I just had to make one brief comment (too long for a Tweet!) on TechCrunch’s article about Google’s upcoming FriendConnect.
Erick Schonfeld writes:
“The bigger downside of Friend Connect is that Websites using it cannot mash up the data with their own to make compelling new applications. Glazer confirmed that the data will be sent to third party sites via an iframe rather than directly through a set of APIs (as Michael speculated on Friday). However, Glazer also says that he wouldn’t be surprised if eventually Google or somebody else makes it possible for Websites to combine the Friend Connect data with their own.”
Well, if you’ve been paying attention, you doubt it will be Google who enables the re-use of data. At least not in any way you’re expecting… >:-|
I have to face the facts: I’m completely bored of writing web apps. I’m not bored by the architecture of the Web, which I believe should be leveraged more than it currently is; but sometimes I really don’t think I can face the grind and hassle of assembling what should be a simple web application or web service. Let’s face it: it’s so freaking dull. And so much harder than it should be. I read somewhere (unfortunately, I can’t remember where) that the most complex aspect of any enterprise web development project is AJAX. I can believe it easily. Add a pile of enterprise middleware suckage plus associated crappy tools and it’s ten times more disheartening.
So I’m learning Cocoa. Gonna see what I can do with desktop apps that speak Web. At least it’ll be different. And cross-platform capability be damned (for the moment, at least.) Then who knows? Maybe it’s time to take distributed computing to the iPhone 
I suppose it’s no wonder I’m more comfortable writing middleware. It’s hard, but at least it’s not hard and terminally boring. (YMMV.)
