Apis for Social Networks Application

APIs for Social Networks

Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) for Social Networks

For any software application, operating system or platform to be able to communicate across networks, platforms and with other applications a core set of shared functions must be defined. This need for connectivity and integration is the impetus behind Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) becoming prevalent in use. Given the exponential growth of Web 2.0 technologies (O'Reilly, 2005) which are serving as the basis of social networking applications (Bernoff, Li, 2008), the need for interoperability and integration across these applications has become critical. Google, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter participate in a series of initiatives, from those sponsored by Google (Booth, 2007) to the OpenSocial standard (Saran, 2008). All of these initiatives aimed at interoperability between social networking applications are leading to the development of mash-ups that combine two or more previously non-integrated data together. Appendix I: Web 2.0 Applications, provides an analysis of application areas and their mash-ups being produced.

APIs and Web 2.0 Leading to the Commercialization of Social Networking

Each of the social networking companies realize that for the full commercial potential of their applications to reach their fullest potential, there will need to be a very high level of integration and real-time interoperability between them. This is the primary catalyst that is driving the rapid adoption of APIs that are quickly being used as the basis for programming mash-ups and more complex web-based applications including those based on the AJAX programming standard (Zucker, 2007). As each of the dominant social networking applications begin to excel at a specific aspect of online collaboration and communication, the urgency for having each of them communicate and share information between themselves becomes even more of a higher priority. The accumulated content in Google for example on a given subject or person, cross-referenced by their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, even integrating in their most re-tweeted Tweets from Twitter can provide a very accurate and timely reflection of just who someone is. Conversely the pressure for a uniform standard of integration across social networks is also coming from users of these social networking sites, who want to be able to create a highly integrated, consistent and timely update of themselves and their interests. These two market forces are in turn driving the commercialization of social networking and will eventually lead to the development of sustainable business models (Madsen, 2009). To the extent that API can be used to integrate th4ese diverse social networks is to the extent they can lead to the development of increasingly valuable mash-ups as well. As with any use of personal data the APIs must also have a high level of security associated with them as well (Mansfield-Devine, 2008). The bottom line is that APIs provide a very useful framework that leads to the integration and real-time connectivity between social networking applications, opening up opportunity for greater levels of creativity in the development and use of mash-ups than ever before (Oren, Haller, Mesnage, Hauswirth, Heitmann, Decker, 2007). In conclusion, social networking is serving as a very powerful catalyst for the development of APIs that are in the process of re-ordering the fundamental ways people collaborative and communicate online.