API or Application Programming Interface is a ubiquitous term used in the tech world everyday.  With the popularity of online social networking sites and the need to add features and content easily into your own site, executives are starting to understand the benefits of using and or providing a public API to third party organizations.  The term has become so popular that most executives now use API in their repertoire of business terms.  They should, considering users want these features and most organizations such as Salesforce.com, YouTube, eBay, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and LinkedIn provide an API for the public.  So, what exactly is an API?

APIs allow you to integrate third party content or features into your web site or web application using a set of common programming tools.  Basically, an API puts you in control of the data and how you want to present it.  It provides flexible, two-way communication and allows you to expand or enhance existing functionality.  APIs give you more control and greater options for integration than widgets or RSS feeds, but obviously require you to write more code in order to integrate it into your own applications.

One popular application called TweetDeck uses the Twitter API to enhance and expand Twitter’s features.  TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that runs on your Mac or PC desktop.  TweetDeck provides many benefits.  For one, it provides a continuous stream of tweets without having to constantly hit the refresh button.  It helps you organize tweets by columns giving you a so-called tweet dashboard.  It also allows you to easily isolate users you follow by clicking on their icon and viewing their profile.  You can then view stats about that user.

Although the current features and benefits of TweetDeck are abundant, it only exists because of Twitter’s API and its ability to provide functionality Twitter has yet to offer.  This is of course good for Twitter, considering that 80% of their tweets or traffic comes through their API usage.

I’ve used the eBay and the YouTube API with great success in the past and look forward to providing one for DealTaker in the very near future.

The bottom line is this, APIs help both parties by allowing the reuse of features and content extending the existing business model while using less upfront investment.