Track Built on Open Specifications

The Google Buzz team just rolled out the Track feature, which lets you subscribe to real time updates for search terms via PubSubHubbub.   It's pretty awesome, and builds on top of the work we've done for the Buzz Firehose.  A search query is just like any other URL -- say, https://www.googleapis.com/buzz/v1/activities/track?q=coffee+OR+tea -- and you can subscribe to it with PubSubHubbub using existing code.  In fact that URL will work in any PubSubHubbub-enabled client (like Google Reader).

Experimental Magic Signatures Draft

picture via oskay

This morning, I put up an experimental Magic Signatures draft for comment.  This is a fairly extensive reorganization of the spec, so it would eventually become an -01 version of the Magic Signatures specification.  It is still provisional and changing and it really needs feedback (including implementation feedback).  It adds two optional pieces, and solves a bunch of unspecified things, and is organized so as to make it easier to use as a building block in specifications other than Salmon.

The major additions are:

• HMAC private key signatures
• Ability for signer URLs to provide signer keys on GET directly
• A JSON based format for signer keys 

The major (possibly breaking) change from the prior version is that public keys retrieved via XRD are retrieved via XRD Property elements rather than Link (since all current applications are using inline keys in any case, and this is more parallel to the new JSON format).

Looking forward to feedback on this experiment.  If it's successful, we'll rev both Magic Signatures and tweak Salmon to incorporate it.