Our API directory now includes 338 shopping APIs. The newest is the Cupónica. The most popular, in terms of mashups, is the Amazon eCommerce. We list 413 Amazon eCommerce mashups. Below you’ll find some more stats from the directory, including the entire list of shopping APIs.
APIs are no longer technical nice-to-haves. These three letters are being spoken in board rooms and used as the basis for business strategy. One place you can see the effects of API growing up is the sheer number in our directory. But big numbers only tell us so much. In our many discussions with API providers, we’ve noticed a pattern with how many are approaching their platforms. These threads point to an alternate meaning for API: Apps, Partners and Income.
A long time ago in Internet years, in a galaxy not so far away, a handful of tech titans in Silicon Valley and Seattle began building business platforms and battling for supremacy. The mobile device and app revolution hadn’t yet begun. Terms like “social networking” and “wisdom of crowds” were going “viral”. Web services and APIs were still emerging. The Google IPO of late 2004 had effectively slammed shut the Web 1.0 dotbomb era, paving the way for the amazing evolution of Web 2.0 services in 2005 that hit the mainstream in 2006.
Developers are game changers. Developers are craftspeople. Like all smart, motivated tinkerers who like to make stuff, developers also tend to have strongly-held opinions about what makes their craft easier or more difficult. Developer pain tiers upwards from mildly annoying to “bang head here” WTF. Debugging someone else’s sloppy code or terminal sessions timing out? Non-awesome. Coworkers talking loudly on the phone near their desk or standing over their shoulders? Painful. Awful documentation? Excruciating.
To support the demand for better API documentation, Mashery, a provider of API management and strategy services, launched a new set of API documentation tools. The new feature is a combination of API documentation and an API explorer, allowing developers to make requests on an API inline while browsing the API reference materials.
This past week 11 new mashups were added to our mashup directory and 20 different APIs were used to build them. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include Alchemy, Alibris, All for Good, Aviary Effects, Extractiv, FreebieSMS, Google Apps Script, InfoChimps Twitter, Swoogle and Thrutu. The most often used APIs this week are Aviary Effects, Swoogle and Thrutu. And the most commonly used types of APIs were Other (2 APIs, 2 mashups), Music (2 APIs, 2 mashups) and Shopping (2 APIs, 2 mashups). The list below shows which APIs were used by which mashups:
Alibris, an online marketplace for Independent sellers of popular, collectible and bargain books, music and movies has announced the winners for its developer contest held in May. The contest invited developers to make innovative use of the Alibris API with prizes for best overall application, Android application, mashup and most fun application.
ProgrammableWeb has seen tremendous growth, as we shot past 3,000 APIs in our directory. Our sponsors and partners enable us to have the top-notch writing and editing staff we do to maintain this growth. We’re pleased to offer you this chance to learn more about the companies that make our site possible.
Contests continue to be a great way for API providers to encourage use of their platforms. These contests also quickly increase the number of apps built on a platform, which makes a difference when developers are later assessing potential APIs with which to integrate. Contests can also be a great deal for developers in terms of exposure, as well as monetary compensation. Our list of contests shows that over $100,000 is up for grabs.
Alibris, an online marketplace for Independent sellers of popular, collectible and bargain books, music and movies has announced a couple of events to boost its developer community. The first is a Hack Night on April 29th and then a month-long developer contest that runs through May.
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