http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspxWithout question the most popular toy online since my last post is Yahoo! Pipes. Now that I've spent the morning playing with it I think I at least understand what it does even if I don't quite have a handle on all of the features. en-USCommunityServer 2.0 (Build: 60608.1)http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53685Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:45:01 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53685Hugh, Brick, New JerseyI am still trying to figure out blogs. Now PIPES!!! Can you give me the quick explanation on Pipes? Hugh www.247medicalalert.comhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53688Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:01:24 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53688Paul, Alamo, CAThe content analysis block one is terrible. It seems rather random and unfocused. It is not clear how to help it do better either. Also, if you look at the NY Times / Flickr mashup, you realize there are some big problems. For one, RSS feeds only show a headline, which is small and often intended to be eye catching (think the Prison,dude one from AP). The Flickr mashup almost never matches the content, except the Anna Nicole Smith one, which makes sense. But, this could be great after a few evolutions to allow people to make their own Widget sets. I can imagine decent ones which show pictures and map information for new stories, restaurant reviews, travel reviews, etc.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53689Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:01:34 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53689Heather Schlessman, La Grande, ORThis must be one of those generational things, I honestly could not figure any of this out...http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53700Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:43:13 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53700Daniel T. Baton Rouge, LAPIPES. I don't get it. Things are getting too weird. It's like "How to tie your shoelaces 1000 ways" web page. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53832Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:02:02 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53832Make Your NutHm. A little too Web 2.0-y, perhaps. I don't have a Yahoo account and because of that, I can't click more than one or two items (which don't work) without reaching a login page for Yahoo. Maybe someone who does have a Yahoo account can give us a description of what lies over the hill, because for me I couldn't quite figure it out.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53876Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:08:56 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53876Paul, Alamo, CAAssuming that Will does not add an explanation, here is one: You get to pick sources of text, such as RSS feeds from news sites, blogs, newsgroups, etc, or output from a search (Google, Yahoo, etc). Then you can "pipe" that text to "filtering" blocks and output blocks. Pipe is a UNIX term, but just means that the text (or whatever) is output from one applet to the input of another applet. So, an RSS feed spits out a bunch of lines of text. Then, that text is fed into another small applet, such as one which looks for the same words in Flickr. The output would show the Flickr pictures as an example. More complex uses would allow more filtering (such as looking for useful words in text), mashups (mixing pictures and text for example), and other kinds of approaches. The idea of this is that it makes it much easier for non-programmers to do what programmers do with scripting languages and Java and the like. But, currently the tool is a bit too crude.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#53909Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:08:07 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:53909Thurman, Hurst, TexasPipes are 'connectors' to link steps you would take to accomplish your personal information goal. You might connect a obit listing to a mapping program to glean people from an area, then link those to a high school list to see if a classmate had expired. (I'd be more upbeat, but I've hacked for 10 hours today).http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#54252Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:31:50 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:54252Charles, Kingman, AZIt is amazing to see what amuses the geeks of this world. "Pipes" has no social redeeming factor beyond that of a "Slinky". http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#54390Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:58:49 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:54390DDLHeh. Have we really come full circle now, and the future of CSS really is a "series of tubes"? Seriously, an app can be the most powerful thing in the world, but if it doesn't have an intuitive interface, the masses will never have the attention span to adopt it.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/09/53492.aspx#54563Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:11:03 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:54563DLCripes, I'd be happy with a tool that would just let me input the url of a feed and then filter it by keywords.