I've been really curious about how companies can leverage data to drive traffic. While APIs are a great tool for developers, the average consumer could never use them.

Naturally, when Yahoo! Pipes launched I was thrilled. It brings APIs a little closer to the consumer side.

While they still have a world of ways to go, if you're curious to see how the consumer tools side is evolving, I suggest checking out John Musser's presentation from the Web 2.0 Expo -- one of my favorites!

The t-shirt for the Web 2.0 Expo has a blank box where you can write your definition of what "web 2.0 is." Although I have a strong bias toward disintermediation, at Trulia's offsite this year we were doing some brainstorms and it became very clear that the things I do online are not about people in general, it's all about me - what is relevant to my needs, not the needs of the general population. So, in my blank box I wrote Web 2.0 is "me-centric."