600 Web APIs
Date : 2008 01 13 Category : Tech & Development ProgrammableWeb
600 web APIs. That’s how many different open web service APIs are now listed in the ProgrammableWeb directory. Given that it’s the new year and we just crossed that next threshold it’s a good time for a quick review.
Growth in 2007: Last year was a busy one for new APIs with over 250 new APIs added. We saw a distinct increase in the last quarter and we’re seeing lots more this January compared to the same time last year. (On a related note, see Bungee Lab’s Alex Barnett’s recent look at 8 Trends in Software as a Service Platforms which included a take ProgrammableWeb data such as new APIs per year).
Mashups by API: The pie chart below shows the most frequently used APIs in our directory of 2600 mashups. And although mapping mashups may have the biggest slice of our sample, it’s easy to forget that there are examples in the directory that in total use almost 300 different APIs.
APIs by category: Speaking of different classes of APIs, what about the number of APIs per category? This is different than mashups-per-API in that it gives a sense of how many distinct API providers are competing within a given market. Here are top 10 categories with the most APIs listed:
Mapping: 50 APIs Internet: 32 APIs eCommerce: 29 APIs Reference: 28 APIs Photos: 23 APIs Music: 22 APIs Search: 22 APIs Messaging: 22 APIs Social: 17 APIs Email: 15 APIsAs lastly, given how much growth and activity we see in each of the leading categories, we’re continuing to expand our ProgrammableWeb Verticals section which now pulls-together API news and resources for six markets including:
Social APIs and platforms Video Government Mapping eCommerce TelephonyExpect to see a lot more category-specific coverage from us in 2008.