"For each of the near term reporting requirements (major communications, formula block grant allocations, weekly reports) agencies are required to provide a feed (preferred: Atom 1.0, acceptable: RSS) of the information so that content can be delivered via subscription."

While the document states that agencies are not expected to develop new sites, each agency must dedicate a page of its primary site to stimulus activities, and the pages must be up by February 25, 2009.

Here at ReadWriteWeb, we have always maintained that the new government is leading the way with openness and transparency, and once again we must give kudos to the new administration in bringing the true meaning of Web 2.0 to the government.

Social networking site MySpace is releasing a set of APIs later today that will allow developers to implement protocols for exchanging and synchronizing user profiles between their own applications and MySpace profiles. Users can share their basic profile information, as well as their MySpace photos, videos, and friend list.

As we reported earlier, MySpace has signed up a number of high profile partners for this launch: Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and Photobucket.

As Steve notes, if MySpace's Data Availability API is adopted by a large enough number of sites, it could make MySpace the de facto host for social network profiles.

The details around Facebook Connect are still a bit unclear, but Facebook will probably update its developer community about its plans at next month's F8 conference.

For users, being able to have their profiles linked between different services is a major step forward in terms of usability. It would be very convenient to have a Twitter profile automatically synch with a MySpace (or any other service's) friend list, or only having to update photos on Photobucket and then see them directly on MySpace.

The Google Maps team just announced the addition of a new feature to Google Maps: the ability to contribute to and edit maps through Google Map Maker. Users can now edit and moderate various map features, including roads, lakes, power lines, and bike trails among others.

While Google already allows users to create and share new map layers through 'My Maps', this is the first time it is actively looking for help in creating maps (almost) from the ground up.

Basically, these are all countries that could, as the Google Maps team puts it, "benefit tremendously from local knowledge and expertise that you and other map makers posses, and we're excited to see how you put that to use."

Those maps that are currently available for editing vary greatly in the detail already available for them. Barbados already has a relatively complete set of roads, while Vietnam is almost completely devoid of any details outside of the major cities and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are nothing but gray blobs on the map so far.

The editing functions of Map Maker are extremely easy to use and it is probably only a question of time before more users start using their local knowledge to add to these often bare maps. For most of us, however, the real question is when Google will open up the rest of its maps for editing at this low level - or if this is even desirable.

Seattle based travel startup Yapta.com re-launched its homepage today as a full-service air travel search engine. Yapta originally launched in May 2007 as a browser add-on for bookmarking flight information and tracking price developments. The new site has retained this focus, but moved it away from the extension and made all of its core functions available on the homepage as well.

With the airlines cutting back their service in every imaginable way while raising their prices simultaneously, Yapta offers travelers another tool to at least try to save some money on their trips.

With its redesign, Yapta joins a crowded, but lucrative market. In terms of functionality and even design (especially in its color choices), Yapta most closely resembles Kayak and the now Microsoft owned Farecast, though unlike Kayak, it doesn't search for hotels and rental cars, but is completely focused on air travel.

It has all the basic functionality one would expect from a travel search engine. Like its direct competitors, Yapta gathers its information directly from the airlines, but then refers its users to the airlines to finalize the booking. This saves the users those pesky booking fees that sites like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity are prone to charge.

Yapta's focus is still on tracking price changes and especially on alerting its users of price changes after the ticket has already been bought. Airlines will often give travelers a credit or voucher when prices drop significantly - a fact that was unknown to many before Yapta made it convenient to track these changes. All a user has to do is to enter the flight information and confirmation number into Yapta and it will track price changes until the day of the flight.

The Good

Yapta does a good job at combining some of the best features of its competitors in one. Searching for flights and bookmarking them for later is easy and convenient. Also, it seems to be very good at keeping track of any price changes. I created three alerts this morning while testing the site and by noon, it had updated the prices of all of them at least twice (every time, of course, the new price was higher...).

A lot of Yapta's more advanced functions are squarely aimed at frequent travelers. Travelers can, for example, combine various flights into one trip and have them tracked as one.

The Bad

As Yapta is aimed at least in part at frequent travelers, it seems strange that their search functions are still relatively basic. Kayak, with its AJAX interface, makes it easy to quickly display only flights that leave and arrive at certain times, connect through certain airports, have short layovers etc. Yapta's search, on the other hand, doesn't even allow to search for flights to neighboring airports and has no filtering capabilities once the search in completed. One especially glaring oversight is that users can't search for flights by airline alliance. Yapta does allow for searching by preferred airlines, but a search by alliance would be very helpful for those of us who try to maximize our frequent flyer miles.

From a usability perspective, the homepage itself doesn't display any search functionality, but prominently features a sign-up form, even though the search is available through a link at the top of the page. While the site is probably most useful for those users who sign-up, I would assume that Yapta is going to lose quite a few users who just want to try it out without having to go through the (arguably very easy) sign-up process.

