I personally think that MySpace sucks – and they are a bunch of Generation W’s that just don’t understand what the web is about! FaceBook will overtake MySpace globally well within 18 months – that’s my prediction!

Marc Andreesen, founder of Netscape back in the 90′s gave a great analysis of Facebook and why it is, and will continue to be successful, as a platform and not an application.

While you’re reading that, I’m off to buy more servers for Synthasite (read Marc’s blog, and then remember to laugh!)

If you’re (or anyone you know is) at all interesting in working in Sunny Cape Town, please have a look at the jobs on offer within the award-winning incuBeta Group.

More specifically, with my Synthasite CEO hat on, we’re desperately looking for great people with great attitudes and exceptional talents, to contribute to a fast growing Web 2.0 startup!

If you know of anyone that would be interested, please steer them our way!

Enterprise Web Services Version 2.0.0 Coming Soon

During mid- to late-May, Yahoo! Search Marketing is planning to launch a new version of the Enterprise Web Services (EWS) Marketing API. EWS Version 2.0.0 offers a new service, enhancements to the existing services and data objects, and 13 new reports. Please read this email carefully to understand all of the new features this release provides users like you.

About this Release
EWS Version 2.0.0 will be released to the EWS sandbox and production at the same time in mid- to late-May. At that time, we will also provide documentation about the new version. As with any new version, some features are not backwards-compatible. We suggest that you first experiment with the new version in the EWS sandbox, make any required changes to your client application and test your implementation. Then be ready to switch over to production before the old version is removed. The old version will be available in production for 60 days after the new version is released.

New Features
Here’s a summary of the new features in EWS V.2.0.0.

• Account Data Object: An existing element, vatCode, has been renamed vatRegistrationNumber. The VAT registration number is required for certain markets only.

• Ad Data Object: An existing element, shortDescription , has a new restriction. This element is now required.

• AccountService: A new parameter has been added to the addAccount operation, accountDailySpendLimit. Use this parameter to set the daily spend limit when creating a new account.

• AdService: A new operation has been added to the AdService, setAdUrl. Use this operation to conveniently change the URL for the ad.

• BidInformationService: Two new operations have been added to the BidInformationService, getMarketBidsForBestRank and getMinBidForKeywordString. The getMarketBidsForBestRank operation returns the highest and lowest keyword bid for a given ad group in a given market. The getMinBidForKeywordString operation returns the minimum bid for the specific keyword.

• CompanyService: A new service has been added to the Marketing API, CompanyService. This service returns information about a company.

• KeywordResearchService: Two new operations have been added to the KeywordResearchService, getCanonicalKeywords and getCommonKeywords. The getCanonicalKeywords operation returns the exact-canon form of a keyword for a given set of keywords. The getCommonKeywords operation returns the most popular phrase for a given set of keywords.

• KeywordService: A new operation has been added to the KeywordService, setKeywordUrl. Use this operation to conveniently change the URL for the keyword.

• MasterAccount Data Object: A new element has been added to the MasterAccount data object, marketID. Now you can use this element to access the marketID from either the MasterAccount object or the Account object.

• MasterAccountService: A new parameter has been added to the addNewCustomer operation, company . Use this parameter to provide company information for the new customer.

• RelatedKeywordRequestType Data Object: A new element has been added to the RelatedKeywordRequestType data object, offset. Use this element to specify the starting point for the next set of keywords.

New Reports
Additionally, we have added some new reports to the Marketing API. The majority of these are “ByDay” reports that aggregate data by day (rather than by reporting period). Another report, the BillingTransactionDetail report, provides information about billing transactions. We invite you to check out and use these new reports to take advantage of the more specific account data that is now at your fingertips.

What I really like is the KeywordResearchService call – something that is sorely missing from Google. This will be great for keyword research!

There is a screencast demo of Synthasite that we produced from the sessions, but also, here is the list of reasons that we came up with as to why Web Apps are superior to (most) desktop apps – and herein lies the future of the web! The clip is available on YouTube here and in higher res format here.
And here are the 20 reasons why Web Apps are superior to Desktop Apps!

Never installed

Browser based software never requires installation processes or hard drive space. It lives in a virtual cloud in the Internet and this means that whenever you launch it, it always has the latest version. Ajax has made it possible to deliver Desktop-like look & feel, and functionality, with no loss of performance!

Updates are seamless

Instead of having to patch each and every individual user, the patches/upgrades are applied to the server and each user received the updated version the next time they log in.

No legacy

This is a big issue for traditional software vendors. Users who purchase previous versions of a software almost always will result in legacy versions lying around which need support (which is costly). The problems relating to legacy software are almost limitless, and often is not efficient for both the vendor or the customer.

No admin rights required

Finally, a world where the network administrator in the company does not have to approve the installation of your software!

Available anywhere, anytime

Ok, so the anytime comment is a stretch, but that’s only until Adobe’s Apollo gets here (here’s hoping!). The same way that people access their email from any browser, web apps are exactly the same.

