This past week 24 new mashups were added to our mashup directory and 23 different APIs were used to build them. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include Google Wave and Tweetmeme. The most often used APIs this week are Google Maps, Twilio and Twilio SMS. And the most commonly used types of APIs were Social (5 APIs, 8 mashups), Mapping (4 APIs, 6 mashups) and Search (3 APIs, 3 mashups).
Location-sharing service Gowalla is preparing to launch its long-awaited write API (our Gowalla API profile). The move could makes its platform as desirable as its main competitor, FourSquare. With it, comes the need to relinquish a bit of control of the user experience, something Gowalla has considered an important factor of its success.
There are notably more contests than usual now and many are listed in our contest section. Prizes and acclaim are meant to attract great developers to build cool things on top of each company’s API. Some of these challenges end soon, so you’d better get started.
Collaboration company 37Signals bought the popular Ember iPhone app, which uses the company’s Campfire API (our Campfire API profile) to display and update chats. The app has been renamed 37Signals Campfire and is now available for free (previously $9.99).
Twitter has started early beta testing for a new User Streams API. Currently the service is just for desktop clients, but it could eventually fuel other types of applications that need access to data in realtime. Similarly, the stream concept may be one we see used by other services.
If you’re developing mobile websites or native apps, you’d better take a closer look at the fine print. Some APIs, including one from Amazon, specifically exclude mobile applications. And there’s not much explanation–or logic–behind the exclusions.
Late last month, IQ Engines raised $1 million in its first round of funding. The image recognition service is made up of its pay-per-use API and an iPhone app built on top of it.
Here’s another hole for you to fill, Twitter. While users of the popular status message website can easily block spammy members, there’s no way to find a list of accounts that you have blocked. No way, that is, except for through Twitter’s own API.
Every single public message on Google Buzz, the content-sharing platform from the search giant, is now available to any developer. A similar, if much fatter, pipe is available from Twitter, but only for large partners paying big bucks. Accessing the “firehose” is about the same any other API, which makes it an easy way to get a lot of content quickly.
The web makes everything global and yet, everything is also local. APIs allow content and data to be filtered to just the stuff we need. The collection of great mashups below take advantage of those features to show local content to anyone, using location as a filter.
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