Efficiency is an odd word choice, but I do agree with your usability criticisms.
What I love about Notifo is that it exposes a web service that lets me push arbitrary messages to my iPhone (e.g., I have an autorun batch file that lets me know when my son is on his computer, just to make sure he isn't getting up at 6AM just to play games). Getting that working wasn't difficult, but definitely non-trivial. Stepping back a bit, looking at notifo.com and the different services that work with it (pushly, HN, etc.), getting all the pieces to talk to each other is definitely a bit head-scratchy if you're non-technical.
I think this is a place where large companies have the benefit of scale such that a small service like Notifo can become a part of a broader online portfolio like Windows Live or Google. Otherwise, the mental burden in installing Notifo, registering a Notifo username, and figuring out where to enter that in on another service seems too high for casual users.
I suppose that Notifo's long term plan is to be acquired, but the downside is that I doubt agreements like what they have with Wufoo and HN would survive the transition.
Just a speculation. Look at drop.io as a recent example. Large enterprises tend not to allow their service to be used as "loose" tools. Instead, they would rather keep the tool as something that plays well with their own services.
I could be wrong, but I have a hard time seeing something like Notifo survive in the state it's in under the banner of a company like Microsoft or Google.
What I love about Notifo is that it exposes a web service that lets me push arbitrary messages to my iPhone (e.g., I have an autorun batch file that lets me know when my son is on his computer, just to make sure he isn't getting up at 6AM just to play games). Getting that working wasn't difficult, but definitely non-trivial. Stepping back a bit, looking at notifo.com and the different services that work with it (pushly, HN, etc.), getting all the pieces to talk to each other is definitely a bit head-scratchy if you're non-technical.
I think this is a place where large companies have the benefit of scale such that a small service like Notifo can become a part of a broader online portfolio like Windows Live or Google. Otherwise, the mental burden in installing Notifo, registering a Notifo username, and figuring out where to enter that in on another service seems too high for casual users.
I suppose that Notifo's long term plan is to be acquired, but the downside is that I doubt agreements like what they have with Wufoo and HN would survive the transition.