Developer tools

When to play platform games

Here at the Web 2.0 Summit, you can feel the envy that entrepreneurs have for Facebook and the huge lift the company got from opening up its service and making it into a platform that other developers can write for. Many startup CEOs I've talked to lately say they plan to release their product as a platform.

The instinct is good. Businesses based on platforms are more powerful than those based just on products. But there's more to platformizing a company than just publishing a few APIs. If you look at the Web services that became successful … Read more

Valleywag: Don't expect MySpace platform announcement

Tech gossip blog Valleywag is attempting to counter the TechCrunch-spawned rumor that MySpace.com will be following in Facebook's footsteps and opening up its site to developers.

Sources in touch with the Gawker Media-owned blog allegedly said that MySpace is indeed brewing a developer platform strategy and that the News Corp.-owned social networking site will be making an announcement at next week's Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco--but the two are unrelated.

The announcement, according to Valleywag blogger Megan McCarthy (no relation), will instead deal with MySpace's instant messaging client. Additionally, she wrote, MySpace will … Read more

Report: MySpace to launch developer platform

Have you gotten sick of the word "platform" yet? Sorry.

According to a post on TechCrunch, MySpace.com is planning to follow in Facebook's footsteps and open up a set of application program interfaces (APIs) so that developers can create "MySpace apps" in the vein of Facebook apps.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who apparently got the details from developers who have been consulted on the project, wrote that we may be seeing this as early as next week--potentially at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

More specifically, this is allegedly going to be … Read more

Site design for dummies: WriteMaps and Jumpchart

If you're building or rebuilding a Web site, there are several advanced and complex tools that can help you prototype your new product. There are also a few newer products that can capture the basics of design and let you share it with others--and that barely require more than a few functioning neurons to use.

At the most basic, there's the site-tree builder WriteMaps, which is so simple I initially thought it was a joke. It lets you create a tree of Web pages. It can also display your overall site in an outline view. I have never … Read more

IBM updates mash-up builder for businesspeople

IBM released on Tuesday a tool that it says will let businesspeople, rather than professional programmers, build their own Web applications.

Called the the Mashup Starter Kit, it is an updated version of QEDWiki tool. The starter kit lets people view and access Web information and company databases in order to build mash-ups--applications that combine information from different sources in a single screen.

IBM, which sells to corporate customers, sees a lot of potential in giving businesspeople the ability to build their own applications via tapping into various information sources.

For example, an insurance agent could combine internal rate information … Read more

Report: Facebook 'issues mulligan' on developer grant application process

According to an e-mail copied to the CenterNetworks blog, Facebook's much-touted developer grant program may be off to a rocky start. The FBFund initiative is apparently restructuring its application process and is asking that all previous applicants re-submit their materials. Initially, applications were to be submitted via e-mail; now, a submission form is available.

"To make sure that everyone understands the conditions of submitting a grant application, we will not review any materials you have sent via email, and any materials you may have sent have been deleted," the copy-pasted e-mail read. It's apparently to ensure … Read more

Adobe's AIR: Niche or the future of desktop development?

CHICAGO--The crux of Adobe Systems' platform strategy is in AIR.

AIR, or Adobe Integrated Runtime, is a download that lets Web applications run on a desktop. With AIR applications, people can work offline and drag and drop items like graphics or text between Web and desktop applications.

AIR is still in beta, but Adobe and many other software developers are already building applications on it. For Adobe's platform business, AIR gives the company a way to extend its investments in Web documents and Web development tools onto desktops across different operating systems.

Rather than compete head-on against Microsoft and Java vendors for developer interest, Adobe's focus is on Web technologies and services, chief software architect Kevin Lynch said Monday at the company's Max conference here.

… Read more

'Astro,' 'Moxie' and AIR on display at Adobe Flash confab

BOSTON--Adobe Systems' chief software architect, Kevin Lynch, gave a glimpse of a few goodies for developers and designers meant to make media-rich Web sites run faster.

At the company's FlashForward conference on Wednesday, Lynch said that the next version of the Flash Player, code-named Astro, will have "significant performance improvements" for people making video-rich Web applications. That includes better manipulation of three-dimensional images, he said during a keynote presentation of the Flash developer conference.

After his talk, Lynch declined to give a date for when Astro will ship, but said he'll be providing more details at … Read more

Zinadoo lets anyone create Web sites to fit your mobile phone

Zinadoo promises to create a home for you on the Web; a site of your own devising that will be accessible to your friends and jealous frenemies from any device. I'd yawn if not for the fact that Zinadoo, like so many other Webutainment or social networking sites, offers an engaging activity with good usability that really delivers.

Register a site name and it's smooth sailing to a four-part WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) site creator that's built with Adobe Flash Player. File controls that add another Web page, upload an image, and so on live on the left sidebar. It's also one point for publishing. You type your Web content directly into a large rectangular authoring field, and play with text formatting and hyperlinks from the nearby options menu. Click a button to preview the fledgling site on an emulator, and another to generate your site's URL (here's mine.)

Editing is as easy as logging in and typing over what you wrote, then republishing. The hardest part of the process is supplying the content.

Then you name your site, give it a description and tags, and start sharing by way of e-mail, text message, or publishing to MySpace.… Read more