500 Web APIs

from ProgrammableWeb by John Musser

With this week’s addition of Google’s latest APIs we now have an even 500 APIs cataloged. Over the past two years this list has grown 10 fold from the original 50 we had listed in 2005. And connected to these are 2250 mashups built using hundreds of API combinations.

Using our Top APIs for Mashups pie chart you get a sense of which APIs have been mostly frequently used in our mashup sample with the top 10 APIs being Google Maps, Flickr, Amazon, YouTube, VirtualEarth, Yahoo Maps, eBay, 411Sync, del.icio.us and Yahoo. You can get a sense of this by viewing our directory of APIs by Mashup Count.

If you view them sorted by category here’s the breakdown of those categories with the most competing APIs (top 20 categories):

• Mapping: 48 APIs
• Internet: 28 APIs:
• Reference: 27 APIs
• Shopping: 23 APIs
• Search: 21 APIs
• Music: 19 APIs
• Photos: 16 APIs
• Messaging: 16 APIs
• Telephony: 14 APIs
• Security: 12 APIs
• Financial: 12 APIs
• Government: 11 APIs
• Email: 11 APIs
• Blogging: 10 APIs
• Bookmarks: 10 APIs
• News: 9 APIs
• Video: 9 APIs
• Chat: 9 APIs
• Office: 8 APIs
• Advertising: 7 APIs

If you want to get a sense of which major providers offer the most APIs, check API Scorecard.

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WEB OS RUNDOWN: 45+ Web Operating Systems

August 22, 2007 — 09:42 PM PDT — by Andrew Min — Share This

Facebook wants to be the operating system for the web, it says, and this week’s changes to its email system are a tiny part of that puzzle. But there are many more web operating systems hoping to bring all your usual desktop applications online in one place. Some replicate the entire desktop, while others are startpages with info from around the web - here are more than 45 of our favorites.

Remotely Hosted WebOS

• AstraNOS - Picture Windows 98. Then picture an OS X dock. Then picture a night sky. Then throw them all together. You now have a pretty good picture of AstraNOS.
• BeDesk - Basic wrapper for other online tools.
• cmyOS - Free hosted webtop powered by eyeOS.
• Desktoptwo - Not only do you get 1GB of space, you get a fully-featured OpenOffice.org suite. No, not a basic online editor that has simple formatting options. The full OpenOffice.org 2.0 suite from Sun, converted into a Java applet.
• DoxBoard - Slick WebOS with some basic features.
• GCOE X - Nice WebOS with a powerful terminal and support for the iPhone.
• eyeOS - Beautiful webtop powered by the eyeOS software.
• Glide - Online operating system with support for BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian and iPhone users.
• G.ho.st - With 3GB of space, FTP access, and Zoho Office support, what’s not to like?
• goowy - Great webtop with your own email account (@goowy.com), IM, 1GB of space (via Box.net), and much more.
• jooce - Slick invite-only online OS.
• mybooo - Invite-only webtop with a ton of features.
• myGoya - Nice WebOS with PIM features, a media player, and much more.
• OOS - Basic online operating system that offers a personal webpage.
• Parakey - Not much is known about Blake Ross’s newest invention, but we do know that Facebook liked it enough to purchase it for an undisclosed sum.
• Psych Desktop - GPLed webtop with a powerful UNIX-like console.
• Purefect Desktop - Web desktop with a powerful IDE.
• SSOE - Flash-based webtop a lot of features.
• StartForce - Powerful WebOS with tons of apps and features makes the descendant of Orca Desktop a hit.
• Xindesk - File sync, a powerful API, and much more are included in this great WebOS.
• Webdesk - This Indian webtop includes 1GB of space, POP3 client, PIM, and a nice modules API.
• Webdows - We don’t know how long it will take Microsoft to sue these guys, but it’s a real enjoyment in the meantime. It has XP and Vista styles (including a few Vista effects), FTP, file sharing, IM, and much more.
• Widgets Gadgets - AJAX desktop with tons of apps and a working API.
• YouOS - File sharing, powerful shell, and 700+ applications are all available with this wildly popular operating system.
• ZimDesk - Slick WebOS with tons of apps.

