Enhancing User Experience - Exploring the Latest Features of Tallyman Axis Lo...
Tripit Ajaxworld V5
1. Building Email Apps
AJAXWorld
October 20, 2008
San Jose, CA
Andy Denmark
TripIt, Co-Founder and VP Engineering
2. Email Bankruptcy
“(He) just declared email bankruptcy. I've
read those declarations enough to know
it means our email tools aren't usable.”
- garrickvanburen on Twitter
“I routinely declare email
bankruptcy and simply delete my
entire inbox.”
“Wondering if I can get a Bear - Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
Sterns bailout for my email
bankruptcy.”
- willpate on Twitter
So, why is email still around despite all the
challenges and criticism…
?
3. Email Is Still The “Killer App”
Email is a natural extension of a metaphor for
communication that humans have used forever
Everyone has email and is the overwhelming majority
of person-to-person online communication
No matter what else people use to communicate, they
use email too
Email contains an amazing amount of context and
data about our lives
Our relationships
Our purchases
Our thoughts and the thoughts of people we know
4. What More Can We Do With Email?
Spam and mass email marketing may be contributing
to the problems outlined earlier
But think of all the things we can do to make our
applications 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
5. Does An Email App Make Sense?
PROS CONS
Ubiquity – everyone has May just not fit your service
email May be too complex for your
Exposure – email is on all day users to understand
and captures a lot of It’s challenging to properly
attention support all email clients,
Simplicity – easy to send versions and formats
email, everyone knows how Building and supporting a
to do it system that sends, receives,
Embedded identity and reads email is a pain
7. Domain Registration Email Sign-Up
Email to:
hostmaster@internic.net
From address
authentication for new
sign-ups
Choose to receive your
bill via email or USPS
Authentication schemes
for modify/delete were
CRYPT-PW and PGP
9. Browsing The Web Via Email
“For personal reasons, I do not browse
the web from my computer. (I also have
no net connection much of the time.) To
look at page I send mail to a demon which
runs wget and mails the page back to me.
It is very efficient use of my time, but it is
slow in real time.”
-- Richard Stallman (2007-12-15)
15. Add Meetings,
Activities,
Forward Any Restaurants, etc.
Confirmation
Email
Trip Sharing &
Social Alerts
Automated
Online Master
Itinerary
iCal & Atom
Support
Automated
Weather, Maps,
Guides… Email &
Mobile
Access
16. Why Email Made Sense For TripIt
The native format of travel data is varied and
unfriendly
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
17. Types Of Email App Services
Command Line Data Semantic
Broadcast
Interface Transfer Parsing
?
18. Types Of Email App Services
Command Line Data Semantic
Broadcast
Interface Transfer Parsing
One Way
• User requests email
information to be sent
to them
• Typically triggered by
an action or an alert
Examples
• Mailing Lists
• Google Alerts
19. Example: Mailing Lists
Searchable
knowledge base
built as a by-
product of natural
human
communication
20. Example: Google Alerts
“Real time” alerts
delivered right to my
desktop
Useful way to
asynchronously
broadcast data I’ve
requested as it’s
available
With linkage to the
web, alerts are
actionable and
controllable
21. Types Of Email App Services
Command Line Data Semantic
Broadcast
Interface Transfer Parsing
CLI
• Users emails a
command and Email
App replies with a
response
• Typically a standard
list of commands and
responses
Examples
• I Want Sandy
• TripIt
24. Types Of Email App Services
Command Line Data Semantic
Broadcast
Interface Transfer Parsing
Email Forwarding
• Users forward emails
and Email App
recognizes and parses
them
• Typically converts
“unstructured” data into
“structured” data
making it more usable
to the app and user
Examples
• Flickr
• Blogger
27. Types Of Email App Services
Command Line Data Semantic
Broadcast
Interface Transfer Parsing
Intelligent Agent
• Structured data from
email is enriched by
the Email App by
retrieving related
information from other
sites
• Typically leverages
“keys” such as geo-
coding to capture
relevant data
Examples
• TrackMyShipments
• TripIt
30. Types Of Email App Services
Command Line Data Semantic
Broadcast
Interface Transfer Parsing
One Way CLI Email Forwarding Intelligent Agent
• User requests email • Users emails a • Users forward emails • Structured data from
information to be sent command and Email and Email App email is enriched by
to them App replies with a recognizes and parses the Email App by
response them retrieving related
• Typically triggered by
information from other
an action or an alert • Typically a standard • Typically converts
sites
list of commands and “unstructured” data into
responses “structured” data • Typically leverages
making it more usable “keys” such as geo-
to the app and user coding to capture
relevant data
Examples Examples Examples Examples
Listserv I Want Sandy Flickr TrackMyShipments
Google Alerts TripIt Blogger TripIt
31. Email Systems as Platforms
Why turn an email system into a platform for running
applications?
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
32. Outlook/Xobni
Search your Inbox
People-focused analytics and
semantic analysis (e.g., phone
numbers)
Implicit social graph discovery (i.e.,
who talks to whom?)
Related conversations
http://www.xobni.com/
33. TripIt for GMail
Drives the UI to
“forward” the email
No access to the
data in the message
(e.g. headers,
attachments, etc…)
“Brittle” solution
that relies on a UI
that doesn’t change
No feedback loop
or error handling
with TripIt’s
backend
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25778
34. GMail Labs
Features on top of GMail, no
mashups yet
Not available to non-
Googlers
Huge un-fufilled potential
35. Yahoo! Mail
Video: Yahoo! OpenMail/TripIt Integration
36. 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
37. Questions
Andy Denmark
TripIt, Co-Founder and VP Engineering