We thought Web Service was good. It certainly is!
Web Service has brought the economy to the web. There is no need to repeat what Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! and Google all have done.
Web 2.0 and a different approach
But another approach is rising fast. Web service providers now make their product a Web Platform.
They build up a very good core based on solid philosophy. Then they provide API for developers to build applications on.
Browser
With their defeat by Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, Mozilla temporarily withdrew and launch their next hit: Firefox.
As in September 2007, market share of Firefox reaches 35.4%, according to W3C.
One important reason why Firefox has become this popular is due to its extensions gallery. A huge collection of well-done small web services are offered for free by developers worldwide.
Many of Firefox extensions are done to support other web services such as Google Search, Blogging, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, digg, Amazon, eBay.
Gradually, the browser becomes one of the largest centralized points of the web.
Social Networking
Talking about Social Networking today, we have to praise Facebook immediately.
Facebook is also doing very well to provide their API so that applications can be developed on a very good and mature skeleton.
Most successful Facebook applications support networking purpose such as free gifts, messages, testimonials, collaborative games.
The goal of a social networking site is to become the home of as many activities of users as possible.
Content Management Systems
WordPress, Joomla, phpBB have been building communities around them.
Themes allow personalization.
Plugins allow customization.
Most of all, the platform allow monetization.
Conclusion: Web Platforms
Looking at these obvious examples, we see that Firefox, Facebook, WordPress et al offer a very solid and useful core and highly flexible and open API on which applications, extensions, addons, plugins, themes can grow and develop.
They have become Web Platforms to Web Services.
These Web Services in turn make the Platforms new and ever-changing.
Future: Information Depot
In near future, or maybe now already, we’ll see these central points become Information Depot in Semantic Web.
When a web seller wants to approach specific market segment, it should know what and how the potential customers are like. How? From Information Nodes such as e-Commerce sites and Social Networking sites. It would go to Amazon to get information on the customers’ buying preferences, and go to Facebook to get information on the customers’ networks and personal interests.
Can you imagine what happens next? These Information Depots will be able to manipulate the information in whichever way they prefer, not limited to making the information available, for prices.
Conclusion
We’re moving from separated glamorous isles to metropolitans on the web.
You will be able to do many things on a single website. Enjoy the sweetness it brings, while not lowing your guard on diabetes.
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