Yahoo Pipes
by
Randy Mears
Between Yahoo, Amazon and Google, Web innovation abounds. Just a couple of weeks ago,
I wrote about how Google’s continuing innovation is giving us new ways to put the Web to work. I have also previously written about
Amazon’s Utility Compute contributions. It now seems only fitting that
Yahoo Pipes is in the news. Stated simply,
Yahoo Pipes is a filtering tool for standard feeds. This enables the creation of very specific Web collections that are derived from one or more standard feeds. An eBay price watch is one of Yahoos examples. Developing a custom pipe requires some level of programming skill, but as the tool is refined, we will probably see such customization get easier. To me, the important thing about this technology is its potential. With this sort of approach we may be able to get the data we need, when we need it; and it's free. Not a bad deal.