Platform independent

This opens a wider market for software vendors – no longer do they have to build technology around a specific platform and limit their market (or incur additional costs to build for another platform). The browser is the platfom and therefore I believe you will see increased uptake in OS’s like Mac OS and Linus, due to the increased availability of Web Applications.

Less environmental conflicts

There are certainly going to be a lot less bugs in Web based software, due to the fact that it is not depending on any of the hardware or environment settings in the OS that may usually cause a problem.

Enables social possibilities

Many Web Apps are creating chat facilities and the ability to share your work in real time. This removes the previous “stand-alone” functionality that use to exist with most installed desktop applications. The world is becoming more and more social – people want to collaborate and work online together – Web Apps allows this, painlessly.

Lower cost of sale

No boxes, printed manual, expensive shipping costs, CD’s, distribution channels, middlemen, etc. Desktop apps are going to be more economical to produce and will result in a lower cost of sale!

Usable from inexpensive PCs

$100 Laptops, here we come! What do you need a dual core processor for, if you’re running a thin client application? This opens up a world of cost savings for both companies and consumers, especially in the field of productivity apps (obviously, not gaming!).

Piracy-proof

Here is a big one. Imagine a world without software piracy. That world is here, and Web Applications are the solution to that problem. Next problem, please!

No bad debts

Sofware companies are often owed money from distributors, that invariably go bust from time to time. With Web Apps, the cash is collected upfront and as long as the customer pays, the account is in good stead.

Low-cost support and maintenance

Given that the browser is now the platform, operational support costs and maintenance for Web Application providers will drop substantially. No need to have expensive operating system gurus on hand to help with installation problems. Also, using products like the Amazon EC2 cloud, will allow scalability, without a proportionate increase in costs.

User’s data is kept safe in hosting environment

Although this is probably not going to be true for all Web App companies, but using providers like Rackspace or Amazon’s EC2 cloud will go a long way in reassuring your customers that their data is safer than on their desktop!

No Viruses

No installation, means no viruses. Start shorting all those Anti-Virus stocks! Enough said!

Low cost global distribution

No more channel reliance. Most software companies make it or break it, depending on their channel. Forget that – focus on the biggest channel of all – the 1 billion users online!

Lower software price entry point for customers

Given the benefits above, you will see more products such as Basecamp and Synthasite that will offer far greater value than their desktop equivalents.

Access to the entire assets of the Web (APIs, widgets, messaging, collaboration)

By being wired into the web, Web Apps are able to integrate seamless into API’s etc and are a lot more customizable, than traditional software applications.

Mobile is here

Compiled desktop applications are going to have a hard time being adapted for mobile devices. Web apps are ready made (in most cases).

Widest potential audience

For all the points above, this basically unlocks markets for software vendors that previously were inaccessible due to technical reasons.

Agenda

About Web Services
Commission Junction Web Services
Examples of Working Applications
Working with us
What’s Next

What are Web Services?

Web services can provide the basic building blocks to build simplex, or complex solutions.

It’s possible to create a solution using Web Services from multiple Web Service providers.

Most modern languages support Web services and have specific features to utilize SOAP services

What is the CJ Web Services Vision:

Enable and promote innovation and differentiation in the CJ Marketplace by creating new opportunities for publishers and advertisers.

Create innovative new solutions that drive increased transactions
Enable rich user experiences
Decrease development time
Develop a service based foundation for the future

What problems does it solve?

Example:  Commission Junction Product Catalog

Over 700 advertisers with a product catalog(s)
Over 850 product catalogs
Over 20,000,000 products

Web Services being launched:

Publisher:

Product catalog Search
Advertiser Search
Link Search

Advertisers:

Branded Sign-up
Branded Login
Publisher Lookup

Publisher Web Services:

Frank goes through 3 examples.

Ideas for Web Services:

Innovate & Differentiate
Plug-in for blog software
Widget for a web site
Product search incorporated into coupon site
Browser toolbar
Price comparison site
A new interface for finding information

What’s next?      

Advertiser Signup enhancements
Transactional Reporting Data
Performance Reporting Data
Relationship Management Data

Tom Vadnais kicks of with a nice slideshow of a few of CJ’s clients. He also discusses that the focus of this years conference is relationships, which is what drives their business.

The Industry – Growth Ahead

• Online ad spending in Q2 2006 grew by 13.8% from Q1 2006 and this trend is projected to continue

• Ad Spending on the Internet is expected to account for 7 percent of global ad spend by 2008, a 76 percent growth between 2005 & 2008

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together”

Tom goes through the various ValueClick businesses (CJ, Pricerunner, Mediaplex & ValueClick Media).

Commission Junction – The Industry Leader

Over 40% of the top 500 retailers choose CJ to power their programs over the next two providers combined, next closest provider ranks at a distant 26%.

Commission Junction is the leading provider in over 70% of Internet Retailers catalogs.

