Built in HTTP means complete interop and a possible future for Java

I was reading Dave Winer’s post about HTTP servers built into products like stereos and printers.

Imagine what it would be like if everything had a web interface. Complete interop.

Your cell phone’s browser could double as the entertainment remote and the thermostat, preheat your oven and warm up your car. I’m sure you can even think of better ideas than that.

It makes me think that there is a future for Java again, this time as the cross-platform HTTP server that runs equally well on your cell phone and on your refrigerator.

But then again, you never know with Java.

The Golden Fleece

I’m hoping part two of the latest Gillmor Gang will prove more interesting.

If you remember the Jason and the Argonauts tale, you might know how Jason succeeded in conquest over the Seed men by casting a stone at one, who thought it was his neighbor, and letting them all kill each other.

That’s what Steve Gillmor seems to do by letting the fellas discuss the importance of Google algorithms and whether site owners can get a cut by having search engines bid for their site search.

If Steve would have put the “knockoff” Cheerios down for a sec I know what he would have said.

It’s not whether Google’s algorithms hold up, it’s whether they can garner more stock in the conversation with all their attention data.

The winners of the future are not the best technologies. We’ll all be able to plug into those the same way we plug into an electrical outlet.

The winners are the services which add value to the conversations happening throughout distributed web networks.

These networks and conversations are fluid and changing constantly in response to our gestures.

Those who don’t get this are either thinking too hard or just not enough.

In a similar way that facial and hand gestures are a meaningful supplement to spoken conversations, the gestures which we talk about with attention are the metadata of the conversations happening on the web.

That equates to economic power because markets are conversations.

I agree with Jason Calacanis that many in the SEO business are trying to game this system, but I disagree when he says the system works. People are trying to game the system because it does not work. It just works better than the previous systems.

I can prove it Jason. I’ll write a better piece on a new cell phone than Engadget and see which shows up higher on Google.

No. Those dynamics are only part of the game.

The richer system envelops us with answers using our data and our network’s data in a chameleon like fashion, never static like Google. That’s child’s play.

Jason(Argonaut) succeeded in getting the Golden Fleece but was fickle and left Medea for another Princess.

Likewise, in the shorter term companies may succeed by amassing link attention.

The true winners won’t be seeking the Golden Fleece at all. They will be removing the barriers and letting the crystal waters flow in, filtered and clean, Pure Conversation.

Google’s rising Sun

Ah well, not all post headlines can be winners . . .
Frank Gruber poses an interesting question about whether Google would buy Sun Microsystems. If that happened, I wonder how Steve Gillmor would interpret it.
Why would Google need this if everthing is going to be distributed?
Possible Answer: If everthing is distributed, then the dependency on Windows declines leaving more market for the free and open source Solaris. At that point, it could be used as a distribution model for the edge applications that Google has that work on this model.