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By editorial@silicon.com, 4 May 2002 00:30

COMMENT Web services - it's hard to escape that phrase these days. IT and business publications use it more and more, and Microsoft is even advertising its take on web services - .Net - on primetime television. But more on that in a moment. The point is that something's going on here, something that has far-reaching implications for everyone involved in IT, and plenty of people beyond. And that's the main reason we've launched a Web Services Hot Topic (http://www.silicon.com/ws ). There - plug over. But critically, and in the best schoolboy tradition, it's time to clarify a term or two. We've published a basic glossary for all manner of web services-related phrases, protocols and four-letter acronyms (FLAs?) - see http://www.silicon.com/a53132 ) - but there remains one thing to clear up: we'll be referring to web services in the plural, even though it's a concept, an idea, an issue that is strictly singular. 'Web services rock the world' just sounds better than 'web services rocks the world'. Glad that's out of the way. Will they rock the world? We believe they will. Web services, as a concept, are all about software, often developed as components, used to seamlessly link together all manner of websites, devices and services. This software can result in consumer services we use in our daily lives - relating to calendaring, ecommerce and so on - or boring B2B interactions which make business more efficient. Whatever it enables, it will run in the background, out of sight of most people that benefit from it. In a 13 February 2002 editorial, we wrote: "Our view is that web services will be big - almost as big as the hype, in fact - even if the concept isn't the easiest to explain." And that's a position we're sticking with. As our new Hot Topic goes on to say, the roll out of web services technology by users is gradually increasing, and key vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Sun are getting their first case studies signed off. Chief reporter Suzi Kerridge looks at the hype-versus-reality debate (http://www.silicon.com/a53129 ), a debate that has highlighted how far away fully integrated web services are. Other reporters will focus on different aspects, including what analysts are saying users should be doing now (http://www.silicon.com/a53131 ), security concerns (http://www.silicon.com/a53128 ), developer issues and - that $64bn question - will web services be the ultimate making or breaking of Microsoft? The fact that the software giant is advertising .Net on TV, part of a $200m promotional push right now (http://www.silicon.com/a52546 ), says something about how important it thinks gaining web services mindshare is. Microsoft, with .Net, is leading the web services pack but other familiar names - such as HP, IBM, Oracle and Sun - are breathing down its neck. All are also working together in one way or another. And the co-operation is essential for web services to succeed, for us to really be on the verge of the next big evolution in IT, based on the marriage of the internet and some very clever software.