213
Chapter 8
End-User Access to
Cloud Computing
8.1 Chapter Overview
Rishi Chandra, a product manager for Google Enterprise, outlined in an
interview
1
what he believes are key trends that will drive movement toward
cloud-based enterprise applications. Chandra cited consumer-driven inno-
vation, the rise of power collaborators (those who embrace and take collabo-
ration to very high levels), changing economics, and a lowering of barriers
to entry as the chief reasons why the cloud model is being so widely
adopted. Innovation behind the success of cloud services ultimately depends
on the acceptance of the offering by the user community. Acceptance of an
offering by users changes the economics considerably. As more users
embrace such innovation, economies of scale for a product allow imple-
menters to lower the costs, removing a barrier to entry and enabling even
more widespread adoption of the innovation.
In this chapter, we will present some of the applications that are prov-
ing beneficial to end users, enabling them to be “power collaborators.” We
will take a look at some of the most popular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
offerings for consumers and provide an overview of their benefits and
why, in our opinion, they are helping to evolve our common understand-
ing of what collaboration and mobility will ultimately mean in our daily
lives. We will be examining four particularly successful SaaS offerings,
looking at them from both the user perspective and the developer/imple-
menter perspective. Looking at both sides of these applications will give
you a much better understanding of how they are truly transforming our
concept of computing and making much of the traditional desktop-type
software available to end users at little to no cost from within the cloud.
1. Paul McDougall, “The Four Trends Driving Enterprise Cloud Computing,” http://www.infor-
mationweek.com/cloud-computing/blog/archives/2008/06/the_four_trends.html, 10 June
2008, retrieved 26 Feb 2009.
Chap8.fm Page 213 Friday, May 22, 2009 11:28 AM
214 Cloud Computing
In the following sections, we will look at YouTube, Zimbra, Facebook,
Zoho, and DimDim.
8.2 YouTube
YouTube is the leader in online video, and a premier destination to watch
and share original videos worldwide across the Internet through web sites,
mobile devices, blogs, and email. YouTube allows people to easily upload
and share video clips on the YouTube web site.
2
Figure 8.1 shows YouTube’s
home page.
On YouTube, people can view first-hand accounts of current events,
find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and
unusual—all from videos shared by other subscribers. Founded in February
2005, YouTube received funding from Sequoia Capital and was officially
launched in December 2005. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were the first
members of the YouTube management team and currently serve as chief
executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively. Within a year of
its launch, in November 2006, YouTube was purchased by Google in one of
the most talked-about acquisitions to date. Since then, YouTube has struck
partnership deals with content providers such as CBS, the BBC, Universal
Figure 8.1 YouTube’s home page. (
Source:
http://www.youtube.com.)
2. http://www.youtube.com.
Chap8.fm Page 214 Friday, May 22, 2009 11:28 AM
YouTube API Overview 215
Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, the NBA, and
many more.
YouTube has become so popular that it now provides a set of develop-
ment application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable developers to
integrate YouTube functionality into their web sites. The YouTube APIs and
tools allow programmers to bring the YouTube experience to their web
pages, applications, and devices. This open-minded approach has paid huge
dividends and helped to further propagate the enormous popularity of the
site. In the next section, we will provide a short overview of the APIs. Figure
8.2 shows the starting point for using YouTube APIs.
8.3 YouTube API Overview
The YouTube APIs and tools enable site developers to integrate YouTube’s
video content and functionality into their web site, software applications, or
devices.
3
First, developers need to decide which APIs and tools best meet
their needs. For those familiar with HTML but not so familiar with JavaS-
cript, consider looking at the Widgets and custom player. If the develop-
ment team is comfortable with JavaScript and/or FlashPlayer, they should
Figure 8.2 The starting point for YouTube APIs. (Source: http://code.google.com/
apis/youtube/overview.html.)
3. http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/overview.html.
Chap8.fm Page 215 Friday, May 22, 2009 11:28 AM
216 Cloud Computing
examine the Player APIs. For those who are programming a device or devel-
oping server-side logic for a web site, look at the Data API.
