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Why Amazon and Google Web Services Matter

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Tim O'Reilly
Nov. 21, 2002 06:16 AM
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URL: http://news.com.com/2009-1017-966099.html...

It's really sweet when you see the memes you've been spreading show up in the popular press. I love the way this news.com article makes all the right points. It stresses the importance of a decentralized approach rather than a top-down approach by a single vendor:
    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.
While I applaud Microsoft's efforts with .Net (including many aspects of My Services), because they really have been innovating and reaching for the future, trying to build a true "internet operating system", I also believe very strongly that we want that operating system to work a lot more like Unix/Linux and the Internet than like today's single-vendor GUI operating systems. That is, we want a system with a simple architecture that allows many players to contribute their own components, without having to ask permission, and with a minimum of control by any one party.

The article also highlights the parallels between what Google and Amazon are doing and some of the deep trends that are driving the open source movement:

    "Individuals outside the company, the customers, gain even more power than they already had," said Erik Benson, a developer who has created some tools using both the Google and Amazon APIs. "Now, not only do we have all the feedback mechanisms created by the Internet, but we can also physically create the features that we want a company to make, without having to wait for a business case, a lengthy development process, or anything else other than our own learning curve."

    And that, the companies hope, will translate to more business 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 their data, these companies perpetuate their brand, spread good vibrations through the developer community, and allow others to experiment with all kinds of innovative solutions without taking on any risk. In turn, the developer gets to act as the portal to Google's/Amazon's data, thereby benefiting through the advertisement for whatever tangential services that they offer."

Thanks to Andrew Shulman for the pointer to this article.

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. In addition to Foo Camps ("Friends of O'Reilly" Camps, which gave rise to the "un-conference" movement), O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the Web 2.0 Summit, the Web 2.0 Expo, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the Gov 2.0 Summit, and the Gov 2.0 Expo. Tim's blog, the O'Reilly Radar, "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim's long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators. In addition to O'Reilly Media, Tim is a founder of Safari Books Online, a pioneering subscription service for accessing books online, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, an early-stage venture firm.

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