ChowNow originally changed ordering takeout by allowing customers to place an order directly from a restaurant’s Facebook page. Recently, ChowNow has launched the ChowNow API which takes ordering to another level. The API allows developers to deliver the same functionality of the Facebook application with any application a developer desires. For instance, customers can now browse a restaurant’s menu from the particular restaurant’s webpage, place an order, the payment method is processed, and the restaurant’s bank account is credited without leaving the restaurant’s webpage.
With Facebook’s IPO scheduled for the 18th this month, many are questioning the nearly $100 billion valuation. No one argues that individuals and companies of many shapes and sizes currently use facebook as a marketing tool. The argument boiling around Facebook is whether advertising on Facebook works. Most social websites that drive revenue through selling ad space have proprietary tools that measure ROI. However, Buddy Media hopes to remove the “anarchy” of social media marketing and give deeper insight to advertising across multiple social media sites with its new unified social media API.
New York start-up Digital Brand Mine has released an API-driven analytics tool dubbed Megalytic that aggregates web performance data from diverse sources into a single, brand-centric platform.
Facebook is planning to update its Open Graph API to enhance the ability of developers to integrate location-based data to user’s newsfeeds and posts. Facebook announced its intention to develop this feature at the Where 2012 Conference in San Francisco last week.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new acquisition. The team behind Instagram will now be part of Facebook. The most compelling piece of Zuckerberg’s post declares that Instagram will remain an independent product, which is good news for the Instagram API.
Google quickly ushered its Google Plus Hangouts API out of preview mode, meaning apps built on the service can now be launched. Facebook also made changes to its API, bringing location to photo and status objects. Plus: redefining TV Guide via API, an OpenSocial platform and 17 new APIs.
As interest in cloud storage goes mainstream, Cloudinary offers a cloud-based solution for storing, processing and delivering web assets with special emphasis on website image processing and delivery, which can be accessed through the Cloudinary API.
In recent months, Facebook has been working on finding new and improved ways of increasing user discovery and engagement with games built on the Facebook Graph API. Facebook has recently added games stories in the news feed that show users the games their friends are playing the most, as well as a games timeline unit and a games-only activity feed on the home page.
While there’s lots of coverage to the impact of electronic distribution to the world of mainstream book publishing, Bookboon has been quietly transforming the world of textbook publishing. Bookboon uses a self-developed API to deliver their electronic books to Facebook users via their custom Facebook app. Additionally, they use the same API to make their titles available to partner bookstores, allowing resellers to integrate the Bookboon product line into a general catalog of available titles.
Regardless of how users feel about Facebook’s new Timeline interface for Pages, developers will have to deal with the updated features soon: Facebook has announced that all Pages will switch to the new design on March 30, 2012. As of last week, Facebook has also added APIs which developers can use to interact directly with the new Page data.
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