Oddly, the same old tired arguments about why only bad guys need privacy keep coming to light. At enonymous, we knew intrinsically that privacy wasn't just something for people with something to hide, it was something we all need and all expect -- until it's suddenly taken away. Back in 1999, it was being taken away as the Net started to accelerate, and it hasn't stopped.

Privacy as an end to itself matters, but there's far more. At enonymous, we figured the only way people would be willing to give up very personal information for targeted advertising or customized content was anonymity. It made alot of sense then and it still does now. Strangely, the public's interest and concern in privacy went away quickly after 2000, but maybe now as we learn about the NSA, that concern will be back. I hope so. For privacy's sake, but for the sake too of personalization done right.

It turns out it's trickier than you think. Or maybe it's better to say: thinking about it more leads you farther away from the right answer. The wikipedia article above does of good job of hitting you with several ways to look at it.

The more you think about it, the more interesting it gets.

I still don't grok it as deeply as I really want to. Note to self: is this yet another example of the Bayesian way of the world? It just keeps coming up.

It works very well - easy to use, lots of information, quick to get an answer.

Apparently, many others agree. Alexa reports a massive spike for Zillow's reach in mid-February:

It's hard for me to think of a more fundmental novel than Shibumi. It goes back for me nearly as long as I can remember. Mariko... Otake-san.... go and the Basque country...

I can still recall the pre-Internet excitement I had one evening exploring the Academy's library stacks to find an old 1979 New York Times interview that divulged his true name. Or, years later, of discovering his name in a University of Texas faculty directory late one evening in Champaign.

As Pournelle would say, Rest In Peace.

The basic idea is copying structured data from one webpage to another using the same gestures of copy and paste we're all used to using computers. Script and XML push the data between browser windows.

But Ray's thinking is even more interesting to read, placing web services, mashups, and users themselves mashing up data between sites in a conceptual framework that tries to make sense of why RSS, web services, and the Web itself are so interesting.

If you have 5 minutes today, read Ray's blog.

Update: Here's a webpage demoing the concept.

According to Datamonitor, by 2009 69m people worldwide will generated $5.5B. Handsets will ship along these breaks:

90m DVB-H

30m MediaFLO

28m DMB

18m ISDB-T (Japan)

via the International Herald Tribune