Discussion of Google’s recent acquisition of Jambool has largely centered around its virtual currency platform, Social Gold. The power behind that platform comes in the form of the Social Gold API. Again, Google has bought a company whose API is central to its success.
Put down your remote control and pick up an iPad. One of the largest US cable companies is experimenting with new methods of controlling and programming a TV–and it may provide the same functionality to developers via an API. The reason? As many providers are finding out, building for mobile often means building a private API, anyway.
Google released an update to its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) platform, Google App Engine, by releasing SDK version 1.3.6. The latest SDK provides two key features, multi-tenancy support and High Performance Image Serving apart from several other requested features and bug-fixes.
Stack Exchange, the network of community-driven Q&A sites, held a developer contest recently for their API. Developers were invited to write applications that work with Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User and Meta Stack Overflow. Among the winners were an iPhone application, a printable view and a web widget.
Despite attempts to reinvent it, email is still one of the most popular ways to communicate across the internet. Developers have long been able to take advantage of Emails popularity using various libraries that support POP, SMTP and IMAP. This is fine when you have access to a publicly available web server, but for small and hobby developers this can be an unacceptable cost.
After about a year of uncertainty, Yahoo provided visibility on their Search! alliance with Microsoft. They announced important updates to their API offerings, including axing some and making another a paid service. Developers who have built their products on the Yahoo API or planning to, need to take note of these changes.
After months of anticipation, Facebook officially launched its Places feature to check-in to nearby locations and share the place with your friends. The launch includes an API extension to its Graph API, which will first be read only. Launch partners include location-sharing platforms Foursquare and Gowalla, which are part of a private beta for the upcoming read/write API.
A new bicycle wheel prototype is connecting the non-technical, everyday world to the Web. The Copenhagen Wheel attaches to an ordinary bike and helps its owner collect fitness and location data. From an iPhone, the rider can also see traffic and polution information and share their own data with friends. This real world mashup is one of many we’re bound to start seeing released as we make our move toward living in the future.
As more and more people are using Twitter as a means of sharing and communicating, it seems that almost every web and mobile application on the planet as a “Share this on Twitter” feature. Most of the time, this feature is welcome. Posting Foursquare mayorships, new blog posts, entertaining YouTube video, etc. But sometimes, it’s a problem. Namely, when a web application doesn’t include the option to not post to Twitter or makes the button hard to find or easy to miss.
Less than a month ago, Google made all public activities available via its “firehose.” Last week, the search giant updated the Buzz API again with several interesting features, including a limited firehose, which is calls a “garden hose.”
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