api

I missed this tidbit while out on vacation earlier this month, but I figured there still might be some interest among folks who want to revamp their Web sites with an ever-changing palette of user-supplied color schemes: Adobe Systems has opened the interface to its Kuler service.

Kuler is a collection of more than 19,000 user-supplied and user-ranked color schemes, each combining five colors. Adobe has made RSS feeds available that cover the highest rated, most popular and newest schemes at the site.

"We're excited to see what you come up with, and we plan to feature … Read more

Juergen Brendell over at SnapLogic writes insightfully about the value of open source versus open APIs (application programming interfaces). (This is a related argument to Savio Rodrigues' insistence on open standards.) Open source is nice and helpful in fostering development communities around a project, Juergen writes, but open APIs go that much further.

But Juergen isn't arguing that you can have one without the other (though if stranded on a deserted island, I think he'd choose open APIs). Rather, he's arguing that developers need open APIs first, with open source a nice complement to them:… Read more

You've probably heard it by now--LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman hinted to Dan Farber at our sister site ZDNet that within the next nine months, his site will be opening itself up to developers, Facebook-style. There's not a whole lot else to report now aside from speculation--and the speculation thus far has indeed been rampant.

This is especially interesting, because over the past few months I've seen a few trends: first, a more professional crowd gravitating toward Facebook; and second, that recent college graduates entering the work force haven't pounced on LinkedIn the way … Read more

It's not open source, of course, but I find the gathering momentum toward opening up APIs in Web 2.0 applications to be an interesting spin on the "offline" open source world. First it was Facebook, and now it's LinkedIn. In the web world, it's not source code that gets opened (though these properties could do this and, in my mind, should), but rather APIs.

As to why companies are opening up the web, it has nothing to do with charity. It's actually very similar to the offline software world where you can put … Read more

What do you get when you mash up the latest, greatest Google feature with an unconference full of hackers?

I'm tempted to say pure magic, but instead I'll say you get Hacking Google Street View, the report from WhereCamp that I found on my favorite blog, Waxy.org, Monday.

So what is it? It's hackers playing with the Street View APIs, figuring out ways to do things like mash up Grand Theft Auto with the hot new mapping phenomenon.

"Greg Sadetsky cracked Street View a couple hours after the announcement at Where 2.0," the … Read more

Garmin and MapQuest want others to share the geospatial wealth.

In conjunction with the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, Calif., both companies on Tuesday announced moves to share application programming interfaces (APIs) that let programmers take advantage of their products. For years, products or service APIs were often kept secret, but nowadays it's vogue for companies to share them in an attempt to become a vital part of a larger ecosystem.

Garmin, which makes GPS (Global Positioning System) devices that tell people where they are, announced a number of free and licensed APIs that permit sophisticated interactions … Read more

Digg launched an API recently, a way for developers to write new ways to submit stories to Digg and to extract data from the service. One intriguing new app that uses the API is the Smart Digg Button for Firefox. There have been toolbar icons that make it easier to Digg stories before, but what this add-on does is a little different. It tells you, in the lower-right corner of your browser, how many Diggs the page you're visiting already has. If you click on the notification, you can add your own Digg, too.

It's a cool idea … Read more

Need a Web application, but don't have a bevy of developers on your payroll? No problem, you have options.

Dapper.net is a place to build Web apps or mashups using content from any site. Before building, first check to see if there are any search for "Dapps" out there already doing what you want (for example, converting Webware content into a Netvibes module). There are 10,000 Dapps in existence so far, according to Dapper CEO Eran Shir. But, if a search comes back negative, you can create your own Dapp. Just tell Dapper which Web … Read more

Have you ever wanted to create your own Google map? Maybe a top 10 list, or some of your favorite eateries. There are ways to do this with Ning and Yelp, but what if you really wanted to make changes later down the road and have those updates pushed out to anyone viewing your map immediately? Google has put together an experimental wizard for creating your own Google Maps mashup using data from Google Spreadsheets. The tool uses APIs from both Google Maps and Google Spreadsheets, but you won't have to know a lick of code, or anything super … Read more