You can find lots of examples/demos at www.xmethods.com. In terms of "real" Web services and in response to Dennis's comment...
Google's Web API is free, supplied as an experiment and to promote goodwill. But the Web service actually undermines Google's business model (collecting revenues from advertising), since the API users don't see ads. Amazon's Web API is not available to the general public. It's designed for B2B business relationships. It allows Amazon's affiliates to use Amazon's catalog to sell Amazon merchandise through their own Web sites. Microsoft provides the MapPoint Web service, which provides a Web API to MapQuest. Kinko's provides a Web API that allows you to submit print jobs directly from an Office application on your desktop using the File, Print... menu. Fedex and UPS provide Web APIs that let you integrate your business applications with their logisitics systems. 555-1212.com provides a Web API to its online telephone directory. Salesforce.com provides a Web API to its hosted CRM system. These last two companies are "software-as-a-service" companies, but keep in mind that Web services is an after-thought for both of them. Initially their services were browser-based online services. Customers requested programmatic interfaces, so they implemented them with Web services. The point is that Web services don't form the foundation of a business model. They just provide a programmatic interface to some application code. If you don't have a viable business model to support software-as-a-service before Web services, then Web services won't help make you successful. As Dennis said, many companies use Web services to implement B2B connections, but most companies use Web services simply to perform integration within their own organization. Anne > -----Original Message----- > From: rf [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 5:17 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: examples > > > I had asked, in november, about example web-services > that are available publicly. Where do web-services > stand today? I would also like to from various users > who are on this mailing list, what kind of services > have you created and how you publicized them? > > thanks. > ~rf > > --- Dennis Sosnoski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Most of the publicly available web services *are* > > toys. Despite the > > ".NET vision" of "The Road Ahead" there doesn't > > appear to be much of a > > *general* business case for web services as revenue > > generators. > > > > Google and Amazon are exceptions that demonstrate > > the rule. In Google's > > case they're making a limited usage form of their > > service available for > > free, with the expectation that if people come up > > with good applications > > they'll either charge for usage or gain revenue some > > other way - it's > > under their control, since the beta license keys are > > only authorized for > > 1000 requests per day. In Amazon's case, they want > > as many people as > > possible to buy from them, and if making their > > catalog and ordering > > system available through a web service adds a tiny > > fraction of a percent > > to their sales they'll have more than justified the > > effort. > > > > The same types of benefits could apply to other > > major commercial > > operations - the airlines, for instance, should have > > web services > > interfaces in place, as should Amazon's competitors > > in the book biz, > > major office supplies vendors, stock brokers, etc. - > > these all have more > > to gain from additional business than from > > restricting users to > > browsers. The credit card processing business would > > be another great > > market for web services, except that they always > > seem to be using > > technology that's a minimum of 10 years out of date > > (my apologies to any > > readers from that industry - I'm baffled and > > frustrated that there's > > still a minimum merchant charge of about $0.40 / > > transaction in these > > days of cheap bandwidth and processing). > > > > Where web services are increasingly important to a > > much broader range of > > companies is for linking B2B applications, including > > B2B applications > > within a company. SOAP is basically just a fluffier > > - and somewhat more > > limited - version of CORBA, after all. These types > > of services are > > generally not public, though. > > > > - Dennis > > > > Dennis M. Sosnoski > > Enterprise Java, XML, and Web Services Support > > http://www.sosnoski.com > > > > RXZ JLo wrote: > > > > >they are all toy services at xmethods and > > salcentral. > > >I am looking for more like Google and Amazon. > > > > > >Thanks, > > >rf. > > > > > >__________________________________________________ > > >Do you Yahoo!? > > >Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site > > >http://webhosting.yahoo.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ >
