Software Usability Issue

Recently, I started thinking about the software usability issue. In school, we focused mostly on the functions - whether the small piece of application we developed can work or not. Back 20 ~ 30 years ago, computers were so expensive, and users were technical experts. So they cared more about the functionality. Nowadays, computers are so cheap and powerful. Average people will need to use computer. Open sources usually focus on the function. But how easy a software application can be has become top priority of most of the software and usability will be the profit-driven source in the future.

• Human Factor - Software Usability Quiz
• Software Usability Research Lab

Yahoo! Web Services

Paul Bausch, O'Reilly Network

I browse news, check stock prices, and get movie times with Yahoo! Even though I interact with Yahoo! technology on a regular basis, I've never thought of Yahoo! as a technology company. Now that Yahoo! has released a Web Services interface, my perception of them is changing. Suddenly having programmatic access to a good portion of their data has me seeing Yahoo! through the eyes of a developer rather than a user.
Yahoo's Web Services use the familiar REST architecture, where specially constructed URLs return an XML response in a unique format. In addition to web search results, Yahoo's API includes the ability to fetch results for images, local information, news, and video. Along with their API, Yahoo! is opening several official channels of communication with developers. They've started mailing lists for each API section: News, Images, Video, etc. They've also started a Web Services weblog for announcements and a wiki for public collaboration and tracking new applications. Yahoo! is finally appealing to my inner geek, and I'm looking forward to seeing what people do with their API.

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/02/28/yahoo.html
See also the Developer FAQ: http://developer.yahoo.net/faq/