Self-Hosted WebOS

• eyeOS - One of the most popular webtops on the planet, eyeOS boasts tons of apps, a booming community, and a lot more features.
• Fenestela - There’s still quite a few bugs to be ironed out in this French WebOS, but you get a cool XP interface and basic PHP apps.
• Psych Desktop - GPLed desktop with a powerful UNIX-like console.
• Purefect Desktop - Web desktop with a powerful IDE.
• Virtual-OS - Includes powerful API, web server sync, forum integration, and offline AJAX support.
• ZKDesktop - Powerful open source Java-based WebOS.

Remote Desktops

• DesktopOnDemand - A fully featured Linux-based desktop with Gnome, Gaim, AbiWord, Evolution, GIMP, WebDAV, VNC, web login, and much more.
• Free Live OS Zoo - Java applet
• Nivio - Subscription-based ($12.99/month) service that offers Windows XP, Adobe Reader, iTunes, Google Talk/aMSN/Windows Live Messenger, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, Nvu, and much more. All through a Java-based web interface.

Startpages

See also: 14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature

• Favoor - Basic startpage with a nice folder option.
• iGoogle (formerly Google IG) - Great startpage with the most amount of apps I’ve seen for a portal.
• iStyled - Simple startpage with basic customization.
• ItsAStart.com - Customizable page with basic features.
• Live.com (formerly Start.com) - Basic news page backed by Microsoft.
• My Yahoo! - Yahoo!’s entry into the startpage market isn’t bad: it offers news, Yahoo! Mail notification, podcasts, videos, and photo galleries to your startpage.
• Netvibes - There’s a reason everyone uses Netvibes. It has tons of apps, tabs, skins, and a great interface.
• Pageflakes - Popular, easy-to-use page with a simple interface.
• Schmedley - Powerful startpage with tons of features.
• Webwag - The main appeal here isn’t the widget on demand feature (a quick way to build a widget for the site of your choice), the toolbar, the apps, or the content directory. It’s the External widget feature, which allows you to convert and add Netvibes and iGoogle widgets to your Webwag page.
• Widgetop - Nice looking AJAX start page.
• yourminis - Great start page with tons of apps and a bunch of skins by the creator of goowy.

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For more in-depth reviews, check out 10 Web Operating Systems Reviewed over on FranticIndustries.

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Design Concept: Tilting Vase Lets You Know When It Needs Water

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

If you have trouble remembering when to water your plants, you might be interested in this self-tilting vase design concept that gets horizontal when its plant gets thirsty. Once it's properly hydrated, this pewter container stands up—albeit at a somewhat tilted angle—held up by the weight of the water within. Simple, yet elegant. [Yanko Design]

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NEW Zune for $149 on Woot, took a disappointing 21 hrs to sell out

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VideoEgg SNIPES At YouTube: Who Thunk It First? Maybe Old TV Guys

from GigaOM by Om Malik

YouTube last night said it’s offering a new kind of embedded in-video advertising that’s going to help its parent company, Google (GOOG), and its media partners make money off what has thus far been a fallow field — online video.

YouTube’s in-video advertising techniques have resulted in many pointing out that VideoEgg, a San Francisco-based startup that goes through identity changes more often The Talented Mr. Ripley has already offered these kinds of ads. (It’s a Facebook-ad network now!)

VideoEgg is “welcoming” YouTube to the party, pointing out that Google’s YouTube is imitating them. That’s nothing new, however. The text-links-as-ads were someone else’s idea, too, but Google ended up making billions off of it. Nevertheless, it is interesting to point out that the source of inspiration for the in-video ads of both VideoEgg and YouTube is actually a business they are both trying to take to the cleaners: broadcast and cable television.

If you watch baseball games on Fox or some of the cable networks like TBS, they use a technique (known as “snipes” in broadcast lingo) in which a promotional ad is overlaid on top of the regular broadcast stream. GE Co. (GE), parent of NBC, has a patent (United States Patent 20070143786) that talks about advertising based on this methodology.

A technique is provided for advertising. The technique includes a combining of two or more video streams to form a unified video stream and broadcasting the unified video stream. At least one of the two or more video streams is a program content stream comprising program content that is filmed by a camera and at least one of the two or more video streams is an advertisement material stream comprising advertisement material.

Does this patent apply to Internet video? I am not sure, but if it does – oh boy, have we got trouble. Wired News’ Epicenter blog also points to patents filed by VideoEgg. Interestingly, this whole issue might end up becoming a patent nightmare

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