On building an API rating agency

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4 pointsmehdim4 comments

ugh

the simple way to have a good API is to charge money for it. if you make money because the product has value for me, you'll make a good product for me.

in the case of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. the whole point of the API is to exploit you, not serve you. so they don't care if they piss you off.

If you aren't paying for the product, you are the product. It is true. But now, so many applications are based on these monopolistic API, which can change terms and conditions and pricing at any time. More than 1 000 000 3rd party apps for twitter, even Google maps changed pricing recently. It is about charging money, but also about policy and involvment to developers, viable business model and company's roadmap. But without any "rating" how would you manage your cloud supply chain with thousand of APIs?

you don't depend on them, that's the answer

develop your own ip

It is like banking system ! you can be independant with your own safe-deposit box but it is easier to make business with a bank account ! If you ask only cash payments, it will be weird sometimes in BtoB ! Same for APIs. How could you today socialize your application without Facebook, Twitter API? Geolocalize without Googlemaps API or Bingmaps API? Make our own ?

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