APIs Every Developer Needs to Know

Adam DuVander @adamd

Future Insights Live

Las Vegas 2015

11

How Many APIs?

Every Developer?

Pareto Principle 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes

Vilfredo Pareto

1848-1923

Pareto-as-a-Service

APIs & Cloud Services

What Makes Your App Special

What Isn’t on the List? !   Content

!   Shopping, Photos, Video, Music, Weather

!   Databases !   Not always available via API

Maps

1

USG

S

Google Maps

Mapstraction

MapBox

Geo Utilities !   Geocoding addresses (Google)

!   Reverse geocoding (to address, city)

!   Geocoding IP addresses (Maxmind)

!   Etc.: elevation, directions, time zones

HM

Artificial Intelligence

2

spin

ster

car

diga

n

Alchemy API

IBM Watson

Wit.ai

Another Facebook Acquisition

Full Contact & Clearbit

Social

3

JD H

anco

ck

Limited Social Features

Access Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn

Login Y Y Y Y

Get contacts N Limited Y Partners

Read feed N Limited Y N

Post content Y Y N Y

User Login

4

Got

Cre

dit

Social Login

User Management

Login & Management

Service Login With Starting at

StormPath Facebook, Google Free / $49

OAuth.io 100+ providers Free / $19

LoginRadius 35 providers $299 after trial

JanRain 6 – 16 providers Free / $10

Application Storage

5

Seat

tle

Mun

icip

al A

rchi

ves

Typical Developer

Amazon S3 Compatible

Google Cloud Storage

Consumer Storage

6

Koo

l Cat

s P

hoto

Enterprise Individual

Upload Tools

Webhooks*

* Google Drive calls these “Push Notifications”

Google Drive

HM

Consumer Storage Spreadsheet Workflow

?

Håk

an D

ahls

tröm

Payment

7

Stripe

Telecom

8

Pau

l Dow

ney

Voice & SMS

Price, Geography, Quality, Support…

Collaboration

9

Chr

is L

ott

Slack or HipChat

?

Marketing Email

10

Cam

bodi

a4K

ids

Let Your Marketer Choose

API Needs…

List Management Events Log Webhooks

Transactional Email

11

High Volume Starting Y Combinator

Webhooks

Inbound

Email Engagement

HM

Maps

Social

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

User Login

Payments

Application and Consumer Storage

Marketing and Transactional Email

Telecom

1 2

3 4 5

6, 7 8

10, 11

9

40ish

API Sniff Test

A About Page

B Blog Posts

C Client Libraries

D Documentation

API Evaluation Control

Uptime

Responsibility

Longevity

Actively avoids lock-in

Shares server status

Security is a priority

Has a sustainable business model

How to Evaluate an API

duv.ly/apieval

APIs Every Developer Needs to Know

Adam DuVander @adamd

Future Insights Live

Las Vegas 2015

11