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SemTech Conference talk on the key trends in open APIs as well as data on semantic APIs in 2011. API market growth, changes from SOAP to REST and XML to JSON, and new API business models. Semantic portion looks at adoption of RDF/RDFa in open APIs.
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Open APIs & the Semantic Web: State of the Market
John Musser, ProgrammableWeb@johnmusser
SemTech 2011
Introduction
ProgrammableWeb.com• API & mashup directory• News, community, dev tools• 3,300 Web APIs • 5,800 mashups
Open APIs: State of the Market
• The big picture• The business of open APIs• Design and technology• Trends
Open APIs: Why bother?
• Make money 60% of all listings on eBay.com added via their APIs
• Save money SmugMug saves > $500K/year with Amazon S3 Storage
• Build brand Google Maps 300% growth vs 20% MapQuest
• Move to the cloud Over 50% of all transactions via their API
• Go anywhere Netflix now available on over 200 devices
Open APIs: Growth is accelerating
Total APIs over time
Open APIs: Growth is accelerating
Total APIs over time
Open APIs: Growth is accelerating
Total APIs over time
Open APIs: Growth is accelerating
Total APIs over time
APIs: some very competitive markets
Number of APIs, Top 15 Categories
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
Semantic APIs on the open web
Where’s the semantic web in here?
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
Open APIs: State of the Market
• The big picture• The business of open APIs• Design and technology• Trends
What makes an open API successful?
1. The underlying service• Or, a good API on a bad service is lipstick on a pig
2. A plan and a business model3. Simple, open, easily adopted4. Providing choices5. Good developer support
API business models
Who What HowAmazon Associates Retail Affiliate ModelAmazon S3 Infrastructure Pay-as-you-goeBay Auctions APIs for listingsExact Target Bulk Email Tiered pricingRhapsody Music PartnershipsSalesforce.com CRM / SFA SaaS per-seat licenses
Best practice: Bake your business model into your API
APIs as biz-dev enabler (aka Bizdev 2.0)
“Decentralized business development” -Toni Schneider
Consumer/HackerBusiness/Partner
Flickr API
API Billionaires Club, 2011 edition
5 billion API calls / day (April 2010)
1.6 billion API-delivered stories / month (October 2010)
5 billion API calls / day (October 2009)
8 billion API calls / month (Q3 2009)
3 billion API calls / month (March 2009)
13 billion API calls / day (May 2011)
Over 260 billion objects stored in S3 (January 2011)
10 billion API calls / month (January 2011)
Open APIs: State of the Market
• The big picture• The business of open APIs• Design and technology• Trends
The big technical debates
• Protocols and stylesREST vs. SOAP vs. …
• Data formatsXML vs. JSON vs. …
• StandardsSo many to choose from…
REST vs. SOAP: Simplicity wins again
Distribution of API protocols and stylesBased on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
REST vs. SOAP: Simplicity wins again
Distribution of API protocols and stylesBased on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
Data formats: lots of choices
XML, JSON, RSS, Atom, YAML, iCalendar, CSV, Serialized PHP, HTML,
PNG, GeoRSS, vCard, Text, RDF, OPML, MediaRSS, VML, TV-Anytime, hCalendar,
FOAF, XSPF, SQL, GML, CDF
JSON Rising: 55% of all new APIs support JSON
Percentage of new APIs with JSON supportBased on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
20% of all new APIs support only JSON
Percentage of new APIs with only JSON supportBased on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
1 in every 5 new APIs says “goodbye XML”
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
Percentage of APIs with XML support
But only 1% of APIs offer RDF support
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
Semantic web service discovery
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011
• Long history of research on ‘discovery’• Often WS-* related
– Ex: SAWSDL– Now outrun by rise of REST?
• What can PW do in this regard? – LOD for APIs?– RDFa per API?
Open APIs: State of the Market
• The big picture• The business of open APIs• Design and technology• Trends
API as Product
When an API is not an extension of your product, but it is your product
Screw the web site, let’s focus on the API
Qwerly shutters profile pages in favor of lucrative ‘DNS for people’ API
TechCrunch, May 5, 2011
API business models, circa 2005
API business models 2011
Invisible Mashups
Classic mashup
HousingMaps.com
Invisible mashup
Ooyala.com
EC2 + S3 + SQS+
Invisible APIs
+
APIs are hiding in plain sight, if you know where to look
Invisible APIs, the Steve Jobs edition
Integrated right into iOS 5
Have we seen this before?
1995
Why do we need a Web site?
2000 2005 2010
Of course we have a Web site
Of course we have an API
Why do we need an API?
thank you
Questions, ideas, comments? Email me: john@programmableweb.com
Twitter: @programmableweb @johnmusser
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