Archive for the ‘Web’ Category

What is an "open" API anyway? (case YouTube / TotLol)

TotLol is a membership-based site that aggregates YouTube content for kids. What’s interesting is its background story and how it went from being ad-based to almost non-existent to membership-based.
The author’s version of the story is interesting. Harshly compressed: He claims to have created a service that was one of the first on YouTube APIs. Then [...]

December 30, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Web  No Comments

Silverlight and Bing Maps: Good or bad for the web?

By now you may have heard about the recent release of the new Bing Maps Beta. It’s a pretty total retake on the concept of maps on the web, integrating maps, aerial imagery and street-side photography all into one seamless experience. The web-übergeek crux of the matter: It’s powered by Silverlight.
Various writers have already pounced [...]

December 3, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Web  One Comment

Get your Azure ideas out (and vote for Mini-Azure)

The Azure team launched a new product feedback site, and I’m lobbying for one idea on it: Give me mini-sites at a mini-price.
www.mygreatwindowsazureidea.com
A few days ago the director of Windows Azure Planning, Mike Wickstrand, posted about the launch of a new feedback site with a slightly odd name but with quite a decent purpose: www.mygreatwindowsazureidea.com. [...]

November 27, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Cloud, Web  3 Comments

Summary of PDC09 announcements

The two keynote days of PDC09 are behind, and the crowd has mixed reactions. At any rate, the most substantial launches seem to be over now, so it’s a safe time to write up some quick notes. Later on, it’ll be time to delve into each of these in more detail. The following list is [...]

November 19, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , ,   Posted in: .NET, Cloud, Web, Windows IT  2 Comments

Bing beats Google in finding me first PDC09 breakfast

It’s a coincidence I’ve been so Bing-oriented lately, but there will be other topics soon enough. Even at the risk of sounding like a Bing fanboy, I’ll post this.
Good morning, LA! It’s 6 am and I haven’t been sleeping for a while now (ten hour jetlag doesn’t really help). So breakfast time is approaching [...]

November 15, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Web  5 Comments

Bing’s next wave of services rolling out

Looking at Bing’s new search features, I can’t help wondering if the attachment to Google is like using the console instead of windowed applications: I’ve always done it, and it gives me more raw data. Do I really want raw data?
Google is great at searching, and Bing’s quest to catch it seems impossible, particularly in [...]

November 13, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Web  No Comments

Bing Maps get more sensible licensing

There is a certain inclination to compare the map offerings of Google and Microsoft. Bing Maps still isn’t free, but is becoming more and more friendly to use, both from a technology perspective and a licensing one.
It was recently announced on the Bing Maps blog that the terms of use would change. The key changes [...]

November 10, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Web  No Comments

SharePoint Conference 2009 Keynote Highlights

It was as we expected. Put Steve Ballmer on the stage, and you have lots of Supers and other traditional Microspeak expressions. But also, you got a surprisingly solid, clear vision of where Microsoft is going with SharePoint. Jeff Teper then went on to discuss some of the new end-user features with no less passion. [...]

October 19, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Cloud, Information Worker, Web  One Comment

Microsoft Ajax CDN distributes your JavaScript files

As the role of JavaScript on the web sites grows, the management of JavaScript files becomes more relevant. Content Distribution Networks aim to solve one part of the problem.
Earlier on, Google and Yahoo have founded open content distribution networks, providing hosting for JavaScript files needed for web sites. The basic idea behind a CDN is [...]

October 10, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: .NET, Web  One Comment

Google starts showing anchor links on pages

Sometimes long pages need additional navigation and anchors get introduced. Google recently started pulling your table of contents to the search results.
As announced in the Official Google blog:

As you can see, the start of the Wikipedia article’s table of contents has been pulled in as the four links above the URI. It’s interesting how vaguely [...]

September 29, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Web  One Comment