Developers using the Twitter API with basic authentication have three more weeks to switch to OAuth. The change has been the preferred method for some time, as users do not need to share their passwords with developer applications.
Short is the new long. Twitter keeps you to 140 characters, which means sometimes you have to cut things short. Help make sense of the acronyms with the Abbreviations API (our our Abbreviations API profile). Pass a term and receive its many meanings, along with the context where each meaning is used.
If you’ve ever dreamed of a government that’s more connected to its citizens, there’s a new fellowship that could use your technical smarts. Code for America is seeking applications for its program in Boston, Philadelphia, D.C., Seattle and Boulder to connect city governments with Web 2.0 talent.
What’s that guy at the coffee shop typing into his computer? These days you may actually be able to find out. If he’s using Twitter or FourSquare, nearby messages can be called up using the APIs. The new Geosay mashup does exactly this, showing tweets and tips near your location–or any location you request.
Move over Wolfram Alpha, there’s a more expensive API in town. Online investment house TD Ameritrade wants $25,000 before it will extend an API key to its Ameritrade API.
We’re used to seeing start-ups built on top of APIs. We even wrote a series of posts to do it yourself. Fueled by the popularity of location-sharing site FourSquare, marketers are using the FourSquare API (our FourSquare API profile) to promote their products.
This past week 19 new mashups were added to our mashup directory and 28 different APIs were used to build them. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include Amazon RDS Relational Database Service, BlankSlate, FanFeedr Sports News and Urban Mapping. The most often used APIs this week are Amazon eCommerce, Google Maps and Twilio. And the most commonly used types of APIs were Mapping (5 APIs, 11 mashups), Internet (3 APIs, 4 mashups) and Search (3 APIs, 3 mashups).
How do you spot a mature platform? You look for its app store. Evernote, the platform for storing and accessing all kinds of things to remember, has created a gallery of products built with its API, which is expected to grow into a complete app store.
When Zappos released its API, there was a strange restriction: no mobile applications. While sometimes lawyers write terms that aren’t formally enforced, Zappos made it clear on its API mailing list that it was serious. Soon, the restriction will be removed and mobile applications will be allowed without written approval.
A couple of recent posts give great insight into how the New York Times uses APIs to enhance its news coverage. It uses its own APIs, both internal and open, to create responsive applications that can explain sports, politics and more.
©ProgrammableWeb.com 2012. All rights reserved.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
