[falcor84]

Agreed in general, but services like IFTTT and Zapier offer a very decent way of integrating otherwise unfriendly APIs, and I think that this will become even more straightforward and common with the rise of conversational interfaces like Alexa

[TeMPOraL]

Problem is, most services seem to be designed to interact in the absolute minimum. I use IFTTT myself, but just look at the integrations available! So little of them. 90% of times I have a flow idea, it can't be done with what's available.

(Come to think of it, I have a spare VPS, maybe it's time to try out Huginn.)

RE Alexa, call me a whiner, but "Alexa, ask $BrandApp to XYX" ruins the immersion a lot :(.

Ultimately, the problem is control. On-line services control both your data and how you work with it - from the flow of actions to UI[0]. An interoperable world requires vendors to give up a lot of that control.

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[0] - They control the entire experience. As if they were a fucking Disneyland, not just a hammer, from users' point of view.