If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Google just launched an API for their excellent Google Docs platform.

The Google Docs data APIs allow you to programmatically access and modify data in your Google Documents. The Google Documents List data API gives you access to the documents in your Google Documents account while the Google Spreadsheets data API lets you read and modify the contents of any of your spreadsheets.

This is the beginning of what could be an excellent API. As of right now you cannot really use it as a platform. But you should see plenty of widgets and plugins coming shortly from this release.

Tags: Google, Google Docs, API

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• 0 Comments

As a web designer I’m faced with new hurdles and learning curves daily whether it’s trying to become the next Eric Meyers, or for this installments sake, something as simple as learning my way around a .NET page so I can go style certain elements after it has been handed off to a programmer.

I could have once told myself without thinking twice that I was a strong advocate of web standards. I still code everything in xthml/css and follow best practices etc etc. But one thing I have noticed now after working around certain ’seasoned’ web developers is that many haven’t ever considered themselves once advocates of web standards EVER. Their main method for getting things done is basically how fast (sloppy code is acceptable and yes that means “br” extravaganzas) they can do it.

Granted somethings fall by the wayside due to budget and hours, but simple things like inline styles and “br” tags etc shouldn’t ever be overlooked due to budget or timeline, they should be excluded as part of best practices.

Yes it’s time to quote some Derek Zoolander:

“Do you understand that the world does not revolve around you and your do whatever it takes, ruin as many people’s lives, so long as you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied along the way, just so long so you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way?”

Now note, this quote seems a little harsh and over exaggerated. I’m aware of that. And I’m not trying to come down on every programmer or web developer in the world so if you are starting to feel offended, continue reading cause I’m only looking for some answers, you’ll see cause I hope some of you have had similar concerns.

But this quote represents what I feel goes through some of the peoples’ heads I work with sometimes when they are coding a site I designed. And the truth of it all is I believe it comes from higher up than they or I. It always starts at the top and if they don’t care enough to crack down a little, then why should anyone else right? And eventually you almost just become desensitized by it all.

Back to my earlier statement; “I could have once told myself without thinking twice that I was a strong advocate of web standards.” The reason why I can’t say the same for where I am right now is because I’m finding myself skipping over the random “br” tags and inline styles mostly because I’m tired of cleaning up after people.

Does this make me a bad web designer? Am I at fault here? Does this mean I may be working at the wrong shop? Or are all design shops basically like this? Is there a link between the lack of caring and age?

I wanted this to be more of an open-ended post where I’ll hopefully get some feedback from Designers and Programmers alike, so if you are reading this in your RSS reader and have made it this far, click through and comment because I really want to know how you others feel.

If you are in a similar position or once have been let me know. If you think I’m completely wrong let me know.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• 7 Comments

I was touching up my College Football website for the upcoming season and found out that there are some major publishers out there with invalid RSS feeds. “Who cares?”, you may say. Well those of us that are developing services using RSS as a platform DO care. I’m surprised Randy at The RSS Blog hasn’t been notified (although he has been now).

Well, here they are: NYTimes and ESPN. Those are what I have noted thus far (due to exception logic in GCF).

This is becoming all too much of a habit by publishers. If you are going to publish RSS feeds, please do us a favor and make sure they are valid!

Tags: RSS, Invalid Feeds

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• 0 Comments

I just answered a question on a similar topic over at Techdirt’s Insight Community. Then Randy’s commentary over at the RSS Blog prompted blog post from me. I was very tempted to stay out of the debate because I know it is going to grow into the Social Network as a Platform idea which is just going to turn into a slippery slope.

Here’s the deal - the internet is an inherently social network. Thus, we’ve been building on ’social networks’ as a platform since the inception of the web (forums, newsgroups, file sharing, etc). Now back to the issue at hand…

Now Facebook is providing a ‘developer platform‘ which simply allows developers to create applications to live inside Facebook. This is different than Facebook’s API which allows developers to build applications external of Facebook but using its data.

As an entreprenuer/web developer I see some value in creating applications that use Faceboook’s API but that depends on the circumstance. You don’t want to waste time integrating it just because of a fad. My recommendation is to build your application first and integrate later.

Secondly I would never build an application on the Facebook platform for all the reasons that Randy mentioned in his post. I don’t understand why you would specifically target a single web site as a platform - excluding any potential growth beyond that specific network.

From the RSS Blog:

“We already have an API for widgets, it’s called HTML. We’ve been embedding widgets in MySpace for years using HTML. Why does Facebook need a proprietary widgets API? It’s called lock-in. A walled garden. The work you do on your Facebook widget doesn’t port to other social platforms. In this case, platform means proprietary. When the euforia fades, just home many $billions are going to get spent by 3rd parties to better the Facebook platform? This is nuts!”

What do you think?

Tags: Facebook, API, Platform

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• 2 Comments

I’m a big fan of Craigslist and I have a few friends who are addicted to it. From a business perspective it has done great things and has pushed innovation of the classifieds space. As a consumer you gotta love them.

As a developer it’s very easy to be frustrated with them. They offer no API which means developers do not get access to their vast array of data.

Also, I’ve been testing some of the Craiglist RSS feeds for a product and aggregator we’ve been developing (ex - I want to be notified when someone posts a dishwasher on craigslist). It hasn’t been working but guess what - the woes of an RSS hacker come back to haunt me - the feeds are invalid.

I finally put the pieces together thanks to Randy over at the RSS blog:

I got a report from a user today that Craigslist is also publishing invalid RSS. In this case, they are missing the colon in the timezone offset.

2007-06-17T10:29:18-0700

There’s definitely an up-tic in the amount of invalid RSS being produced.

C’mon now craigslist - it’s easy to run a SOAP call to verify your feed is valid before pushing it to the masses. Be developer friendly. Be consumer friendly.

Tags: RSS, Craigslist, Development

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• 2 Comments