Verdict

Yapta's focus on tracking fares makes it a very useful tool for both frequent and infrequent travelers. In many ways, it complements Farecast. Farecast will predict if prices will rise or drop in the future, while Yapta will keep you informed if Farecast got things wrong and prices do drop unexpectedly.

I will definitely make Yapta part of my travel planning routine, but probably more for tracking fares after I bought them than for booking through them directly, as Yapta is still lacking somewhat in flexibility when it comes to its search functions.

"Anyone can also use Alexa's servers and processing power to mine its index to discover things - perhaps, to outsource the crawl needed to create a vertical search engine, for example. Or maybe to build new kinds of search engines entirely, or ...well, whatever creative folks can dream up. And then, anyone can run that new service on Alexa's (er...Amazon's) platform, should they wish."

Mashup heaven! Called the Alexa Web Search Platform, it will be available to use for quite reasonable fees. Will this make Amazon a major search player? Too early to tell, but it's certainly going to make Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft sit up and take notice of Amazon again.

TechCrunch and Dan Farber are also covering the story. More on this as it develops...

Cross-linked to ZDNet.

Update: alert ZDNet reader duncan12 tells us there are two distinct services: "The new service is called the Alexa Web Search Platform, websearch.alexa.com, not to be confused with the Alexa Web Information Service, aws.amazon.co/awis. The former provides developers programmatic access to Alexa Crawl and Infrastructure, while the latter is a Web service that allows developers to extract pre-processed data about Web sites."

I've updated my post accordingly. FYI...

The Alexa Web Search Platform "provides public access to the vast web crawl collected by Alexa Internet. Users can search and process billions of documents -- even create their own search engines -- using Alexa's search and publication tools. Alexa provides compute and storage resources that allow users to quickly process and store large amounts of web data. Users can view the results of their processes interactively, transfer the results to their home machine, or publish them as a new web service."

The Alexa Web Information Service (quoted in an earlier version of this post) is an existing service that "offers a platform for creating innovative web solutions and services based on Alexa's vast repository of information about the web. Developers, researchers, web site owners, and merchants can get information about Web sites, such as traffic data, contact info and related links, as well as an xml-based search engine and browse service, and incorporate them directly into their own Web sites or services."

Update 2: The Alexa Blog has posted about it: "Today, Alexa is releasing the Alexa Web Search Platform Beta (websearch.alexa.com), effectively opening up the Alexa Web Crawl and ushering in a new era where anybody can create new search services without having to invest millions of dollars in crawl, storage, processing, search and server technology."

I liked how TechDirt put it: "...hopefully it will nudge some of the search players into realizing that they can be much more powerful by turning themselves into platforms rather than destinations." Also Jeff Clavier notes: "Search engines indexes are one step closer of being a commodity - at least for the "Surface web" (as opposed to the Deep Web)."

Of course, the true test will be how many people actually use Alexa's Web Search Platform to create new and viable services. It's a bit like ning.com - it all sounds great in theory, but let's see what plays out in practice.

"Yahoo is making a major push into search personalization and recommendations - the overall project is called "Shoposphere" and the major feature being released is called "Pick Lists". Their goal is to move ecommerce towards what they call "me commerce". Any registered Yahoo user can create a Pick List."

The Yahoo Shoposphere site has more details on Pick Lists:

"Pick Lists let you share the stuff you love and the stuff that matters to you with everyone or your friends... on the Shoposphere, throughout Yahoo! Shopping, by email, and even through RSS feeds.

Make a good one and it could even show up as one of the highest rated Pick Lists on the Shoposphere."

More analysis from me as I look further into it... I do like the "me commerce" bit :-).

You will be able to apply tags to any item on the Amazon website and your tags will be collected under your profile. I like Alan's term for that - a taglist, like a wishlist. I can envisage Amazon adding RSS feeds later, so you can subscribe to tags and your friends' tags. For now Amazon has the whole "customers who used this tag also used..." thing going on, as a tie-in with their existing personalization features.

Here's an example page for the tag "money" - if you can't see the tags yet then Alan has some screenshots. Mike Arrington also has a screenshot and more details.

As Anil pointed out, these new tagging features point to the influence of The Robot Co-op's 43Things.com. Robot Co-op is made up of ex-Amazon folks and Amazon has a stake in the company.

1. Yahoo!
2. Microsoft Network (MSN) 
3. Google
4. Yahoo! Japan 
5. Baidu.com 
6. sina.com
7. EBay
8. Passport.net 
9. sohu.com
10. 163.com

Yahoo's dominance in Web traffic and reach comes through loud and clear, but perhaps more importantly this data proves that China is a huge Web market. There are 4 Chinese websites in the top 10 globally, compared to 5 US sites. The top 10 Chinese websites are in the top 35 globally, second only to the US in terms of Web presence. More details in my ZDNet post.

