Tripit Ajaxworld V5
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Transcript of Tripit Ajaxworld V5
Building Email Apps
AJAXWorldOctober 20, 2008San Jose, CA
Andy DenmarkTripIt, Co-Founder and VP Engineering
Email Bankruptcy
“I routinely declare emailbankruptcy and simply delete myentire inbox.”
- Michael Arrington, TechCrunch“Wondering if I can get a BearSterns bailout for my emailbankruptcy.”
- willpate on Twitter
“(He) just declared email bankruptcy. I'veread those declarations enough to knowit means our email tools aren't usable.”
- garrickvanburen on Twitter
So, why is email still around despite all thechallenges and criticism… ?
Email Is Still The “Killer App”
Email is a natural extension of a metaphor forcommunication that humans have used forever
Everyone has email and is the overwhelming majorityof person-to-person online communication
No matter what else people use to communicate, theyuse email too
Email contains an amazing amount of context anddata about our lives Our relationships Our purchases Our thoughts and the thoughts of people we know
What More Can We Do With Email?
Spam and mass email marketing may be contributingto the problems outlined earlier
But think of all the things we can do to make ourapplications better by making better use of email: Broadcasting data Query interfaces Data transfer Intelligent parsing of data
Mining of social connections (“Inbox 2.0”) Email as an application platform
Does An Email App Make Sense?
PROS Ubiquity – everyone has
email Exposure – email is on all day
and captures a lot ofattention
Simplicity – easy to sendemail, everyone knows howto do it
Embedded identity
CONS May just not fit your service May be too complex for your
users to understand It’s challenging to properly
support all email clients,versions and formats
Building and supporting asystem that sends, receives,and reads email is a pain
Prehistoric Email Apps
Domain Registration Email Sign-Up Email to:
[email protected] From address
authentication for newsign-ups
Choose to receive yourbill via email or USPS
Authentication schemesfor modify/delete wereCRYPT-PW and PGP
Archie File Query Email InterfaceAvailable Interfaces Text-based client Graphical client Telnet client Email
Browsing The Web Via Email
“For personal reasons, I do not browsethe web from my computer. (I also haveno net connection much of the time.) Tolook at page I send mail to a demon whichruns wget and mails the page back to me.It is very efficient use of my time, but it isslow in real time.”
-- Richard Stallman (2007-12-15)
About TripIt
?
***CONFIDENTIAL*** 13
Forward AnyConfirmation
AutomatedOnline Master
Itinerary
AutomatedWeather, Maps,
Guides…
Trip Sharing &Social Alerts
iCal & AtomSupport
Email &MobileAccess
Add Meetings,Activities,
Restaurants, etc.
Why Email Made Sense For TripIt
The native format of travel data is varied andunfriendly
The travel industry isn’t moving to expose that data Partnering with big travel companies and building
APIs would take too long Users already have all their travel data in email, but
that data is “dead” Auto-account creation using the embedded identity
of an email message It has become an “instant delight” factor for users
Types Of Email App Services
Command LineInterface
DataTransfer
SemanticParsingBroadcast
?
Types Of Email App Services
Command LineInterface
DataTransfer
SemanticParsingBroadcast
One Way
• User requests emailinformation to be sentto them
• Typically triggered byan action or an alert
Examples
• Mailing Lists
• Google Alerts
Example: Mailing Lists
Searchableknowledge basebuilt as a by-product of naturalhumancommunication
Example: Google Alerts “Real time” alerts
delivered right to mydesktop
Useful way toasynchronouslybroadcast data I’verequested as it’savailable
With linkage to theweb, alerts areactionable andcontrollable
Types Of Email App Services
Command LineInterface
DataTransfer
SemanticParsingBroadcast
CLI
• Users emails acommand and EmailApp replies with aresponse
• Typically a standardlist of commands andresponses
Examples
• I Want Sandy
• TripIt
Example: I Want Sandy
http://iwantsandy.com/
Example: TripIt
Types Of Email App Services
Command LineInterface
DataTransfer
SemanticParsing
Email Forwarding
• Users forward emailsand Email Apprecognizes and parsesthem
• Typically converts“unstructured” data into“structured” datamaking it more usableto the app and user
Examples
• Flickr
• Blogger
Broadcast
Example: Flickr
Example: Blogger
Types Of Email App Services
Command LineInterface
DataTransfer
SemanticParsingBroadcast
Intelligent Agent
• Structured data fromemail is enriched bythe Email App byretrieving relatedinformation from othersites
• Typically leverages“keys” such as geo-coding to capturerelevant data
Examples
• TrackMyShipments
• TripIt
Example: TrackMyShipments
Example: TripIt
Timezone
Online Checkin Flight Status Seat Advice
Flight DetailsWeather
Types Of Email App Services
Command LineInterface
DataTransfer
SemanticParsing
Email Forwarding
• Users forward emailsand Email Apprecognizes and parsesthem
• Typically converts“unstructured” data into“structured” datamaking it more usableto the app and user
Broadcast
CLI
• Users emails acommand and EmailApp replies with aresponse
• Typically a standardlist of commands andresponses
One Way
• User requests emailinformation to be sentto them
• Typically triggered byan action or an alert
Intelligent Agent
• Structured data fromemail is enriched bythe Email App byretrieving relatedinformation from othersites
• Typically leverages“keys” such as geo-coding to capturerelevant data
ExamplesListserv Google Alerts
ExamplesI Want SandyTripIt
ExamplesFlickrBlogger
ExamplesTrackMyShipmentsTripIt
Email Systems as Platforms
Why turn an email system into a platform for runningapplications? Natural personal productivity integration point with other tools such
as calendar, contact list, etc… All the data is already there Done right, the UI is a natural extension of what hundreds of millions
of people use everyday, small learning curve
Examples Outlook/Xobni GMail w/ GreaseMonkey GMail Labs Yahoo! Open Mail
Outlook/Xobni
Search your Inbox People-focused analytics and
semantic analysis (e.g., phonenumbers)
Implicit social graph discovery (i.e.,who talks to whom?)
Related conversations http://www.xobni.com/
TripIt for GMail
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25778
Drives the UI to“forward” the emailNo access to thedata in the message(e.g. headers,attachments, etc…)“Brittle” solutionthat relies on a UIthat doesn’t changeNo feedback loopor error handlingwith TripIt’sbackend
GMail Labs Features on top of GMail, no
mashups yet Not available to non-
Googlers Huge un-fufilled potential
Yahoo! Mail
Video: Yahoo! OpenMail/TripIt Integration
Key Takeaways
Email is not dead! Treasure-trove of data waiting to be mined
At least four different types of apps Broadcast, CLI, Data transfer, Semantic parsing
Emerging email platforms New ways of delivering your applications via mail platforms are
coming
If you get it right, huge payoff for you and your users
Questions
Andy DenmarkTripIt, Co-Founder and VP Engineering