A competitor created an export tool for Flickr ex-patriots, so the photo sharing site shut down the Flickr API developer key. The Google Plus developer page makes some wonder if the “real” Google Plus API is coming soon. Also: questions about the Google Safe Browsing API, free cloud database and 15 new APIs.
Our API directory has hit another major milestone. We now list 5,000 APIs, just a short four months since passing 4,000. No longer is the web simply about links connecting one site to another. Instead, developers are using tools to connect data and functionality from one site to another site. It’s an incredible transformation that has happened over a very short period of time. APIs are at the heart of Google’s strategy and they led directly to the growth enjoyed by Twitter and Facebook.
Sure, Facebook filed for an IPO today, but it also provided developers some great guidance on using real-time features in the Facebook API. And while Bloomberg’s lead news story is the Facebook IPO, in the API world it’s probably more interesting to look at Bloomberg’s new open platform. Plus: why we can’t agree about REST, API-related job growth and a whopping 28 new APIs.
When Facebook announced its timeline partners yesterday, there were many familiar names on the list. Some were especially familiar to us because, in addition to now adding their “actions” to Facebook, they also provide APIs to access data created by their users.
I saw a new acronym the other day, “SoLoMoClo,” which stands for Social, Local, Mobile, Cloud. The reason people are focused on these four categories are the multi-billion dollar ecosystems created by Facebook and Twitter in Social, Groupon in Local, iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) in Mobile, and Amazon and Salesforce in Cloud. I think we’ve only scraped the tip of the iceberg in these categories, and that a number of SoLoMoClo companies will break out in 2012.
The web API as we know it will turn 13 years old this year. Will we see more maturity, or are we still looking at a gangly teenager? We asked those same experts who identified 2011 API trends to look into their crystal balls. How will APIs change in 2012 and what future trends can you prepare for now?
As we look back at 2011, it was a big year for APIs. We passed both the 3,000 API and 4,000 API marks within six months. In our discussions with various companies, it seems like APIs are becoming a bigger part of their online and mobile strategies. We reached out to several industry experts to highlight what API stories were on their radar this year. From big companies launching developer programs to the undeniable technical preferences of developers, these were the trends in 2011.
The API landscape is an extremely well chronicled and championed space. Every product has its own API nearly, and developers still get excited about digging into the newest, greatest data on the market. It’s the developer equivalent of having to have the newest Apple gadget, right when it becomes available.
In our zeal to access more and more data though, we’ve forgotten what working with data is supposed to be all about.
At the recent Small Business Web Summit, several member-company representatives hashed out a list of guidelines that may one day become a “Good Housekeeping”-esque seal for The Small Business Web, a consortium of API providers that are working together to create better small business tools. Among the list is an entire section devoted to APIs, where the seal would signify a series of promises to partners.
As I continue to report on new APIs popping up all over the Internet, one theme has caught my attention: systems powered by simple information tasks completed by humans. It’s developing trend in which humans take requests from software systems, complete them, and feed the results back into the system. This is a fundamental shift in computing. Now, Human input is no longer solely for the purpose of controlling or directing the application. It has become just another functional component of the system. The human is taking the place of a software component and can in some instances be described in terms of expected inputs and outputs.
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