8.3.1 Widgets
Widgets are simple page elements that developers can embed in a web site
to give it YouTube functionality. Simply adding a strip of videos or allowing
users to perform a video search on your web site can greatly enhance usabil-
ity and acceptance from those users. All of this can be done just by adding a
few lines of JavaScript to a web page. Widgets are JavaScript components
that developers can place in a web page to enhance it with YouTube-based
content. However, unlike the custom player, which does not require pro-
gramming skills to use, these widgets are for people who are familiar with
development using HTML and JavaScript but who may not be familiar
with server-side programming. Two widgets are currently available, the
Video Bar and Video Search Control.
The Video Bar
The Video Bar is a simple way to integrate a strip of video thumbnails into
your site. Just clicking on a thumbnail opens a floating player for playing
video locally. For integration teams, YouTube provides a simple wizard to
help jumpstart the process. A Programming Guide
4
is also available to help
developers get the most out of the functionality provided and leverage even
more from the Video Bar.
The Video Bar is implemented using the Google AJAX Search API. It is
designed to let you easily add a strip of playable videos to web pages and
blogs. Control is highly customizable, allowing developers to specify the ori-
entation of the video bar, the number of videos displayed, the size of the
thumbnails, the location and size of the video player, the list of search
expressions that drive the video bar, etc. The locally developed web page
controls the selection of videos displayed in the Video Bar. It is very easy to
add the Video Bar to a web page. Start with the Video Bar Wizard, which
steps through a few simple customization steps and automatically generates
all of the code to imbed in your web page.
Video Search Control
The Video Search Control also uses the Google AJAX Search API. It pro-
vides the ability to search through massive amounts of YouTube content.
4. http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/videobar/reference.html.
Chap8.fm Page 216 Friday, May 22, 2009 11:28 AM
YouTube API Overview 217
Each Video Search Control search box is preconfigured with a set of HTML
tags that define and display thumbnails for the video results obtained from
the search. Clicking on a thumbnail of video search results will play it with-
out leaving the page. Like the Video Bar, you can use a wizard to get started;
read the Programming Guide
5
for how to customize the player or search
automatically based on site links. The Video Search Control is highly cus-
tomizable, allowing you to configure the initial set of video search terms, the
size and location of the player, the number of results, color schemes, etc.
Your web page can manipulate the control through the supplied search form
or through preselected search terms. You can also save user searches for
future use.
8.3.2 YouTube Player APIs
The Player APIs let you control the YouTube player using JavaScript or
ActionScript.
6
There is a basic embedded player (which is most often used),
and there is also a “chromeless”
7
player that lets you create your own player
controls. The Player APIs allow you to establish how users can control You-
Tube video playback on your web site. By simply configuring some basic
settings for the player interface, you can build a highly customized player
control. The player APIs provide mechanisms that enable you to control
how YouTube videos will look on your site.
It is important to distinguish between the two types of players, the nor-
mal “embedded” player you most likely have already seen on the Internet,
and a second, chromeless player, which is just a video box without controls.
The chromeless player is intended to be implemented by experienced web
programmers who want to design a customized video player for their users.
Both players have the same API, which is exposed via JavaScript and/or
ActionScript. The following sections discuss each option in further detail.
Embedded Player
The embedded player is the simplest way to place YouTube videos on a web
page. To customize the behavior and color of the player, developers can use
well-documented embedded player parameters. The code needed to display
5. http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/videosearch/reference.html.
6. ActionScript is a scripting language based on ECMAScript. It is used primarily for develop-
ment of web sites and software using Adobe Flash Player (in the form of embedded SWF
[Shockwave Flash] files).
7.
Chromeless
is a term used by developers to refer to a basic player without buttons, gadgets,
or menu controls—essentially, the stuff usually found in the silver (or chrome) part of a dia-
log or window. When those are not present, the control is said to be chromeless
.
Chap8.fm Page 217 Friday, May 22, 2009 11:28 AM
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