despite all the web services hype, there is steady progress on all fronts. while the e-commerce applications for web services have yet to emerge, there is another phenomenon brewing, almost unnoticed by the web services crowd.

besides connecting resources on the internet, web services are increasingly being found on the desktop itself, where they strive to fulfill the old promise of universal scripting. web services really could be the glue that holds it all together. perl, python, kde, visual basic, soon java, and now apple script have built-in support for web services. this creates interesting opportunities to leverage desktop automation (pioneered early on by apple with their apple script architecture, and later copied by microsoft with its windows scripting host.) apple demoed a few no-frills examples of what web services can do. very interesting stuff, especially in light of adobes recent announcement of their XMP infrastructure to provide standard metadata facilities across its product line. the semantic web is taking shape, driven by forces who would not necessarily be associated with the topic.

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