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!