Why APIs?

Given that I helped Yahoo! Developer Network and Ubiquity in the Internet Age. In that post I made two claims about the web that I'd like to make once again: 1. The web enables infinite distribution of content without any special effort or infrastructure. 2. The web extends the reach of our apps and services as far as we're willing to let them go. I went on to say: The closer to everywhere you can reach, the better off you'll be. Where is everywhere? The notion of everywhere has changed too. It's not just about every desktop anymore. It's about every Internet-enabled device: cell phone, desktop, laptop, tablet, palmtop, PDA, Tivo, set-top box, game console, and so on. Everywhere also includes being on web sites you've never seen and in media that you may not yet understand. That eventually led into a discussion on APIs and Syndication (RSS/Atom) that began with: Giving users the ability to access your data and services on their own terms makes ubiquity possible. There are so many devices and platforms that it's really challenging to do a great job of supporting them all. There are so many web sites on which you have no presence today. By opening up your content and APIs, anyone with the right skills and tools can extend your reach. But until that point, this was largely based on evidence I'd seen elsewhere: Flickr, Amazon.com, and so on. So we'd been doing some of it on the "if you build it, they will come" faith along with a dose of common sense and reason. But that was all two years ago, so I'd largely forgotten that I wrote most of that (just like most of you, I suspect). It all came back in a flash last week when someone pointed me at Kevin's Back that "Why APIs?" question... So that Kevin can become a soccer expert at his kindergarten daughter's games. That's why. Bookmark Murdok: Jeremy Zawodny is the author of the popular Yahoo! Search blog as well.