Web aggregation made easy
yahoo pipes is pretty freaking cool. The name is taken from the unix pipe ( | ) command which basically takes output from one command and feeds it into another. It enables less programmy people to build content filters/aggregators that are taylored to their needs. For example, you could make a “pipe” (now on referred to as module, because pipe is an awful word) that finds all the bands playing in your location and then finds all the flickr photos of that band. Module possibilities are huge.
I tried making a module this morning that asks you for your favorite dessert, took a feed of dessert recipes, and then finds flickr photos that match with the title of the dessert. The drag and drop interface is easy to understand and there are a lot of tips. However, I didn’t fully succeeded because the images overwrote the original description of the recipe. I also don’t think that the resulting xml file would be parsed correctly by a feed reader. Perhaps if I had fiddled with it for more than 20 minutes, I could have figured it out. If I come up with a good module to make, I may try my hand at it again, though I’m inclined to wait for other people (who have more time and desire than me) to make interesting modules for me to use.
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