Wesabe just came out with an API. If you aren’t familiar with Wesabe, it’s a new investment by my friends at Union Square Ventures – Brad Burnham describes why they made the investment in his post Wesabe Is More Than A “Personal” Financial Service. A quick search on Fred Wilson’s blog (via Lijit) shows tons of chatter on the term “API” on both his blog and his network. API is also prevalent in my blog postings and my network.
Twittermania was partially driven by the API. Almost all of the web services companies that I’ve invested in, including FeedBurner, NewsGator, Technorati, and Rally Software have powerful APIs. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are obsessed with API’s. Remember the SDK? It’s now the API. Repeat after me: REST and SOAP.
This is not a new idea nor am I suggesting it is. But it’s a phenomenon that has become key to what’s going on around the web today. Some people – like the fine folks at the Programmable Web – are even cataloging this. Remember the phrase “information wants to be free.” Your computer programs do also, and an API is the way to help them.