Gecko Landmarks is working on an easier way of giving directions. The theory behind their madness is that “everyone thinks in landmarks”. They took this idea and ran with it. In fact they have run all over the world with this idea. They have now collected landmark data for every country in the world. Most of this data is now available in the Gecko Landmarks API.
This week we had 71 new APIs added to our API directory including a social eCommerce platform, optical character recognition service, location information services, web marketing services and a mobile printing app. In addition we covered Involver’s launch of a groundbreaking social advertising optimization API. Below are more details on each of these new APIs.
This past week 9 new mashups were added to our mashup directory and 16 different APIs were used to build them. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include 500px, Direct Textbook, Google Street View Image and HasOffers. The most often used APIs this week are Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. And the most commonly used types of APIs were Photos (3 APIs, 4 mashups), Social (3 APIs, 8 mashups) and Internet (2 APIs, 3 mashups). The list below shows which APIs were used by which mashups:
Often we like to highlight mashups that offer useful features such as searching for a new house, planning a vacation or saving on energy costs. Sometimes though, it’s nice to use a mashup for no other reason than it is fun. Today we’ll look at several gaming mashups that allow users to take a quiz, conduct a treasure hunt and even modify Minecraft.
Wishpot typically brings “lists” to mind. With Wishpot’s original service, users could create a single wish list from multiple sites. The service eliminated the need for a new list for every site in which a shopper was interested. Wishpot has now expanded the wish list experience into a full shopping experience with a new API framework that provides true social commerce (shopping/browsing through checkout from the same platform).
The Google App Engine team has been consistently rolling out a new release every month recently. They have become so consistent in doing so, that new releases probably do not make that much of a splash. However, the team has pleasantly surprised everyone by delivering on one of the most requested features that developers had asked from their PaaS platform: Search. Yes, you read that right.
Box, one of the earliest providers of cloud file storage recently announced a brand new version of its API that is a complete rewrite of the API. Based on its extensive research on how V1 was used, the Box Platform team has designed its new V2 API keeping in mind the demands from developers, who want to get up and running quickly while at the same time paying attention to API design and clearer documentation.
Involver launched its Engagement Optimization API last week (read the official release here). Partners are utilizing the API to “optimize their ad spend on social in the way they’ve been doing across the web for a long time.” Although advertising across social networks has been deployed for quite some time, advertisers have had limited tools to track engagement. Facebook Insights is probably most commonly used to analyze social data. When users have required deeper analysis, the advertisers were forced to use highly custom integrations.
Our API directory now includes 42 environment APIs. The newest is the EnergyIQ. The most popular, in terms of mashups, is the AMEE API. We list 4 AMEE mashups. Below you’ll find some more stats from the directory, including the entire list of environment APIs.
Everybody likes money, but nobody likes the inconvenience of having to visit different sites to manage all their accounts. Redwood City-based Yodlee has been aggregating financial data for its MoneyCenter users and partner companies since 1999, and is now expanding its developer services to include “Accelerator” and “Incubator” programs, both of which augment its existing API offerings.
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