Dan Shanoff is completely right. (Dan Shanoff now owes us a Coke.)
(This one’s for you, Dan.)
Google’s getting into the sports information business and Shanoff notes the true value of doing so:
When my Gmail email app and my Gtalk IM app and my Google Alerts and my Google Docs and my Google News updates are all working seamlessly in a fantasy app, that’s It.
Which, honestly, someone could do (for the most part) right now with Google APIs, but it’s not quite the same as Google doing it for us.
Beyond that, though, Google’s jones for extensibility will push the envelope on fantasy automation and change the face of fantasy sports. Imagine this:
“Computer, if you get a Google News alert that contains the name of one of my fantasy players prominently and “disabled list” in the text of the alert, move him to the DL on my fantasy team and move up the player that fits into that position for the next 15 days unless there’s someone better in my lineup I can slide into a util role because he’s hitting over .320.”
Except, you know, a script written by a bored and/or fantasy-obsessed college student that you can install with two clicks of your mouse.
Or:
“Computer, find the most popular Google searches and cross-check it against a database of ballplayers’ wives names. Select one, automatically generate 300 words that contain at least one Children’s Television Workshop reference and one Fellini reference, insert two pictures from Google Image Search, and post to blog.”
Actually, that last one’s a horrible idea. It will never work. Ignore that one. Look; Manny Ramirez’s wife!
(whew. That was close.)
Tags: APIs, fantasy sports, google, gratuitous dan shanoff reference