A brief Cnet article broadly reviews some current developments as companies develop more platform services: making data and services available through programmatic interfaces so that they can be recombined within other applications.
eBay, for example, already gets more than 20 percent of its listings via programs created by outsiders to automate the auction giant’s process. People can still use the regular eBay Web site to list items for sale, but the automated system enables sellers to move much higher volumes, said Greg Isaacs, the director of eBay’s developer program. Isaacs noted that the program has mushroomed from 300 participants in 2003 to about 18,000 now. [From Web page to Web platform | CNET News.com]
Examples are given from Amazon, Flickr, 43 Things.
By mimicking software companies and encouraging coders to build upon their data, Web site operators can give consumers more-tailored services–and themselves richer products. [From Web page to Web platform | CNET News.com]
Science Library Pad has recently spoken about this from a library perspective.
