Google, Amazon take lead in Web services

After much hype, confusion and skepticism, ahandful of Internet companies are trying to dosomething that has stubbornly eluded the high-techindustry: Turn the vague concept of "Web services"into a reality for the greater Internet.

		Search results Developers get creative

Amazon, Google and other Web companies have begungiving developers direct access to their databases sodevelopers can create their own "front doors" and otherpaths to information, such as book listings and searchresults. These custom APIs (application programminginterfaces) allow developers to tailorsuch content to their specific needs.

The experiments, which might seem technical and obscure, carry broad ramifications. Their concept turns the idea of the graphics-based Web on its head, bypassing its heavily designed home pages and sending developers straight to back-end corporate operations.

In opening this new public path to their operations,companies hope to find new ways to generate businessand validate the strategy behind Web services.

"The biggest surprise to me is that it continues togrow," said Nelson Minar, software engineer at Google, thepopular searchengine company. "I was afraid it would be a flash in thepan. But I think part of what is contributing to thatis that a lot of people are just now learning Webservices."

Although definitions vary, Web services generally link servers over the Internet so companies and individuals can share data in new ways beneficial to all involved. For example, arental car company might share its inventorydatabase with an airline so that travelers planninga trip online could easily rent a car on the airline's Web site, saving time and money for everyone.

To make such arrangements work, developers must be able to write applications that can be easily linked to one another, regardless of programming language or operating systems. Several companies, including Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, have been pushing Web services, but the concept has yet to take hold throughout the Internet.

Many companies are beginning to use Web services tolink internal business systems and exchange data withother companies, but few consumer-oriented sites havetried the technology on the commercial Internet. Whilethe industry shows interest in expanding Web services, research firm IDC reported recently thatfull-scale adoption could be at least a decade away.

Microsoft made a much-ballyhooed announcement of a consumer Web services plan dubbed .Net My Services, but confusion from business partners and complaints from privacy advocates thwarted the ambitious program last year. Now, however, the idea is getting new life through recent initiatives, such as those by Google and Amazon, whose grassroots approach to Web services stand in marked contrast to Microsoft’s top-down strategy.

Google is giving developers direct access to its search database, bypassing its Web site and allowing them to design their own ways to use the valuable technology.

Amazon has allowed similar access to its inventory database, releasing free developer kits that have enabled others to produce faster searches of "light" versions of the company's catalog, as well as other experiments. Yahoo and eBay have also begun to give developers access to their services, though neither company has made the program available for general use.

"The developers are creating solutions with Webservices and sharing with one another. We havediscussion boards, they help each other debug oneanother, post code," said Colin Bryar, director ofAmazon's Web services and associates program. "Thereare actually sites that are directories of Webservices using the Amazon API."

Business benefits, burdens
That is all well and good for the developers andconsumers, but what are the companies getting out ofthese new arrangements? The move has actually beenburdensome to Google, overloading its servers onparticular queries at times, and could take away trafficfrom the company's Web site.

Neither Amazon nor Google will comment about their plans for Web services because they are in such early stages, but both companies apparently think that the idea is worth trying out for thepossibility of creating new opportunities in thefuture. Already, some say, their experiments areshowing signs of fundamentally changing how people shop or do research online.

"Individuals outside the company, the customers, gaineven more power than they already had," said ErikBenson, a developer who has created some tools usingboth the Google and Amazon APIs. "Now, not only do wehave all the feedback mechanisms created by theInternet, but we can also physically create thefeatures that we want a company to make, withouthaving to wait for a business case, a lengthydevelopment process, or anything else other than ourown learning curve."

And that, the companies hope, will translate to morebusiness in the long run--for little cost right now.

"In a way, Amazon and Google are outsourcing their user interface development, with the developers working for free," said Alex Shapiro, chief technology officer of TouchGraph, a developer of Web applications."In exchange for letting others easily access theirdata, these companies perpetuate their brand, spreadgood vibrations through the developer community, andallow others to experiment with all kinds of innovativesolutions without taking on any risk. In turn, thedeveloper gets to act as the portal toGoogle's/Amazon's data, thereby benefiting through theadvertisement for whatever tangential services that they offer."

Shapiro wrote an application that lets Web surfersbrowse data through a unique graphical interface, asopposed to a list. The feature has been applied toboth the Google and Amazon databases, presentingintriguing pictures of how books and Web sites connectwith one another.

Google launched its program in April, allowingdevelopers to sign up for a key to use its service,although it specifies that it can be used only fornoncommercial applications. Google also providesdiscussion boards for developers to help one another.

"People have been trying for a long time to use Googleas a Web service anyway," Minar said. "We felt it wasa good way to provide that."

Another application combines the Amazon service with a Weblogger API to let users create a link to an Amazon product page on a Weblog in just one step.

Amazon launched its Web services program in July. Itsinitiative is tied to the company's "Associates"program, which allows people to place links to Amazonon their sites and get a cut of any resultingsales.

One developer has created an entire store on the Web using Amazon's service. The store looks like a standard camera shop, with product descriptions, comparison pages and a search function,all of which come from Amazon's catalog.

For Amazon, the allure of such arrangements is easy tosee. No matter how the Web service is used, it comes back to one thing: a link to Amazon's product page. Click that link, and the customers using the Web service can then go buy the book, CD or movie they've been reading about.

"(It's) starting to drive unit sales, but it's veryearly in the process," Amazon's Bryar said. "We'regetting feedback that it's a more effective way todrive unit sales. It increases clickthroughs for ourassociates, which in turn sells products, and the associates are getting more money."

Moreover, if the Amazon Web service becomes thestandard for any book-related application, thecompany's reach will spread even further.

"If people (become interested in a product) not bygoing to a retail site but by going through a Website, then the retailer who's under that applicationis going to capture those sales," said Frank Gillett,a principal analyst at Forrester Research. "You're notgoing to stop what you're doing and go find anotherretailer to buy the product.