I have been thinking about
Adam Kleinbergs recent posts,
Why Every Brand Needs an Open API for Developers and
Digging deeper on Brand APIs.
He's right. The pace of API development skyrocketed in 2010, and will continue in 2011.
Brands that don't have an API will be left behind.
Where does a company start? Start with what you know. Your products.
Make your product data available via a
RESTful API. Provide the basics: Names, Descriptions, and Images.
Allow developers to sign up, and register for a key.
Provide simple documentation describing how to make calls against your API, sample code in PHP, Ruby, and Python.
Setup an
FAQ page,
blog,
forum, and support contact form.
Establish a clear
terms and conditions page, with clear
brand guidelines regarding how users can use your product data.
Brands should start simple, start with delivering basic information about your products through a RESTful API.
You never know what you'll learn!