One of the recent projects we’ve become involved with uses search advertising APIs like the Google Adwords and Yahoo!s Overture. Usually you would assume that, given the nature of these two companies, the APIs could be used by anyone in any situation (naturally, given some restrictions) but we found something quite different. The so called open APIs for website advertisement management aren’t really that open.

Since this is developer access, you’d assume you’d access the developer website, get an SDK and check out documentation, get an API key and work from there. Sadly, that isn’t the case. With Adwords, in order to even get an API key, you first need to setup (and pay for) an advertisement campaing - even if you have nothing to sell. In fact, you get no access to anything remotely close to a developer API key without first giving out your credit card details.

Overture’s has a whole different problem - documentation and obscurity. Rolling among terms like a Search Ambassador (someone who manages client accounts for search marketing), getting somewhere conclusive is a bane. Clearly, things are still in a state where we need to overhype the words “manager” and “senior marketer”, because we need people who are paid to go over those pages and find something useful.

We need openness to really mean openness.

Well, its done. Mike just posted the scoop that Joshua’s Delicious has been acquired by Yahoo!, thus joining the ranks of early acquisitions Flickr and Upcoming (two of my favorite projects on the web).

The way I see it, Yahoo!’s making all the right bets, and while a few months ago I would have said I’d take Google over Yahoo anytime, now it’s the other way around. Their approach to what to acquire and invest on has clearly surpassed my expectations, while Google’s been letting me (and many others) down with their failed projects like Google Base and the Google Reader.

Anyway, this is about Del.icio.us and Yahoo!. Congratulations, Joshua. Good luck!

That’s how Lee Gomes addresses the fact that some services on the Web 2.0 space have the worst names ever. Well, that’s a given fact, but that’s not why we’re here (maybe names should be the topic of a future post). We’re here because in the same article he features Techcrunch and Memeorandum.

Techcrunch, that I’ve done work on and that Mike’s leading superbly, has grown into something really intense and is (in my opinion) possibly the top blog on the “Web 2.0″. Memeorandum is, and I’ve said this many many times, a great website powered by a great technology (even though it does need a proper layout).

Where am I going with this post? To the point that the small ideas, the niche, is what you should covet for. Techcrunch only profiles companies in the 2.0 space, and it works (extremely well). Memeorandum “only” grabs the top news from blogs into a consise webpage, and it works (extremely well too). Simplicity is the key to their success. The simple idea and the passion to make it perfect made the two websites what they are today, and will continue to drive them in the future.

What’s your simple idea? Less is more. Sometimes, many times, it’s way more.

If there’s a time to invest on user experience, that time is now. With the abundance of companies and projects coming, left and right, into the “Web 2.0″ space - some already overlapping in feature-set and problems they’re solving -, there has to be something that gives a company the edge over competition. That would be user experience.

User first, business later

“Holy smacks, Batman!”, he said business later? Well, yes - you don’t have a business until you have the customer base, and there’s no customer base without proper caring about your visitors. The reason why User Experience (from here-on, UX) is so important is because users want to be the center of your attention. User-centered design (which if you’re a regular here you’ve been hearing me preach about frequently) is the most important asset your project can invest on right now.

Okay, why?

Users have little time on their hands. That’s why there’s news aggregators and we’re beyond clicking bookmarks and browsing sites for news. That’s why there’s search and not content directories. That’s why there’s projects being successful, and projects failing.

Users don’t want to have to guess how your website or web-app works. They want to look at it and understand it - all this under the time it takes you to snap your finger twice. If they don’t get it instantly, they’ll just move on to the next website or web-app, and your oportunity - your first impression -, is lost (maybe forever).

Proper user experience is your 2nd best asset, because users should be your first. Proper investment on it will give your project a new set of wheels. Go think like a user.