The phrase “if this, then that” is a bit of programming-speak: you tell the computer that if this happens, it should perform this action.
Now, a simple new Web service called ifttt — pronounced like “lift” without the l — aims to take that concept to the mainstream. It provides a way for people to easily automate interactions between Web services, like Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist and Tumblr.
The types of commands that can be created on ifttt range from practical to pure entertainment.
For example, the service lets you program a task that will call you
if the weather forecast is predicting rain. Or, you could rig a script
that will send you a text every time someone tags you in a picture on
Facebook. Or you could create a task that automatically saves all
pictures you’ve posted on Instagram to your storage on DropBox. You could have the service
e-mail you when your favorite band is coming to town.
Linden Tibbets, one of the creators of the service, said he hoped that the tool would generate creative and interesting interactions among the Web services that most people use on a daily basis, but not necessarily in conjunction with one another.
“We got really enthralled and immersed in the idea that when a designer builds a tool and puts it out in the real world, there are hundreds of ways it could be used that they never anticipated,” he said. “It felt like something that was missing, and something we could create for non-engineering folks to make interesting things happen.”
Users can share their creations, which ifttt calls recipes, with
others, or choose to keep them private. Since the service came out of private beta in December, more than 1,500 recipes have been created. More than 25,000 tasks have been set in motion using one of those recipes.
The service is free for now. The company raised a small round of
financing from friends and family and is looking to raise a larger
institutional round, said Mr. Tibbits.
“We really want to get this to a larger market,” he said.
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