Steve Yegge on Google & Amazon as Platforms →

In 2011, Steve Yegge wrote a post (a rant, really) for Google’s internal message boards that he accidentally posted to his public Google+ account. It’s a prescient post, as we’re still locked in epic platform wars with Google lagging behind.

The one obvious benefit to the service-oriented architecture movement has been an increased understanding in building a platform and exposing your services to your users. Amazon has done this well, both with older product suites like AWS, and with newer offerings like Alexa. Providing a clean interface for users to super-charge & truly control your services is key to Amazon’s success.

Companies are increasingly understanding the importance of enabling an ecosystem around their offerings by building out a platform. It’s always a pleasure to see a company release a new, rich API which allows developers – and through their products, users – to create something wonderful.