I would argue a lot of what was called "mash-ups" a few years ago, came about because people could view the underpinnings. Long before companies started documen

I would argue a lot of what was called "mash-ups" a few years ago, came about because people could view the underpinnings. Long before companies started documenting official API's developers where pulling apart their code and adding and mixing and matching features from various web app providers. I think there is a culture of openness on the web and part of that I believe is due to the readability of the underpinnings. That being said, the web has felt like technology soup for some time now, shortly after getting away from CGI, it just felt like we where doing it wrong (at least the apps part). The newer JavaScript / CSS / HTML front-ends communicating to a REST back end feels a little more right to me over all the proprietary server pages mess (ASP, JSP, PHP) that we contorted the document language with, to make pages, apps. But it does still feel like there should be a better way to deliver apps. I think this is why IOS apps are doing so well, the use a common REST back end with the web, yet make development of the UI a lot less complex. I think the web could learn a lot from Apple's successes on the mobile platform, but there is just so much inertia behind web technologies that a radical departure is just not in the cards.