Ten Web 2.0 APIs you can really use

By Evan Prodromou , LinuxWorld.com, 12/18/06

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One of the great outgrowths of the Web 2.0 phenomenon has been an increased availability of Web APIs – Internet-based services with an HTTP-based programming interface. Gone are the days when developers would furtively “scrape” HTML pages for data or useful information. Now major Web services make easier, stabler, and more open ways to read and modify data on their servers.

Many APIs are simply formalized interfaces to a user-centric application. The Flickr API, for example, is an elegant and convenient interface that's a great example for anyone thinking of providing an API. But for developers, if you're not making a Flickr client or building a Flickr mashup, it's not really that useful.

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Here are some of the more interesting and important APIs that you can use for real programming problems, either in Web applications or in desktop or server software.

1. Google Maps API

Since its introduction in 2005, Google Maps has become a ubiquitous feature in both public and intranet Web applications. The API lets Web developers embed a map widget into their own HTML pages, with map tiles imported from the Google database, and programmable stick pins and other data. With a backbone of REST based on XML and XSLT, the Google Maps API is well-encapsulated in an easy-to-use JavaScript library.

It's possible to use competitors to the API, including Yahoo's Map API and Microsoft's Virtual Earth. In time we'll see more alternatives, such as integrating the cool OpenLayers map widget with data services that support the standardized Open Geospatial Consortium APIs. But today Google Maps is the best of the mapping APIs. If you're interested in future-proofing your application, you can use Mapstraction, a toolkit that gives a single interface layer to Google and Yahoo as well as the OpenStreetMap user-generated mapping service.

2. Geonames.org

One of the key parts of any geographical application is geocoding -- turning feature names like “Mountain View, California” or “Lake Baikal” into latitude/longitude pairs that can be put on a map or compared with other map points. Google and Yahoo both have geocoding APIs, but they have some heavy restrictions on use and confusing copyright rules.

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