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How soon until we see lots of Javascript wrappers that make AJAX calls to web APIs via xlmhttprequest? Check out the very cool FlickrJS: A wrapper for Flickr API. Include the .js and you have complete access to the Flickr API.

Last week I got a letter from a health clinic that I used maybe five years ago. The letter said some of their PCs were stolen out of their office, and on those PCs were the electronic records of their patients, including mine. They also sent a photocopy of the police report, for reasons […]

Amongst the buzz around “we are not a portal” Google’s My Search History comes this mention from Bill Slawski (bragadocchio) at cre8asiteforums.com, who discusses Yahoo!s recent patent application regarding search personalization/optimization.

So a court has ordered Y! to turn over all materials belonging to a marine killed in Iraq after his family sued to get access. Y! News has the AP story.
To its credit (in my opinion), in order to comply wirh the court ruling, Y! turned over a CD of information (and will produce paper […]

I see that http://www.target.com/yahoophotos is live. It’s just a redirect to Yahoo photos - to a special URL, but (currently) without Target branding.
It turns out that Target is going to use Yahoo Photos as a co-branded site. At first I suspect Target stores will promote Yahoo Photos. In the fall you’ll be […]

I don’t see it on their web site yet, but search engine company X1 today announced an investment of $10 million, lead by USVP. X1 is the search engine that Yahoo! uses as the base for its desktop search product.
I wonder about the future of desktop search. Between Google and Yahoo providing […]

Today Y! Shopping rolls out a recommendation engine, licensed by ChoiceStream. I checked it out, at Yahoo! Shopping - Gift Finder and randomly tried to find a housewarming present. I got nothing.
Then I looked at the source code for the resulting page, which had lines like:

xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject(”Msxml2.XMLHTTP”);
xmlhttp = […]

Have you seen the beta of Yahoo! news? Right away you can see it’s a redesign. While it was in alpha, company employees got to test drive it. I looked at it briefly and switched back, but eventually I got used to it and now I love it. It looks a lot more […]

While browsing the Web today, I read the statement:
Web analytics are a necessity…
Is “web analytics” a collection of things (as the writer suggests), or a single thing?

Rajesh Jain claims that ASPs Failed - But Are Now Making A Comeback. Most of the article discusses well-trodden areas, but ends up saying that web services plus focus on the small business will result in a rebirth of the ASP model. I have no opinion on his conclusion, but in a narrow […]

We’ve seen web analytics firms merge with SEO/SEM firms, we’ve seen them team up with e-commerce, content management, and even campaign management solutions.
So, here’s another take. WebAbacus (in an announcement with one of the strangest URLs ever) merges with the Usability Company.
Clearly, vendors think there’s value in offering one-stop collection of services. Do clients […]

Nostalgia time. Here’s a true story.
Back before the bubble hit — way back in the late summer of 1996, in fact — Accrue (which wasn’t called Accrue yet) was doing its A round of financing. Many top-tier VC firms passed, but many also wanted in, and a number made an offer. Some made […]

Oh, Wolf, you funny guy.
It’s about Her Web Site of course.
(news about object relational mapping in the celeb gossip section? oh, the humanity!)

Normally I wouldn’t mention a press release citing a company landing a customer, but yesterday WebSideStory announced it signed up Knight-Ridder.
I know the Knight-Ridder Digital sites well - they were a long time Accrue customer, first through the “renegade” San Jose Mercury News, then all the K-R properties, and then on to Classified Ventures. These […]

I’ve been meaning to read this profile of Usama in Intelligent Enterprise Magazine. Some good stuff. I particularly liked his favorite quote:

“All models are wrong, some are useful.” - George E. P. Box