If you work as a developer on a website, you probably know how annoying it is to be able to successfully communicate site updates to your loyal followers. I attribute this to the limitations of the technology that a site is built upon (for example: a content management system that malfunctions when trying to send automatic emails to users).  Mozilla’s development of “push notifications” just might solve this dilemma. According to Mozilla, “push notifications are a way for websites to send small messages to users when the user is not on the site.”

How it works, as described by Mozilla web developer Jeff Balogh:

1. The website gets a URL where it can send notifications to the user. The URL points to the Notification Service, and is a secret between the user and the website.
2. The site sends a notification to the Notification Service.
3. The Notification Service delivers the message to Firefox on the desktop, on Android, on Boot to Gecko, or on iOS through Firefox Home; we’ll find the right place to deliver the message.

Mobilebloom explains in a bit more detail how Mozilla is also fighting off the potential for spammers to manipulate the new feature.

From Mobilebloom:

Of course, many analysts point out that there is also an increased possibility of spam networks using this system. To prevent these spam notifications, Firefox will come with a JavaScript API that allows the user to select websites which will be able to send push notifications. When the user provides the authorization, the browser will provide the selected websites with the unique URL endpoint. The website will send the notification request to the URL endpoint which will be relayed by the notification service to the user instantly.

Seth Rosenblatt writes at CNET that Mozilla’s new feature sounds like a fancy RSS feed created with a Web 2.0 mindset.

From CNET:

The push API will allow sites to tell readers and fans that there's been an update even when they're not viewing the site in question. That sounds like a modernized RSS to me, which is a great idea. The way that RSS tells you that a site has been updated is a must for people like me who follow hundreds of sites, some daily, but others only when there's an update. To get the utility of those notifications but in a way that's closer to how we currently experience the Web could prove to be more popular than RSS ever was.