This week: Microsoft’s Web 2.0 platform, Rich Clients, Acquisitions, Web 2.0 in
The Real World, Techie Post of the week – Web Development Trends for 2006.
Microsoft’s Web 2.0 platform
News this week that Microsoft is releasing a set of developer APIs for
four MSN properties: MSN Virtual Earth, MSN Messenger, Start.com and MSN Search. The
details of this “Web platform” strategy will be revealed at Microsoft’s Professional
Developers Conference in Los Angeles next week.
Surprisingly the news didn’t get a lot of coverage, but the sites that did write about it focused
on: the competition with Google (“Microsoft Web plan takes aim at Google” was CNET’s
heading); how Microsoft might be cannabilizing its flagship Office and Windows products;
and “Microsoft’s Web 2.0 Vision” (as
TechNewsWorld phrased it).
As I wrote in ZDNet, this is
Microsoft’s acknowledgement that the Web is now the place to be for developers and
consumers. However I don’t think the Web platform strategy is a primary one for
Microsoft, I think they’re more interested in dominating how their customers access
the Web. If they can’t own the platform, they want to own as many of the paths onto
the platform as possible – which may then give them control over the platform. Broadly speaking, this is what Google wants to do too.
Rich Clients
The topic of ‘rich clients’ often comes up when talking about Web apps. Rich clients
(aka smart clients) are
usually Internet-connected desktop applications which offer a rich user experience –
interactivity, drag’n’drop, high-end graphics, and so on. Their proponents say rich
clients are better than browser-based apps because they have more (i.e. richer)
functionality and can be used offline. In the age of broadband, offline usage is
becoming increasingly irrelevant. But the richer functionality point is still a
compelling one, despite what AJAX can
do in a browser these days.
Mike Chambers, from Macromedia Flash Platform Developer Relations, wrote a post
recently that makes the
case for rich clients in a Web 2.0 world:
“Web 2.0 gets really interesting when one can build clients that composite not just
multiple data sources, but multiple rich data types, and start to build applications that
really leverage the web as a platform in a much richer way with things like streaming
media, VOIP, messaging and real-time data.”
Mack D. Male has
similar thoughts. My take is that it’s still better not to be reliant on desktop (or
proprietary) software, but I’m certainly open to richer functionality so long as its
connected to the Web.
Acquisition Report
This week threw up some interesting acquisition rumours. Ebay is apparently in
talks to buy Web telephony darlings Skype, which would be a deal worth anything
between $2 billion and $5 billion. Some people thought it made sense as an extra
communications channel for Ebay’s buyers and sellers – IM and Internet phone. Others thought
it made little strategic sense. David Beisel
raises the intriguing question: if the deal occurs, will it mean connectivity is “worth more than content?”
Update: all but confirmed, eBay will buy Skype for “over $2.6bn” and possibly as much as $4.1 billion if Skype makes performance targets.
A confirmed acquisition this week was
Newscorp’s purchase of online gaming company IGN. As Techdirt pointed out,
Newscorp appears to be on a mission to capture Generation Y eyeballs:
“Combined with his purchases of MySpace, Scout Media and (still potentially)
Blinkx, it’s becoming increasingly clear that News Corp is building up a stable of high
traffic sites that cater to highly desirable demographics for advertisers.”
Scott Rafer has more on that theme:
“Murdoch wants the average age of the NewsCorp Internet customer to be Gen-Y or younger,
which makes perfect sense for a new entrant into e-commerce.”
Web 2.0 in The Real World
This is a new regular feature of my Weekly Wrap-Up, sort of a counterpoint
to the Techie Post of the Week. I think it’s important to highlight how Web 2.0 is being
implemented in The Real World, by real people – i.e. not geeks like me or Ivory Tower
folks.
The first Real World example is a Web Ministry, defined
here:
“Web Ministry is using internet resources (namely the web) to utilize the gifts,
talents, resources, and desires of a believer (church, organization, individual) to make
an eternal impact in the lives of individuals.”
Good start – now I want to hear how they’re going to do it. That’s what this
segment of the Weekly Wrap-Up will be about – what’s being built on the Web outside of the geek domain and how it’s being done.
btw I found that post via their previous post on Web
2.0, which linked to my ZDNet blog:
“I feel dense. I’ve read a lot of definitions of what Web 2.0 is. The most recent
“simple” explanation I read came from ZDNet.com. But I still don’t get it.
Can someone explain it in simple, dumb language? Better yet, give me an example of how
it’s different. I just don’t get it. What I’m seeing is that it could be big and
important. But I just don’t get it right now.”
Techie Post of the week – Web Dev Trends for 2006
Anil Dash’s Web
Development Trends for 2006 is an excellent overview of trends to look out for in
2006. He calls it “vocational education for people building Web 2.0”. I particularly
liked this comment about the continued appeal of XHTML and CSS:
“In a Greasemonkey-enabled web, it’s going to be more important than ever to have a
reliable structure that you can hang new behaviors on.”
Amen brother.
That’s a wrap for another week!
