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Comments on the Article: From Web page to Web platform By Martin LaMonica

This was a very interesting article on the future direction of web pages. I was not aware of the intricacies of web pages – nor of how accessible programming in web design could be. LaMonica suggests that the wave of the future points to web sites becoming more like software companies “to generate traffic and sales and therefore will encourage add-on products and web services.” Not surprisingly the list of companies already experimenting in this area of web design include well known names such as Amazon, Google, and Yahoo. However, LaMonica suggests that the web sites of individuals constitute the next step in this trend and cites Holovaly’s Chicagocrime.org as one such example. As to why this movement in web sites has occurred, LaMonica cites more accessible APIs (“instructions on how to access their data”) to the public. Further more, these API’s in XML protocols are more standardized facilitating thier use. He mentions GreaseMonkey, and Flicker, both of whom combine these aspects into a new software-like website. Therefore, what a site is or can be has changed and are “becoming programmable much like a PC’s operating system.”