The inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Apple is shutting off iTunes content from the web.
In an Scientific American essay extolling open standards, Berners-Lee says iTunes is a typical example of the ‘closed worlds’ that are created when you don’t use open standards.
‘Apple’s iTunes system, for example, identifies songs and videos using URLs that are open,’ he says. ‘But instead of “http:” the addresses begin with “itunes:”, which is proprietary. You can access an “itunes:” link only using Apple’s proprietary iTunes program. You can’t make a link to any information in the iTunes world – a song or information about a band. You can’t send that link to someone else to see. You are no longer on the web.’
However, Berners-Lee’s argument is it’s no longer true. Since early 2010, iTunes links, such as itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/the-beatles/id136975, will open a standard web page, giving you the option to proceed to the iTunes application or to stay on the web. And obtaining a link is no more difficult than finding any other content on the web via a search engine.
Berners-Lee does raise legitimate concerns about mobile content delivered as custom apps, though. ‘The tendency for magazines, for example, to produce smartphone “apps” rather than web apps is disturbing, because that material is off the web. You can’t bookmark it or email a link to a page within it. You can’t tweet it,’ he says. ‘It is better to build a web app that will also run on smartphone browsers, and the techniques for doing so are getting better all the time. However, he offers no suggestion as to show publishers are expected to persuade readers to pay for that.
Berners-Lee also raises concerns about social networking sites that are creating ‘closed worlds’ of their own.
“Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster and others typically provide value by capturing information as you enter it… The sites assemble these bits of data into brilliant databases and reuse the information to provide value-added service, but only within their sites.’ The data, he says, becomes separate from the web,
‘Once you enter your data into one of these services, you can’t easily use them on another site. Each site is a silo, walled off from the others. Yes, your site’s pages are on the web, but your data are not.’
