So let’s get one thing straight, the “web services” (WS) revolution is a new term for standards-based communication between networked applications. Does this change anything for anyone? Not really, not yet. An executive at a small software company asked me to help them decide what to do about WS, so it’s been on my mind lately. The rather sharp-witted Register points out a clear case where not even Microsoft or Sun can figure out how to turn the WS hype into real value for customers.