When OS X Mavericks was released, one of the new features added to the operating system was Safari Push Notifications. The notifications use the new Apple Push Notifications service to notify users of new events. Since the feature was added to OS X Mavericks, there have been a number of services built around it. Roost For Bloggers is one such service. However, the one I’m reviewing today is called Push Monkey by moWOW studios.

When Push Monkey is activated on the site and the domain is registered within the system, those who are using Mac OS X Mavericks and Safari 7 will see a notice asking if they would like to subscribe. Once subscribed to the site, they will receive new notifications each time a post is published. If the visitor chooses not the subscribe, they won’t be asked again. Posts that are already published or edited after being published will not generate a notification. Safari is used only for the initial subscription to the site. After that, notifications are received even when Safari is closed.

Tudor Munteanu, one of the developers behind Push Monkey told me that while Safari is the only way to see the subscription notice, they have plans for more custom integration similar to Macrumors. The reason why it’s not part of the initial offering is because it’s heavily dependent on the websites visual identity. Push Monkey is currently in the alpha stage of development with plans to have it finished by the end of this month. When I asked whether Push Monkey would be free to use, Tudor responded:

It will most likely be a paid service. We do have some price points in mind, but the final values are not crystal clear. What we do know is that this price point is slightly under what we saw similar services asked for in the past. On top of that, for developers who have contacts to content publishers, we plan to have a very generous affiliate system.

Choices Are Abundant But I Have Questions

During the time I’ve reviewed Push Monkey, I’ve received three other requests to review similar plugins and services. I didn’t realize there was so much demand for something that caters to a select demographic of website visitors. I don’t understand what the benefits are to using this notification system versus RSS, or something like PubHubSubHub combined with the PuSHPress plugin. The question I have for website owners is why would you cater to a specific audience instead of focusing on enabling anyone on any device to be able to receive real-time updates?