"China Web2.0 Review is a blog dedicated to track and review web2.0 development in China. We will profile and review web2.0 applications, products, services and business in China, and track the buzz about web2.0 in Chinaís internet industry as well."

Graphic from keso

China Web2.0 Review has an interesting post about FeedSky, which is like China's answer to Feedburner (although more than that, according to the post).

Hat-tip Rex Chung for the link. It's great to see what's happening outside Silicon Valley and I hope to discover more international Web 2.0 blogs.

"d.Construct 2005 is the UKís first grassroots Web 2.0 conference. It is an affordable, one-day event aimed at those building the latest generation of web-based applications. The event will discuss how new technology is transforming the web from a document delivery system to an application platform. Internationally renowned speakers will discuss hot-topics such as Ajax, using the power of APIís and the future of the mobile web."

Apparently tickets sold out within 30 minutes of registration! It's an interesting line-up, including representatives from Flickr, BBC Backstage, and Cory Doctorow discussing The Remix Economy. Apparently there will be podcasts of the sessions. (hat-tip Josh Porter)

Also, over in Canada Raincity Studios is running a workshop series on blogging and social networking - with the intriguing title Blogs n Dogs. It's being held at the Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada from December 4th to the 8th 2005. (thanks Will Pate for the tip)

Great to see so much activity happening all over the world in Web 2.0! Feel free to contact me if you know of more happenings. I'm happy to be the TechCrunch of International Web 2.0 Events :-)

This morning Microsoft announced Web 2.0 'software as a service' initiatives that went beyond expectations. There is a lot to take in, so this post is me taking a deep breath and trying to gather together the main points - from a Web 2.0 perspective that is. 

What was announced?

• Windows Live and Office Live services were the main offerings. 
• Also an upgraded portal homepage at live.com (building on the start.com technology), which will serve as the homepage for Windows Live services. Like start.com, it has RSS and is AJAX-powered, but live.com adds email (an enhanced AJAX version predictably named Windows Live Mail), IM, Voice over IP, and other features to the mix.
• A new advertising network: MSN adCenter (Robert Scoble sees this as an important part of Live).
• Microsoft Gadgets, which are third party applications for Windows Live (Mike Arrington likes 'em).
• Mojo - Niall Kennedy describes it as "a new collaborative editing program".
• Windows Live Messenger and Mail - upgrades to Hotmail and Messenger. Niall has a good wrap.

Bill Gates gives us the outlook for Thursday - mainly fine, but clouds developing. Photo by Niall Kennedy.

Some key words and phrases

• seamless experiences [meaning between the desktop and Web]
• software plus services
• Live (obviously...)

Some key points

• Windows Live and Office Live are separate products from the desktop Windows OS and MS Office programs. In the press release, they're described as "compelling enhancements". In Bill Gates' speech, they were described as "natural complements to Office and Windows." Micheal Gartenberg called them "extensions". I think you get the picture - Live won't replace the desktop versions. I'd add: at least in the short to medium term.
• It's interesting that the branding is being aligned closely with Xbox Live, probably Microsoft's most successful media entertainment product over the past few years. Far more successful than MSN. 
• Windows Live is the consumer product and will be supported by advertising, with subscription and transaction-based services offered.
• Office Live is described as "a new set of Internet-based services for growing and managing a business online" and is specifically targeted at small businesses. However the press release included this intriguing line: "Over time, the scope of Office Live services will expand." 
• Both Windows Live and Office Live hook into Microsoft's system of developer and partner networks.
• Frequent software updates, which will extend to the Windows OS too.

Blog highlights

• Microsoft developer Dare Obasanjo summarizes Windows Live as 1) web apps with rich UI (i.e. mostly AJAX), 2) smart desktop apps and integration between consumer apps, 3) The Web as a platform.
• Tim O'Reilly pointed out that "Microsoft realizes the power of being able to build an integrated experience across a hardware device, a software application, and an internet service"; citing Xbox 360 (similar to the iTunes story Tim refers to all the time).
• Heh, Nivi pointed out in the comments at CrunchNotes that "live" spelt backwards is "evil"!! :-) Nivi says: "And Google is not “evil”. Which means that Google = Microsoft." Hee hee.
• Some dissenting opinions: Danny Ayers thinks this is "Plan C" and is doomed. Phil Pearson had trouble subscribing to Scripting News. Russell Beattie sees Live as "extensions to their desktop monopolies". Mary Jo Foley thinks there was "more posturing than substance in the Microsoft Live unveilings".
• BetaNews asks: are MSN's days numbered? The party line in the press release is that MSN will continue to provide "programmed content", while Windows Live will provide "a personalized experience with access to customized content and communications." Dan Farber thinks Windows Live and MSN may unite at some point in the future. My opinion: Microsoft has far too much invested in the 10-year old MSN brand to drop it now, but I think eventually they'll phase it out.
• Alex Barnett points out the value of looking at this news from "a historical perspective". I agree - in 5-10 years time we'll look back on this and say that it was when Microsoft embraced the Web as platform, or Web 2.0, or whatever it'll be called in future. Just as Microsoft embraced the Internet in 1995, so they're embracing the thing called Web 2.0 right now. Mind you, perhaps Vista in 2006 will trump this news...

