Plugins: processing data and giving something in return
This is where the entire web becomes a programming platform. You can use this form of WebHooks to allow others to extend your application. Facebook's Application Platform uses WebHooks in this way, and so does Google Wave's robot integration. The general idea is that a web application sending out data via WebHooks will also use the response to modify its own data. At Facebook, when you access an app, Facebook sends a WebHook out to your application saying "Hey, someone's accessing your application, what do I do?!" The application responds with, "Show the user this page..." Facebook does so, and the pattern continues in the same manner as you continue to use the application. At Google Wave, when you do something in a wave, any robot you've added as a participant is notified via a WebHook, and the robot has the ability to modify the wave in its http response. Implement WebHooks in this way in your application if you want to allow others to truly extend and enhance the abilities of your application.
Alison Raab Labonte on 08 Jul 08The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. The Republic of the Web The web continues to grow at staggering rates. Automated search engines are increasingly unable to turn up useful results to search queries. The small paid editorial staffs at commercial directory sites can't keep up with submissions, and the quality and comprehensiveness of their directories has suffered. Link rot is setting in and they can't keep pace with the growth of the Internet. Instead of fighting the explosive growth of the Internet, the Open Directory provides the means for the Internet to organize itself. As the Internet grows, so do the number of net-citizens. These citizens can each organize a small portion of the web and present it back to the rest of the population, culling out the bad and useless and keeping only the best content. The Definitive Catalog of the Web The Open Directory follows in the footsteps of some of the most important editor/contributor projects of the 20th century. Just as the Oxford English Dictionary became the definitive word on words through the efforts of volunteers, the Open Directory follows in its footsteps to become the definitive catalog of the Web. The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free. There is not, nor will there ever be, a cost to submit a site to the directory, and/or to use the directory's data. The Open Directory data is made available for free to anyone who agrees to comply with our free use license. The Internet Brain The Open Directory is the most widely distributed data base of Web content classified by humans. Its editorial standards body of net-citizens provide the collective brain behind resource discovery on the Web. The Open Directory powers the core directory services for the Web's largest and most popular search
