sold a website, they paid with PayPal. Great, but now I have to wait another 4 days to get my money. I agree, it seems silly in today's digital world to have to wait.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Jason Kaneshiro — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:43:00 -0000

I'm pretty sure financial companies have the delay not because they're behind the times technology wise -but because they stand to make a mint in late fees an interest holding on to money even for an extra day. Every credit card I pay online charges an extra fee for "right now" bill pay. Otherwise it's wait at least 1 business day

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Ontario Emperor — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:38:00 -0000

There's part of me that wants everything to appear within 1 minute. But do I need it?

I can argue that ANYTHING - blog post, tweet, Disqus comment, Flickr picture, YouTube video, last.fm song, whatever - can spark a conversation, so can one argue that some types of items are less critical?

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Louis Gray — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:16:00 -0000

Ontario? The maximum acceptable time? For Twitter, no delay. Blog posts... almost no delay. But I'd assume Flickr, Smugmug and other less-instant items could wait minutes. Disqus comments for instance are very fast now and don't need to get any quicker, in my opinion. The #1 issue I have with Smugmug right now is that it actually syncs "too fast", meaning the first rev of comments and likes tends to get wiped out when the set of photos is final. FriendFeed does a good job now, but the bar is very high.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Ontario Emperor — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:12:00 -0000

Louis, I know you're familiar with marketing requirements. So let me ask this question - assuming that one uses FriendFeed for personal purposes, what is the MAXIMUM amount of time to elapse between the time an item is created on some service (Blogger, YouTube, whatever), and the time that item appears on FriendFeed? And, how was this maximum time derived?

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Ontario Emperor — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:07:00 -0000

It's not just Feedburner. If I want something to appear in my FriendFeed RIGHT NOW, I almost always have to do a manual refresh, and sometimes even that doesn't work. But an argument can be made that updates to FriendFeed aren't as important as, say, stock trades.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Paola — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:07:00 -0000

Yes I'm all for "The Power of Now". Well actually, that was a book about something else. But still.

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Hutch Carpenter — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:52:00 -0000

That Feedburner experience sounds woeful. Is Scoble's real-time web conference on?

Re: louisgray.com: I'm Getting So Tired Of The Non-Instant Web

Louis Gray — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:46:00 -0000

I ping FeedBurner when I post as well, and then refresh the site here manually on FriendFeed to make sure it gets through.