The floodgates have opened: APIs and the race to collaborate

Posted Mar 7th 2006 4:29PM by Marshall Kirkpatrick
Filed under: APIs

The week's eTech conference has been the occasion for a wide variety of announcements, but many of the biggest players are moving in the same direction. The value of opening at least parts of your software's code for collaboration with outside developers is now undeniable. The only question now is who will offer the most compelling opportunities for collaboration, the best collaborative software ("mash-ups") and leverage this success through effective business models.

Over the last 48 hours alone:

Yahoo announced a new library of APIs (application programming interfaces) that will let outsiders build 3rd party web sites and services that utilize Yahoo photos, shopping and calendars.
Salesforce.com has announced a new developer community and tool kits to foster the creation of mashups with their popular CRM service. For some time the company has said that 40% of their web traffic is directed at their APIs. Now Salesforce.com GoogleMaps, Skype and who knows what else will make their service all the more holistic and compelling.
AOL (this blog's owners) announced that they are offering an IM API to allow outside developers to create new plug-ins, integrate AOL IM into other online sites and services, etc. (Some have said that the company's failure to open messaging across other clients is a major shortfall of this initiative.)

Some observers have guessed that this type of openness would be monetized by charging a fee for advanced use of APIs, but it appears that openness for the sake of leveraging a body of developers wider than the companies' employees to create features that will win over more users is the strategy being employed.

Reader Comments

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1. Google Map has started offering API to develop own Location-Based Services, as they call it.

It basically lets developers embed Google Maps in their own web pages with JavaScript. You can add overlays to the map (including markers and polylines) and display shadowed "info windows" just like Google Maps. Now this is something cool, I guess:-)

Posted at 11:32PM on Mar 7th 2006 by DS

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