Key Efforts over the Past Year

Performance Reporting
Value-Added Services
Program Management
Strategic Planning
Publisher Prospecting
Publisher Optimizing
Blueprint for Profitability
Five live, interactive training seminars
Action Life Cycle

Just announced: CJ launched Web Services
Web Services
Adobe Contest Announced
Q1 2007 Contest
Future Plans
Horizon Awards for Best Web Services Application 2007
More API’s
Looking Forward

Your ability to develop long-term profitable relationships will remain CJ’s priority
Use resources and tools to grow and innovate
Continue to build profitable relationships

In the “What we do section” they describe themselves as follows:

Stamen’s client work and the research projects we pursue present us with as broad a variety of design challenges as we could hope for: from providing live views of social networks as they happen to covering live bicycle races over the internet, from building collaborative applications for car designers to describing the lifetime output of an all-but-uncategorizable artist/architect.

While we use a wide range of techniques to help us understand this broad range of concerns, our response has most frequently taken two forms: mapping and data visualization.

Anyways, they look like a real smart bunch of guys with a decent enough client list. The real point I’m trying to make that is that they build these cools apps through the use of API’s, the upsurge of which, was predicted on this blog, about a year ago.  In a few years time, we’ll wonder how we ever did without them (if we don’t already).

I can already see sophisticated design, marketing & advertising agencies starting to use API’s the way that Stamen have done with Digg & Flickr and create fascinating flash applications and widgets.  The world of API’s are upon us!!

]]> http://www.vinnylingham.com/how-digg-created-cool-tools-or-rather-how-digg-got-someone-else-to-do-it.html/feed 1 http://www.vinnylingham.com/2006-is-the-year-of-webservices-apis.html http://www.vinnylingham.com/2006-is-the-year-of-webservices-apis.html#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:40:00 +0000 Vinny Lingham http://wordpress.vinnylingham.com/?p=79 Those of you who know us, realise why I’m posting a link to this really great article, those who don’t, better start finding out.

Article by Gary Stein, of ClickZ.

Alex Schultz, of eBay UK, and I speak and meet often, and he is one of the foremost experts on API’s, in my humble opinion and he calls next year, The Year of the API. I wholeheartedly agree. incuBeta is building some innovative products, all without which, would not exist with the availability of API’s – primarily, our flagship product, synthaSite. I’ll keep you all posted on any new products what we release (there will be another one next week).

Anyways, here’s a nice pic of yet another group of eBay people – Alex Schultz, mentioned above, is featured below:

From left to right:

Katherine (eBay UK), Elizabeth (CJ US), Vaughan (eBay US), Claire (eBay UK) and Alex at the bottom.

]]> http://www.vinnylingham.com/2006-is-the-year-of-webservices-apis.html/feed 3 http://www.vinnylingham.com/ipods-and-xml.html http://www.vinnylingham.com/ipods-and-xml.html#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:23:56 +0000 Vinny Lingham http://wordpress.vinnylingham.com/?p=5 Because my resolution this week was to write a blog a day, I now have blogger’s block – and it’s only Tuesday! Luckily blogger’s block is alot different than writer’s block – mainly because we don’t have editors to weed out the crap, so we don’t hold back when writing it!

One of our developers came to me today and told me the frustrations he had with XML product feeds from online merchants (for those of you who don’t have a clue what I just said, and XML product feed is like an electronic catalog, detailing all the items a merchant offers through his website, with information about the product etc.)

What he is finding is that merchants tend not to maintain their catalog and have duplicates, bad data, bad links etc in the XML feed and this leads to poor results for publishers who use them.

An electronic product catalogue is literally the same as paper catalog, yet those are maintained alot better – why? Probably because it’s taken years to build them up so it’s in a bit of routine to manage them. Companies don’t want to outsource this function, because they think it’s core to their business – wake up – it’s not!! If you can’t do it properly and it’s core to your revenue, let a professional company do it and save yourself the hassle. Online shopping is booming, and if you want a piece of the action, ensure that the websites out there that want to promote your products have what they need, or else you’re not going to make the sales!

Visit DealBay (Still in Alpha Development stage – lots of bugs) for an example of a product search engine that utilizes XML feeds to list products from merchants.

The other issue that’s been overlooked is that most partner websites that will display your XML really want realtime data – they’d rather not send a customer to you if you’re out of stock.

Anyways, on a less technical note, iPods are all the rage at the moment, if you don’t have one – what’s wrong with you? HP has just released an iPod – made by Apple – it’s amazing how brands try to get share of market by following a multi-brand/same product approach. What’s even more amazing, is that it actually works. It’s the usual supermarket dilemna :

You walk into a supermarket and go over to the pasta shelf – 25 different brands, 7 companies, 3 factories – the more shelf space, the more likely you are to make a sale. It’s the same thing online, the more websites selling the same stuff with a different look & feel, the more market share you’re likely to get…

I’m off the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town now for dinner. There is a restaurant called Belthazar there, and it comes highly recommended! Will post comments tomorrow!

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