IFTTT: Fun Way to get Olympic Updates and More

A while back I learned of a website which could link all kinds of other websites and services together in a clean, intuitive way.  I used it for a few things, but hadn’t found a really fun use of it until now.

The site is IFTTT and stands for “If This Then That”.

Some of the sites you can use are Facebook, E-mail, Text Message, Twitter, Dropbox, Instagram, etc.  Or you can use services like the weather forecast, Free Kindle books, new movie releases, and so on.  Then, you create a “recipe” that ties those “channels” together.  For instance, here are some popular recipes with channels in bold:

• When my Facebook profile picture changes, update my Twitter profile picture.
• If the weather forecast for tomorrow calls for rain, send me a text message.
• Whenever I post a picture to Instagram, save it to Dropbox too.
• When a new book is added to the Top 100 Free Kindle books, send me an e-mail.

These examples were all pulled from the most popular recipes.  You can use one of those recipes (and modify it if you want) or you can create your own from scratch.  There are thousands of possibilities with the 50 channels they have available.

Olympics

So here’s the really cool new channel on IFTTT: ESPN’s coverage of the Olympics.  Here are the two recipes I’m using:

Pretty fun, huh?  So I get notified of any gold medal the US wins or whenever anyone sets a World Record.

Setting these recipes up literally takes just a few minutes.  Simply sign up for free and try it out.  Let me know what you think!