Relinquishing Control

Just one day after Google opened its maps service to outside developers, Yahoo has followed suit with a maps API of its own. But unlike Google's approach, which relies on JavaScript to embed maps into third party pages, Yahoo has built its offering using XML and requires developers to link to its Web site. Specifically, Yahoo! Maps API employs geoRSS, which is an RSS 2.0 extension that adds support for location information. Yahoo has also stripped out the need for latitude and longitude coordinates to make implementation easier for developers by simply using an address. Homing in on your desktop, Microsoft has also released an API for their recently launched MSN desktop search. Along with the Windows Desktop Search SDK also comes a command-line interface so that you can also search for things faster from within cmd. Why API? Relinquishing control appears to be the secret behind the success of a lot of internet businesses. This includes Google, Amazon, eBay and Flickr, all of whom have done quite well by giving more choices to the user. To quote from an excellent essay by Peter Merholz,

Many designers find it remarkably difficult to relinquish control. Designers will go to great lengths to control the user’s experience — popping up windows or resizing them, placing everything within Flash, cueing music. They get so caught up in controlling the superficial form of the product that they neglect to appreciate the context of the experience. Relinquishing control is becoming a requirement in all aspects of Internet businesses. Customers demand RSS feeds so that they can have information brought to them, on their time, and in their tool of choice. Tags and folksonomies shift organizational control to users. Customers are generating content on message boards and blogs. Craig Newmark of the shockingly popular Craigslist regularly polls his membership on core issues of his business. Relinquishing control is a scary prospect because it diminishes certainty. With control comes predictable outcomes that you can bank on. But in this increasingly complex, messy, and option-filled world, we must acknowledge that our customers hold the reins. Attempts to control their experience will lead to abandonment for the less onerous alternative. What we can do is provide the best tools and content that they can fit into their lives, and their ways.

Links How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control