Playing the Internet "Pipes"

“It’s a series of tubes!” goes the now infamous saying of former internet regulator and U.S. Senator Ted Stevens when trying to come up with an analogy a few years back. Like wildfire, his description was adopted worldwide in chatrooms, web forums, and comedy shows. And I quote:

“It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.”

Now that he’s been thoroughly ridiculed for his lack of understanding of the subject, it might just be time to re-examine his description. He may not have been totally accurate for 3 years ago, but I think that his description is now coming of age—or is it just life imitating “art”?

Yahoo has created something called “Pipes”, and it seems like it is just the beginning of what is being called next generation of the internet, “The Semantic Web.” I’ve worked as a web designer for several years, but I’m a newbie like everyone else when it comes to Yahoo Pipes.

The web started out being about hyperlinking information…kind of like one thread connecting to a single location, and another thread connecting to another (Will I be ridiculed for this description?), but the staggering amount of data that has made it’s way online in the last 20 years has set the stage for a new kind of web, one that makes sense of this massive amount of information. And the best part is you don’t have to do a heck of a lot of work to get the information you are seeking.

Yahoo Pipes is an online application that lets anyone take their favorite data feeds, for example, apply some filters to it (allow red but don’t allow blue), and then get a list of what’s left, either in a browser or delivered as a feed. How marvelous! And that’s just the beginning.

I can’t claim to understand all that is possible with this, but I know that it’s going to blow my mind when I do. I’ve just created my first Pipe that acts as a job-feed, and I have to say my mind is still reeling. I feel as if I’m stepping into the future of the web and I love it.

They even have their own blog. Their video documentation leaves a bit to be desired, but it’s possible to find some people sharing their skills on YouTube.

It’s fun that they do it on graph paper, as if you were gonna sketch out plans for a house, but the best part is actually connecting the pipes. If you haven’t tried it, I won’t spoil it for you.