Alex Iskold

Just a few days ago I wrote an article about Amazon Web Services stack, in which I praised Amazon's vision and ability to deliver elegant, generic web services platform of the future. In the end of the article I mentioned that it will be difficult for Google and Microsoft to catch up. I could still be right, but tonight Google made it clear that they are going to be in this race.  The Google Base API is like Amazon S3 on steroids. In addition to pure storage capability, this API comes with concept of RSS-based structured data types, ability to automatically index and search the data, as well as storing and publish things via RSS. It is interesting, unexpected move, since the service seems to mash storage and publishing together. Apples become Oranges? So how do we go about comparing these services? There are several angles and criteria that might lead us to differen... (more)

i-Technology Viewpoint: How Amazon S3 is Going to Change the World

Web 2.0 Journal Contributing Editor Alex Iskold (pictured) writes:  We are observing the transformation of the web from an ecosystem into an operating system. Building blocks such as websites, blogs, web services, podcasts and RSS are coming together and give rise to a new computing platform. The web operating system is emerging and it is bigger than the sum of its parts.  Remember your operating systems class, when you learned that every operating system has a handful of fundamental concepts such as storage, virtual memory and scheduling? The new web is no exception. However, si... (more)

Alex Iskold's "AJAX Patterns" Series: Concurrent Document Loader Pattern

Pattern: Concurrent Document Loader Problem: Need to load multiple documents and can't proceed until all of them are loaded Example: Load configuration files for an AJAX application Introduction AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript processing with XML. It is the asynchronous part that gets everyone excited. Fetching the data without reloading the page allows AJAX applications to mimic the desktop-like behavior. Since AJAX applications are getting quite complex these days, they tend use XML files to store the initial configuration settings and bootstrap information. When the appl... (more)

The Web 2.0 Bookshelf

The Web 2.0 bookshelf We are expecting another baby, so I was just moving my office from the second floor to our newly finished basement. I am not complaining since the basement turned out to be quite awesome. Its big, bright. clean and, most importantly, conducive to some major code cranking. Moving the office means that I have to move my books, and I just love doing that. These rare occasions gives me a chance to remind myself how I got where I am now. The books bring memories, but more importantly the books shape us no less than circumstances, family and friends. Finding a good ... (more)

User Interface 2.0

One of the things that attracts us all to web 2.0 is that it is slick. Stuff pops up, floats, appears and disappears showcasing us the power of effects possible with today's JavaScript. We sit there in awe, thinking, wow, that was cool! Cool is what compels us to give it a try. Cool is marketing. But cool is not the substance. Clearly, in order for us to adapt a new application it needs to demonstrate the utility beyond cool. It needs to be useful and usable, preferably daily. So what are then the properties and qualities that useful web applications share? This is by no means an... (more)