Mike,

Interesting thoughts..

I tend to agree that web services will evolve over time. That's normal I suppose. I think that, as others have suggested, there needs to be a compelling business case for the "general" adoption of web services. I think that will happen candidly.

However, what bothers me more is the need to make absolutely sure that the service one is using will never never ever stop functioning or being available. Businesses simply will not trust their futures to an unknown or uncontrollable entity. That's why I think that for internal apps it's a GREAT technology with a lot of promise.

For example, we'll use an address checking web service for internal work such as address parsing but I'd never ask my client to rely on them - they might go away.

I intend to incorporate web services into our application where warranted. I absolutely will not depend on a third party's web service unless I stand between that service and my clients - in order to protect my clients not for a lack of value in that service. It's a business issue, not a technical one IMO.

Why? Well, they don't see the web service. They see us. If the web service fails then we do, if our clients are using that service. If we fail when offering to our clients a web service - well, the game's up anyway... < s >

Now.. If third party web services can convince folks that they are reliable then ok.. At that point all you need to do is develop software SO FLEXIBLE that your client can choose a third party's web service. I think that's not going to happen anytime soon..

So, where do we end up? Well, web services are great for situations where folks can offer "cute' services but for serious business... Not yet I'd think.

As I mentioned I think that companies (ISPs?) will offer web services as an inducement (advertisement & marketing here) for other servies that they can bill for.

I guess we'll see...




>>I come to two conclusions:
>>1) Web Services will mostly be private to be effective.
>>2) Public Web Services will be the advertisements of the future.
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>It depends on what your definition of "will" is. Long term, short term, utlimately? I'm thinking ultimately, just cause, well, its more satisfactory in some ways ;-)
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>Will web services be effective and limited by any means to private uses? Yes, in the beginning, after that, I say no.
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>Will they be used for Adversiting? Some where along the line, yes, some idiot will lack the vision that Web Services require and advertise products with it. But thats not how they're gonna to revolutionize the world (I'm not being sarcastic here).
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>If you look to most of the responses developers give after explaining "Web services", you'd think that we have another way and another set of tools to do doing something we've always been able to do. Expose data. However, if you look at what the companies behind this stuff are saying its a different story. Whats the deal?
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>So, if anyone cares, this is what I thnk Web services will end up as. Keep in mind, this is how I look at this stuff, not how I think you should go out write software. When people say "are web services actually useful", here is what goes through my head:
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>Start with 3 or 4 commonly used examples for Web services. Email, Search Engine, Reference books (Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Yellow Pages, ect), and News & Stock quotes. Alright, the standard way of thinking each of of these web services will be used is that someone subscribes to these services and now they can be used anywhere programmtically. Whoopeedeedo, huh?
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>Lets imgaine a world where nearly every family will have a PC and every family has a televsion or two. Lets also imgaine a world where everyone has a cell phone and half the people have a palm device or a tablet device. Not to mention, the internet ready kitchen appliances, home stereos, picture frames, ebook readers, DVD players, game consoles and toilets. Well, maybe not toliets, but someone will try and sell it.
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>What I imagine would happen, is that as these devices blow up in numbers, our ISPs will also support these devices. Now, if the ISP said, ok, your email, its a web service, and now its avilable on every device you had, just like your news and tools, every device you used would go from stupid to very intelligent.
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>The final result is that the ISP really becomes more than an Internet Access provider, they provide all your web services too. We'll use more than 3 or 4 web services though, we could use 10 or 20, or hundreds, or thousands. What does this remind you of? The ISP will become the Cable TV company of tomrrow. Instead of paying for each channel, you pay the TV company. Instead of paying for each Web service you use, you will pay your ISP. YOu can use teh Web Services that the ISP sells you, or you can customize your Web service selection. Just like cable TV.
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>Historically, that makes alot of sense. The Radio was invented, then stations were created to give you all sort of shows and music. Same thing with TV. Now the same thing will happen again with Computers. Except, there will be interactivity and personalization.
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>With a little vision, amazing things start to unfold. Thats why .NET has always been labeled an intiative rather than a technology. THe intiative is to do these new things with this old (relatively speaking) HTTP protocol.
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>Ok, so its kindof out there, but it's only a matter of time. I say 10 years.