More companies are offering API’s to the webmasters and allow them to extend their applications. It all started with the success of Amazon and is now being driven by Google and Yahoo’s ongoing war to get more webmasters to use their services.

As a webmaster I think web services are cool, open API’s are cool , and in general anything that lets me tap into some of the coolest tools on the planet.. is .. well.. cool.

I am probably not the first person to notice this but I want to warn webmasters unfamiliar with the Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish strategy behind this. If you write applications that totally depend on one API or service what is to prevent the API provider from doing any of the following: changing the API without notice, removing the API, charging a fee to use the API.

Nothing. That’s right. Nothing.

What can you do to prevent being screwed ?

My mental checklist :

• Only use the API’s in mission critical things if I have option. An example is would be maps. There are 4 different mapping APIs for me to tap into at the moment.
• Look at the track record of the company. Amazon has a great track record for supporting the API’s they put out.
• Your business model should never rely on their API.

Filed under: Content Creation, General, Rants, Web Technologies — Scott @ August 24, 2005 10:38 am

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