I got an email last week stating that Microsoft will be shutting down their Popfly service as of August 24. The full text of the email is below if you are interested. At the same time some others pointed out that Google is discontinuing their mashup editor on August 12. I have a Popfly account but I never did complete a mashup. At first when I heard of them I was excited and saw mashups as the future of web development. I still believe that the concept behind a mashup (getting data from different locations and combining it in useful ways) is important but with AJAX and web service support in more mainstream technologies like Silverlight I am not sure that the need for a separate location to host mashups is necessary.
I have seen some calls for Microsoft to open source the code to Popfly to allow the community to continue to support it. While I can see the advantage of having a place to learn programming and creating a game at the same time I am not sure that the world needs another online game site or that the learning opportunities that were available on Popfly are not also available through XNA Studio or the Web Platform Installer that we are redirected to. The ASP.NET starter kits also provide a learning opportunity for people trying to get into programming for the web.
Here is the text from the email.
I’m writing to thank you for registering and using Microsoft Popfly. I’ve been fortunate enough to see all the innovative mashups, Web pages, and games created by the Popfly community since we launched Popfly two years ago. It has truly been a pleasure to watch the spirit of creativity flow through a growing Popfly community over the life of the product.
It’s with a heavy heart that I share some news with you today: on August 24, 2009, the Popfly service will be discontinued and all sites, references, and resources will be taken down.
After August 24th, your access to your Popfly account, including any games and mashups that you’ve created, will be discontinued. However, Microsoft is still very much dedicated to helping you express your creativity and pursuing a path to software development. If you’re interested in refining your skills in Web applications, please visit Microsoft Web Platform Installer. For those interested in programming on the Xbox, then please visit Microsoft XNA or Microsoft Kodu. And for those who are interested in Windows programming, please visit Microsoft Express.
Thanks again for your support and please don’t hesitate to contact us at popfly@microsoft.com if you have any questions.
Regards,
John Montgomery
for the Popfly Team