My Day 1 Analysis - Multimedia still to come

Whew! A lot of information to try and distil. My Day 1 impressions are positive though. I think Microsoft is taking up the challenge of an increasingly Web-based software world, while at the same time sticking to their desktop software knitting. I'm particularly intrigued by the Xbox 360 relationship and I think we'll see a lot more multimedia coming out of Windows Live in the future. 

Microsoft's biggest product plays may still be to come - Internet TV and the Media Centre, Xbox 360, video conferencing, mobile, and other Web-connected devices. These are all things that require the hardware/software/Internet package - and of the 3 big companies, Microsoft has shown itself to be the most capable at implementing that. Well, Google has the software/Internet integration all sorted, but they have shown us little in terms of hardware. Apple is of course the acknowledged master, but they're not on the same playing field as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. So I expect Microsoft's Live strategy to really take off once they introduce more multimedia to the mix.

Back-story of live.com domain

The actual Live.com domain name used to be owned by a group of developers building Streaming Media products. This from the homespun weblog back in February 2005:

"The Live.com folks have developed a number of C++ source-code libraries for use in building streaming media applications. They have made some applications developed with these libraries available also - I was very interested in LiveCaster, an application to multicast MP3s on the internet."

Interesting to see where Microsoft goes with this...

This is Microsoft's Web 2.0 strategy, except substitute the word "Live" for that term.

Mike has more details:

"Came back on stage at 10:37, announced Windows Live and Office Live.

Windows Live: Primarily ad supported. Does not kill off MSN.

Office Live: ìinternet based services for growing and managing your business online.î extensible, thousands of partners. ad supported level with tier above requiring subscription."

Dan Farber has the news too: "In opening the event today, Bill Gates said that every five years Microsoft looks at its strategy and makes big betsñ1990 was Windows, the Web in 1995 and Web Services .Net in 2000. The next big bet, Gates said, is delivering new type of software experience, called "live software." [...] Sounds like a bit of Web 2.0 mixed with Microsoft's live naming themeñLive Meeting, XBox Live. Services = Software, in a broad way, from hosted services like email and CRM to MSN and mapping mashups."

Photos from Mike Arrington. More to come on the news, as I get details...

Update: See my follow-up post about Live.com. I'll also write some analysis later on in the day, when I've got the full picture.

"Some prominent Microsoft watchers, such as Richard MacManus, also have suggested a hosted version of Microsoft Office may be in the works. In his Web log, Web 2.0 Explorer, freelance Web analyst and writer MacManus on Sept. 28 outlined Web-based productivity suites from smaller vendors and predicted that Microsoft would eventually come out with its own.

"The time for the Web-based office will come, mark my words," MacManus wrote. "When broadband is ubiquitous, web functionality is richer, issues of security and reliability have been put to rest, and most importantly of all -- when corporates are ready to make the jump. It may be five to 10 years down the track, it may be longer."

MacManus, who writes from Wellington, New Zealand, did not respond to a request for an interview Friday."

It's a good representation of my thoughts on the subject, however unfortunately my actual email response to IDG didn't make it in time for publication. So by the power of blogs, I present to you now some further thoughts on the topic. These were formed in my recent posts and improved by reader comments (again, the magic of blogs):

I'm sure Bill and Ray will discuss their 'software as a service' strategy, as Gates has talked about it a lot recently - and that's basically Ray Ozzie's background (with Groove).

I don't see a web-based Office suite *replacing* the desktop suite, at least for the foreseeable future. I think it'll be an extra product offering and they'll offer hybrid versions (mixing and matching desktop with web-based).

An example of a benefit for customers is it would enable them to collaborate better with office colleagues. For example creating a document collaboratively, as a group, with the document residing on the web server and version control taken care of.

Another benefit is that a hosted solution would be a kind of extension of the IT outsourcing business model that is prevalent these days - if MS or an approved partner hosted Office toolsets, then that's one less IT toolset to administer.

Also a web-based office could be a good product for developing countries, which may be looking for more cost-efficient solutions than the desktop MS Office.

Web-based Office may ultimately be a strategy for Microsoft to compete with Open Source office software - and the rumoured Google Office.