Web data services

Web data services is a class of data, information, RSS feeds and content from the world wide web, web applications and online business sources. Web data services form a fast-growing addition to structured data, unstructured data and traditional online content.

The inputs and outputs of mobile computing applications, a web portal, enterprise portals, online business software, social media and social networks contribute content as web data services. As service-oriented architecture builds in use across enterprises, more web data services will emerge from business applications, data services, business intelligence and business processes, according to industry analysts.

To use and inter-relate web data services, technologies have been designed to speed the finding, downloading, cleaning, and integrating of the content so it can be readily used and presented, either alone or in combinations. Increasingly, such content from a wide variety of sources will be used to broaden the scope, power, and applicability of business intelligence, data warehousing and trend analytics of many kinds. Most forms of web data services are built and delivered on and via common web standards and protocols.

The web data services category continues to grown in popularity as organizations increasingly seek to monitor and use data from myriad public and private web sites -- from such news sources as CNN, for example, to social networking sites such as Facebook, as well as from business ecosystem partners, private web applications and across supply chains. Web data services also comprise certain inputs and outputs from web services integrations, cloud computing services, software-as-a-service applications, and service-oriented and web oriented architecture applications. Web data services are also commonly used to expedite the process of migrating content from one content management system to another.