Google shakes loose some more secrets to woo developers, while Yahoo changes a confounding name and Microsoft hints of Web developer salad days.Thanks to recent moves by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's Internet division, MSN, Web developers are experiencing a spike in attention showered upon them.
As Microsoft hotshot Steve Ballmer's infamous wing-flapping "developers developers developers" rant made clear years ago, there's a time when every company relies on outsiders for important market-bending innovation.
Companies thereby must occasionally woo developers to work on their products.
Developers of Web-based services have now apparently reached wing-flapping status, which underscores this group newly elevated stature in the Internet landscape.
"There's certainly lots of buzz around Web-oriented companies. There's more action right now," than in previous years, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions On Microsoft.
Just in the past few days, three major Internet companies have renewed their focus on the bridges between their technology and outsiders and their Internet-based products.
On Monday, Google, the Web's leading search provider, provided a way for developers to offer their work to those using Google's personalized home pages.
"In other words, more tools for developers," Search Engine Watch's Gary Price wrote in a Weblog entry Tuesday.
Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble wrote of seeing Microsoft's 2006 plans for Live.com, an Internet portal where Microsoft distributes its software and online services.
"It certainly is going to be a good year next year for developers."
Read more here about Microsoft's Live.com foray.
Other high-profile Microsoft employees' online commentary is sprinkled with hints Microsoft will share more of its source code with Web developers.
The very day of Google's move, competitor Yahoo updated its Konfabulator, an Internet site where it makes available calendars, search tools and other applications for computer desktops.
Read more here about Yahoo's purchase of the Konfabulator technology.
The update is mainly just a name change, from Konfabulator to Yahoo Widgets, but it shows attention nonetheless by Yahoo on an important developer conduit.
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