KEY POINTS:
Its demise may have been predicted at the tail end of the last dotcom boom but the humble web browser has become the tool at the centre of the new internet.
Several web technologies are being used to great effect to serve up, in a web browser, exactly what the user demands.
RSS (really simple syndication) feeds are supported by many websites and allow users of RSS aggregator software to access updating web feeds without having to visit the individual websites. Netvibes and Bloglines are two popular RSS aggregators and these types of services are changing how people come across web content, particularly when it comes to online news.
The use of APIs (application programming interfaces) are allowing web developers to harvest information from popular websites in an efficient manner and use the information as the basis of their own web services or "mash-ups".
APIs are a major component of the new wave of web development that is under way and are created and given away by many of the large web players.
The Google Maps API has allowed the free mapping service to be integrated into all kinds of websites and it remains one of the most commonly used APIs.
The website www.programmableweb.com lists 441 APIs and 50 per cent of the mash-up websites listed incorporate the Google Maps Javascript API. Google Maps is followed by the APIs for photo-sharing website Flickr (10 per cent), online retailer Amazon (8 per cent) and video-streaming website YouTube (6 per cent).
The result is some weird and wonderful creations. The website www.cloudme.com uses APIs from Yahoo, YouTube and Flickr to display text, images and videos that correspond to your search query. It's sort of a precursor to what Google is planning with its new Universal Search service.
At www.mibazaar.com/realestate/ you can view eBay property listings by United States zipcode for plotted on a Google map and a href="http://www.fotoland.us"target="new">www.fotoland.us takes pictures from the public area of Flickr and places them according to where they were taken on a Google map of the US.
Not all of these are particularly useful to everyone but they hint at the huge potential for web developers to build useful mash-up services when APIs are made available - and make money in their own right.
But some successful web companies have been less than enthusiastic about unlocking the information on their websites for others to use as the likes of Google, Amazon and eBay have done.
Robust discussion has been under way on the website of Rowan Simpson (rowansimpson.com), who until his departure a few days ago, oversaw development at local auction website TradeMe. In outlining why TradeMe hasn't made an API available to external developers, Simpson cites concerns about the safety of TradeMe users, the need to keep third-party developers abreast of changes to the API, possible threats to the stability of TradeMe's infrastructure and the prospect of TradeMe users becoming reliant on outside developers for their interaction with the auction website.
"How do we protect the user experience? How do we protect our brand? We're protective of both these things, for good reasons," writes Simpson.
"At the moment, I'm not sure we're prepared to let others build something we then wish we had built. Is that bad?"
Some of his readers think so.
"Your reasons why you don't have an API sound more like manufactured excuses, obstacles you've found to justify your inaction," wrote web commentator Nathan Torkington in response.
He points out that web giants like eBay and Amazon have sorted out ways of safely delivering their website information and the details of users through third-party applications.
"Forty per cent of [eBay's] listings come from their APIs rather than from people typing stuff into web pages," Torkington said.
He has a good point. The API model has been well and truly proven. I can think of a dozen good ways TradeMe information could be integrated into a third-party application that would encourage me to use Trade Me more often, to buy and sell more items. If there's one New Zealand website that should have an API available to its users, it is the most popular website - TradeMe.
But then TradeMe, especially since its purchase by newspaper publisher Fairfax, has become a hub for more than just online auctions. It has a huge number of classified advert listings for everything from cars to jobs. It's in TradeMe's interests for people to be spending longer on its website and browsing different categories.
There's no reason they wouldn't do so through third-party mash-ups but there's an element of risk involved for a team that has been in control from day one and baulks at the thought of having it any other way.
In the meantime, TradeMe and other local websites such as NZDating and Geekzone are trying to compromise with "gadgets" designed for Windows Vista that let you access website information from your computer desktop.
Simpson's website highlights some of the creations that have quickly appeared based on the XML data TradeMe has so far made available. It is understandable that Simpson left it until he was just about to depart TradeMe before offering up an explanation for the absence of an API.
It's a contentious issue for web developers at the moment and will become so for web users too as they begin to realise it is possible for them to access their favourite internet features virtually any way they like.
