I've been really curious about how companies can leverage data to drive traffic for some time, but I always understood it in terms of user created content -- for the most obvious examples see flickr badges. If you open up data to consumers and help them create tools to show off parts that are interesting to them, then they'll want to stick it on their blog/site and, tada - traffic. Of course, it's more complicated then that (but who likes focusing on the "bumps").

The connection between the consumer and the data, via an "API" as it stood in the technical sense, never made complete sense to me as an end (non developer) user: developers can do tons with an API, but the average consumer like me could never use them, and there were times I would have killed to know how.

Naturally, when Yahoo! Pipes launched i was thrilled. In my eyes, APIs had now come a little closer to the consumer side - well sort of anyway. I was able to get a little closer to data.

APIs still have a world of ways to go to fully get where i'd like them to be, but if you're semi geek and interested in how they're changing and evolving, or are 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 general population. I don't really care what joe-blow feels or likes unless joe-blow is like me or has needs like me. And i don't care how long it takes to bike to work in San Francisco, in general, i care how long it takes to get there from where i am departing. And so, in my blank box: Web 2.0 is "me-centric".

I suppose if you go to lots of conferences it might seem like an expected or normal practice to use your keynote talk at the Web 2.0 Expo to give a tasteless sales pitch as Jeff Bezos did about S3 and EC2 , but as semi newbie to the conference world it was a real shocker. The cherry on pie was

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