

Reaching and re-engaging users on the mobile web - cjdulberger
http://blog.chromium.org/2015/04/reaching-and-re-engaging-users-on.html

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untog
This is pretty interesting. I remember some time ago Vox Media (who make The
Verge and Polygon along with Vox itself) declared that they were going web-
only:

[http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/2/6096609/welcome-to-
verge-2-...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/2/6096609/welcome-to-verge-2-0)

It doesn't seem to have hurt them - but push notifications are probably the #1
feature that differentiates between webapps and native apps in a context like
this. I wonder if they'll take advantage.

(as with all things mobile web, this comes with the huge caveat that Apple
have no intention of doing this (despite having similar functionality on
desktop), and want to force everyone to use native apps, so it's unlikely to
be a complete solution any time soon)

~~~
sosborn
Personally I can't think of anything I want less than push notifications from
websites.

~~~
untog
Why, though? Or, put another way, why are push notifications from apps fine
when push notifications from web sites are not?

~~~
sosborn
Honestly the only notifications I care about are email, text messages and
phone calls. The rest can all go to hell. Again, this is just my personal
taste.

~~~
kinlan
I think that is fine. You can disable notifications and push completely, and
you can not accept the prompt if you don't want to go that far. We are trying
to be careful and make this opt-in only and clear to the user about the value
that they can get from it (if they choose it)

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themodelplumber
This is cool to see. The other day a client with about zero technical
expertise told me she had won a grant to develop an app, then went on to
explain "it has to be a web app that can be used offline; it can't be a
regular app." I was pretty blown away and immediately offered to code it for
her, just because I'd much rather build and promote this kind of app. These
new Chromium features give me hope that it might be even easier to enhance web
apps across the board, in the future.

The downside (or frustrating side) with this project is that 1/4 of the grant
money is set aside for coding the web app, and while it's not a teeny sum, I'm
wondering just how much "app planning expertise" is being brought into the
game by whoever's getting the other 3/4.

~~~
karmelapple
You are part of that 3/4.

A proof of concept or mockup to verify that you've correctly captured
requirements? Sounds like planning to me.

Determining which technology stack is best, including building (to be clear, I
mean coding) some basic systems to test out if your assumptions about
performance and writing the pieces are correct? That's planning.

And so on.

Hours spent writing code are not mutually exclusive to hours spent planning
for the success of a software project.

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chimeracoder
It's kind of interesting to see Android, Chrome, and FirefoxOS all rushing
towards the same point, though from different directions.

Chrome is trying to "nativify" the browser, and making the browser a more
seamless part of navigating Android[0].

With FirefoxOS, the webapp is already native, and the goal is to browserify
the native OS (in other words, to make the operating system itself inside the
browser).

[0] I say Android specifically because this integration already goes much
deeper on Android than on iOS, simply because it can.

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dublinben
It would be a significant step towards "reaching and re-engaging users" if
Google would make it possible to actually build a functional Chromium browser
for Android. Since they've completely abandoned the default AOSP browser in
favor of Chrome, there is no longer an up to date browser in AOSP.

~~~
kinlan
My understanding is that there is a up to date Browser. The browser app has
always been built with a WebView and the latest WebView is pointing to almost
the tip of the development tree of Chromium.

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kadder
interesting , wonder how quickly will sites like HN, reddit jump on the
bandwagon. Will be interesting to compare the experience to native push
notifications

~~~
kinlan
If you know people at HN, then I am happy to work with them to get a test
implemented.

