More Yo thoughts - Aug 14, 2014

my TT comment:

I use Instagram nearly every day. I like its simplicity. I use the photos as a record. And I mainly access it from the phone.

I occasionally check Facebook. Read only. I don't post to Facebook. It's not my thing.

But I definitely like Yo.

• http://www.justyo.co
• http://yoapi.justyo.co
• http://rssyo.com
• http://www.yoindex.com
• https://medium.com/@YoAppStatus
• https://twitter.com/YoApp

Aug 12 Yo blog post about their new app and other changes.

I like Yo because it enables websites to send notifications to phones.

Here are instructions that allow any site with an RSS feed to send Yo notifications. You don't need to access the command line on a server. You don't need to write code.

And with this week's changes, when you swipe the Yo to the right on your phone, the Yo app will display the latest post from the site's RSS feed.

I use both the Yo API and the RSS method for sending notifications.

You should see more Yo-based URLs popping up, such as:

• yo://TOLEDOTALK
• yo://TOLEDOWEATHER
• yo://HEAVYRAINTOLEDO

Those only make sense if you access those URLs from a smartphone with the Yo app installed. Clicking such links makes you a subscriber to those services.

Every time a new post or comment is made at Toledo Talk, I receive a Yo from TOLEDOTALK.

When a new alert message appears at http://toledotalk.com/weather such as the always dangerous Rip Current Statement, then I receive a Yo from TOLEDOWEATHER.

For that kind of weather info, I access an XML file and/or a JSON file that the National Weather Service creates for Lucas County. If alerts exist, I create a simple RSS file that the Yo service reads. And when I receive a Yo, I swipe right to read the message.

This page
http://toledotalk.com/weather/html/forecastio.html
contains minute-by-minute forecasts based upon data from Forecast.io.

I use the simple Forecast.io API to access their JSON-based weather data. And if the 60-minute forecast for either Sylvania or Central Toledo contains at least one minute where the chance for heavy rain is at least 50 percent, then a Yo is sent to HEAVYRAINTOLEDO. Since I access the Forecast.IO data every five minutes, I could receive a good number of Yos on days like this past Monday, although that was an abnormal weather event.

It's fun to mashup programs with Yo. It's a solution that needs a problem or a usage.

Since it's possible to send Yo's to server programs, I could enable Yo to be my login method for my other web apps.

I could send a Yo to something like MYOTHERWEBSITE, and my endpoint program on that server would receive the Yo, see the username that sent the Yo, and then read from the database the email address associated with that Yo username, and then send a unique login link to that email account.

So to login, I would not have to enter a username, email address, nor a password. I would send a Yo, check email, and click link, which automatically logs me into the site.

Short hackathons of two to three hours long have been held where programmers build small tools that use the Yo API.

• June hackathon
• July hackathon

Example Yo uses at https://www.hackerbracket.com/hackathon/yo

From one hackathon write-up

The winner was YoAuth and it was one of four security apps. Several leveraged the notion of two factor authentication, specifically that access to your phone (and requisite thumbprint/pass code security) means that if you have a phone with your Yo account on it, you’re probably you.

YoAuth lets websites set up a login process where users register their Yo name with the site and can then “yo us to log in”. The surprising experience is that without touching the computer, the screen automatically changes to being logged in when you tap Yo on your phone.

Good one: YO FLY IS DOWN

Want to save someone an embarrassing moment? Send them a YO to lift their spirits and their zipper!

YO CitiBike

Find out if your local CitiBike station has available bikes with a simple YO!