Even though I love the Web 2.0 movement and applications, there is by far a shortcoming on this movement that keeps it from being adopted by many. That issue is one of interoperability.

Current Solutions

Let’s say I have a set up of Office 2.0 applications. I love all of them for specific reasons; some are stronger in some points than others. Now let’s say I want to integrate these applications together. In order to get my Zoho Word Processor to work my del.icio.us I only do one thing. Either I can use their respective APIs and try and create a mashup, but that still want provide the opportunity for them to talk together the way I want them to, but that will result in quite a mess as I add more applications. Or I could submit a request and wait for ever and a day until the “beta” stage clears and then maybe they’ll respond.

Even inside Zoho I cannot get the spreadsheet, word processing, and presentation application to talk together. Even though it is promised you would think that would be at the top of the list. Continue reading →