Let’s … share!
Recently we saw a couple of blogs/people trying to put up Web 2.0 API maps. Just take a look at ProgrammableWeb.com and Web Service Finder (via ReadWriteWeb) and see for yourself.
This seems to go in the direction of the Web 1.0 open directories like dmoz.org or google and yahoo own directories. And this is fine and usefull etc. For now at least.
However, from a Web 2.0 point of view, I think we need more. Those API directories need to be alive. We need RSS feeds on them, that’s OK too for starters. But how about discovery, sharing and integration?
I would say those API directories need to have their own APIs! And a common standards would help, I don’t know. But the most important is to have one. And if nothing else, the discovery, share and integration parts should be the most important. Andd let’s not forget to recommend inter-API integration facilities. Like using the ProgrammableWeb.com’s API to search for other API directories. This should be easy, if the other API directories would have one APi for themselved too.
And for us, the mortals, this would make all much less complicated. Need a photo album API? Just select one directory, check their API and let the discovery function gather for you anything needed.
Of course, you would say, which one of the found APIs should I use? Well, my friend, I knwo this will showk you, but you must have your own API that tells you what your social network recommends you. You have one, right? And your fellows networkers have one too, right? And they tag the APIs they use, right? And your network has an API too, which you can use to extract a top of a specific domain APIs, right? …
We are looking on something, but we don’t know what is it just yet.
