Yahoo Pipes - 2 Rules for Software

Yahoo launched Pipes this week.

There is a simple rule that applies to software that can give you a good bead on whether a new offering will succeed:
1. Can an English Major do something useful (or entertaining!) within a week?
2. Can an Engineer do something interesting?

Most of Web2.0 succeeds with 1 and fails with 2. Some serious software, like app servers and data visualization software hits 2 and fails with 1.

Yahoo pipes is the rare package that could either hit both, or fail both.  It is very unlikely to get a single.