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Can we stop saying 'API' to talk about Web service?

API is more generic than that. It is the abstraction describing software components and operations. Any good library should have a good API.

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Except the term "web service" is just as overloaded as "API" - its got the very specific old school meaning of a SOAP/WSDL API which typically isn't exposed as a service on the web :(

What about "REST API"?

Alas, that seems to have also been reduced to simply meaning "JSON over HTTP", instead of taking advantage of Hypermedia, but there is hope with more articles, such as http://www.infoq.com/articles/programming-semantic-profiles, being written.

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