Skip to content

API != Web protocol

According to a press release from the DC government announcing the new DC Government Open APIs:
“An API is a web protocol that gives programmers anywhere access to data on a web server to build custom applications using that data.”

Not quite. An API is not the same thing as a Web protocol. An API is layered on top of Web protocols. (As you probably know, there are a lot of interesting things happening with Web protocols lately; for example, XMPP and the Google Wave Federation Protocol.)

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *
*
*