A resource list of the most popular APIs available on the web for your very own Web 2.1 Mashup…

http://www.programmableweb.com/apis

Web service APIs are fairly easy to build. If you’re developing software consider including a few APIs to allows others to mash with your application. Think of the context your application is used and if and how information within your app can be used in another. It’s an easy feature to add and can create some upsell opportunities. The more embedded your application is with your customers, the happier your CFO will be; what better way to embed the application then for it to become a critical element in a larger business system?

On the flip side, consider how you can use other free or cheap applications within the scope of your own. Synergy is not just a feel good human resource term for creating productive teams, but can also be used in your development. Example: if you have location data, consider the Google Maps API to bring up instant directions. How about StrikeIron, it has a range of web services that cull data from the US Census and tax bureau tied to real estate listings showing the demographic information of the neighbourhoods.

Opportunities are many; be creative. Think of the value proposition of your application and tie what you’re doing to what else the user staring at your app screen wants to do or would like to do or would be convienient to do. Mash ups are leverage opportunities to provide interesting, unique and fun features at fraction of the development time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 4:29 am and is filed under Software Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.