Pipes: Suddenly, Everything Is Mashable (Yahoo! Developer Network Blog)

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YDN YDN Blog Pipes: Suddenly, Everything Is Mashable

Yahoo! Developer Network Blog

February 20, 2007

Pipes: Suddenly, Everything Is Mashable

When Tim O'Reilly calls something a milestone in the history of the Internet, I've found that it's often best to just go ahead and snitch the rest of his first paragraph:

'[Pipes is] a service that generalizes the idea of the mashup, providing a drag and drop editor that allows you to connect internet data sources, process them, and redirect the output. Yahoo! describes it as "an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator" that allows you to "create feeds that are more powerful, useful and relevant." While it's still a bit rough around the edges, it has enormous promise in turning the web into a programmable environment for everyone.'

After a very interesting start--as it turns out a whole lot of folks wanted to try it out over that first weekend--Pipes is up and running strong. Here are a few pipes, mash-ups, and tutorials to get you started:

Nice Pipes

Tutorials

Working Examples and Mash-Ups

It is especially thrilling for us to note that some of the very best material on how to use and enjoy Pipes comes from the audience the team really wanted to address: the developer community itself. Bravo, folks; please keep up the good work!

Kent Brewster, Yahoo! Developer Network

Posted at February 20, 2007 2:31 PM

Comments

And now, Pipes can be mobilized and viewed on any mobile phone using SMS and WAP! Simply get the RSS feed of the Pipe and mobilize it using the 411Sync Mobile API. Within seconds, view it on your cell phone. For example: I mobilized "New York Times through Flickr". Point your phone browser to 411sync.com and use the keyword "pipesnytimes". Similarly, I also mobilized "TechCrunch Citations" which can be accessed using the keyword "pipestc" and "Picture Near Place" which can be accessed using pipespic.

Pipes rock!

Posted by: Manish Lachwani at February 22, 2007 11:49 AM

This sounds interesting. I used "pipestc" and "pipespic" from my cell phone. It appears that images can only be viewed on WAP while content that is text-only can be viewed on SMS and WAP. Which would make sense. Does 411Sync have an algorithm to resize images to fit the phone screen?

Btw, I also created a keyword "pipesblog" that makes the pipe "Latest Blog Mentions" mobile. So, I can now search several blogs using SMS and WAP. Simply use the keyword "pipesblog" followed by the keyword you are are searching for. Example: pipesblog web 2.0

Posted by: Craig Smith at February 22, 2007 5:23 PM

As a Cyborg Anthropologist, the use value I've been able to glean from the use of Yahoo! Pipes is astounding. I am pleased that such simple visual programming structure exists -- and that is exists from Yahoo! It all really makes me happy. Thanks so much.

Posted by: Amber Case at September 23, 2008 11:27 AM