Bit of a result: Microsoft platform is best to develop web apps on

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Well I never.  Having been at the Future of Web Apps conference last year and hearing a "leading" web 2.0 company say they had no idea what Microsoft had in the form of authentication and identity APIs having reeled of options from Google, Yahoo, eBay, Facebook, (insert other web 2.0 company here).  Clue = LIVE ID, I mean hello?  I was pleasantly surprised to read this week that Microsoft was rated as having the number 1 platform for developing web 2.0 apps on.  Yes that's right, numero uno.

I have to say that has got to be down to some of the fantastic work our DPE teams do as well as the product group who in Angus Logan have found someone who just won't shut up about Live and it's services - and that's a good thing Angus, don't worry. 

Even more surprising is the giant leap that Microsoft has made in the survey that was undertaken by Evans Data Corporation who last year placed Microsoft in last place in opinion amongst web developers.  Here's an excerpt from the report:

"A big surprise in this category is Microsoft’s top ranking. In last year’s survey, MSN ranked last among developers. But as Microsoft moved from the relatively closed-in MSN portal to the more Web 2.0-savvy Windows Live collection of services, users have begun to recognize it as a provider of top-notch web services.

While most of Microsoft’s web service products have so far been geared towards commercial consumption, a lot of their current work attempts to address infrastructure issues that aid the flow of information for the next Web."

You can read more about the report here on Computer World.