April 15, 2009, 5:25 PM — I was working in the lab, late one night...
Recently, a lot of companies have been showing early stages of new product development on their websites. While most of these are not open source, it does bring together developers from all over to share thoughts, reviews and conversations about the new products. Here are what some companies are cooking up in their "labs" -- and what projects caught my attention. In no particular order:
Google Labs
A handful of essential apps have graduated from Google Labs, moving on to be fully supported by Google. These include Google Maps, GOOG-411, and Google Desktop. In the current listing of 'experiments,' check out Google Mars (a nice companion to Google Earth but without the potential to peep on sunbathing celebrities), Google Code Search (a refined search of public source code), and Google Audio Indexing (searching keyword content within YouTube videos).
ADC Compatibility Labs
Apple's Developer Connection has a very useful laboratory, if you are a Mac developer. This site provides you with the opportunity for a multitude of Mac configurations so you can do thorough testing for your application. There are a few catches, however. You will have to sign up as an ADC Member (this ranges from free online to $3499). The other catch is the Compatibility Labs are located in California, China and Japan.
Adobe Labs
There are some very cool concepts on Adobe Labs' page ("cool" is a relative term, I know). While not having the sheer volume of apps Google has, Adobe Labs is showcasing useful products, such as: Pixel Bender, XMP Library for Javascript, and Alchemy<?a> (allows users to compile C and C++ code into Actionscript libraries).
Microsoft Live Labs
The evil empire has one of the best lab sites. Not only do they have beta projects available for you to try, they also have a little section detailing what projects are on the horizon. If nothing else, check out Photosynth. I wish I was more artistic and could appreciate this app more. For now, I'll just say (in Butthead voice), "huh huh huh...turns my photos into 3D."
Mozilla Labs
As you might expect, many of the applications on display at Mozilla Labs deal with enhancing Firefox. Their Concept Series is called an "initiative to make it easy to contribute to the development of the online experience". Okay then! Viewers can contribute ideas and comment on existing creations. One such creation, Bespin, is an open source, web-based app for code editing which is actually pretty darned nifty. I would go so far as to say Bespin rivals desktop apps in terms of quality and stability.
Yahoo Research
Yahoo's lab environment is based on the ideas and works of a consortium of academic minds around the country and the world. While you can read about their loftier concepts, like Similarity Caching (a way to contextualize advertising), you might have more fun in their sandbox. There, you can play with Zync (share videos in real time), VideoTag (what it sounds like), and TagExplorer (a different way to use Flickr).
Something in the labs catch your eye? Tell me about it in the comments.
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