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18 Comments
- kingkilr, on 10/12/2007, -6/+26Who the hell tried to build a business off someone else's API?
- TiKoZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Duggmirror, for example.. yea it doesn't use the digg api but still it built a business over digg.
- MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Look at the dozens of websites that are built off of the Goggle Maps API.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Digg is relying solely on the internets, bad business move right there. The internets will never take off.
- AzraelRenegades, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10They've got the internet on computers now?
- rune420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Any Windows software company ever? (Windows API)
- DoctorCal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Danger of relying on free APIs?
Wrong. It's the danger of relying on a *proprietary* API.
This is a very old business risk manifested in a new way. As mentioned in several places above, when your business relies on deploying software on a proprietary OS, you have some risk of future releases of the OS failing to adhere to that "contract", and breaking your application. What the web-based model does is add immediacy to the formula: you are "running on" what the host has deployed, and have no control whatsoever over when changes to the API occur.
The allure of these platforms is strong - it's pretty easy to implement and deploy "applications" that take advantage of some really nifty features, but those features are provided at a great cost. - jimmyjars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Next big fad, mashed potatoes.
- ElbridgeGerry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@kingkilr
http://www.statsaholic.com/ - JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah but one should follow the market. If your client has windows already deployed, chances are that he doesn't want to change. The good thing is that nowadays there are new alternatives like virtualization and web based services, two ways I consider a good way to gain interoperability
- bob12321, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Er... wasnt Frapr doing that with the goolge maps API?
http://www.frappr.com/ - alexmuller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://spanningsync.com/ ?
- SilverRocket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Speaking of Google API's, I just integrated it into an online app (sort of as a 'neat extra feature') and was amazed to discover that the quality/accuracy of the API is light years behind the Google Maps website itself. The difference is the GPS provider. The Google API's versions of some Canadian addresses are so terrible, I'm considering removing the 'feature' from the site.
- streak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anybody using MySQL or SleepyCat's DB?
(@rune420, I believe all Windows licenses are for a fee) - dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"build a business off someone else's API?"
"Duggmirror, for example.. yea it doesn't use the digg api but still it built a business over digg."
I wouldn't really consider Duggmirror as a business, it's more a service - If Digg didn't exist, there'd be no need for Duggmirror, where as something like http://www.statsaholic.com/ is a more a business that *should* be independent of any other service, since it's pretty much mooching of say, Alexia, without providing them anything - Whereas duggmirror is not only providing Digg users with a good service, it's also free's Digg's developers from having to implement such a (fairly difficult to implement) feature - welshie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0If you look at Mapstraction,it's an abstraction layer for other commercial "free" map APIs, so if you code to that API, and you don't like the look and feel that Google gives you, you can easily swap for Yahoo.. Or if yahoo decide to start charging for it, you can go to another one.. http://www.mapstraction.com/
- mrrm, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0Vista is such an example, out from FF
- TuxNuts, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Thanks for the insight, Captain Obvious.
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