The Web is growing up, transforming from a collection of linked pages to a network of interactive applications launched from Web platforms. "The first phase of the Web was about populating small pieces in the form of individual pages," says Excite co-founder Joe Kraus. "Phase two is about joining these individual pieces together." One example of this evolutionary process is JotSpot, a wiki-like application that serves as a platform for collaborative business data and applications. The key to the platform evolution is Web services, which provide companies with a standard protocol for outside machines to interact with corporate systems. A company can restrict outside access to only those services it wishes to "expose" -- for instance, access to a database or to an application such as search. Third parties "consume" these services by embedding them in their own applications or Web sites. An example would be a restaurant review site that embedded a tag that called up a third-party database when a user wanted directions to a specific eatery. As Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media puts it: "Customers build your business for you."
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:00 AM
