In the early days of application programming interfaces (APIs), most marketers and C-Suites didn't pay much attention to what their development teams were doing, at least in regard to how software components should interact.
The API economy (as it is often referred), however, is growing. ProgrammableWeb, for instance, has seen its API directory grow, from roughly 9,000 in April 2013 to more than 13,000 in June 2015. This is likely because those responsible for brand reach, client/partner acquisition and relationships, revenue and even customer service have found that by essentially sharing information and functionality with other providers, bottom lines can be improved across departments as offerings are extended through others' capabilities.
Development teams have certainly gotten to work; Website Magazine is contacted in regularity for coverage of new APIs for both the Web and mobile devices. For the sake of time (and space), we've detailed six new APIs to tap into based on their functionality.
While Bitcoin has not hit mainstream adoption by businesses or consumers, APIs could help speed up its acceptance. Developer API platform GEM recently announced its multi-signature wallet API, which is now out of private beta and available for developer use.
Using the new Google Places API (now offering native support for Android and iOS devices), developers can make their apps more robust with detailed information about 100 million places across a variety categories from the same database as Google Maps and Google+. With native support, some of the new features include the ability to leverage a user's contextual information about where he or she is, as well as autocomplete, which provides type-ahead, location-based predictions like the search on Google Maps (see image).
Do-it-yourself app-building platform Appy Pie recently launched its new API to give developers the ability to build custom in-app forms with text fields, checkboxes, photo upload and other ways to collect information and gather feedback.
Instagram continues to follow in its parent company's footsteps, as according to its blog post it wants, "to leverage the best of Facebook's infrastructure for buying, managing and measuring the success of ads on Instagram."
Instagram will start by opening the Instagram Ads API to a select group of Facebook Marketing Partners and agencies, with plans to expand globally throughout the year.
To update its previous API (based on outdated protocol), GoDaddy teamed up with StrongLoop, a provider of solutions for APIs developed in Node.js, to make its new GoDaddy APIs easier for business partners to buy and sell domains and associated GoDaddy products.
"We are excited to be collaborating with StrongLoop on our Reseller API," said Elissa Murphy, chief technology officer at GoDaddy. "Co-developing a solution with StrongLoop has allowed us to accelerate the delivery of solutions to our reseller partners and drive revenue growth for them. Our external API is an incredibly important aspect of our overall technical strategy."
IgnitionOne, a cloud-based digital marketing technology, and Lengow, a developer of a feed management solution, has partnered in Europe and Latin America by creating a native API to connect their two platforms in order to better meet the needs of online retailers - saving time and improving ecommerce performance.
Advantages of the partnership include:
++IgnitionOne's technology can be easily integrated into a merchant's Lengow account, thus giving users the best of both solutions.
++Intuitive Google Shopping campaign management and the benefit of IgnitionOne's predictive optimization bidding.
Vendors integrate through APIs for a variety of reasons but mostly to fill a mutual need - to the benefit of both them and their end-users.