API-Only Services: It’s a Reasonable Question

This is interesting…two days after I wonder whether there will be/are API-only services, Joseph Scott asks the same thing. He thinks “yes”, and offers an interesting example: spell-check.

Obviously, there are things that we should only need to implement once. APIs let us do that, by implementing the functionality on our servers and then offering it to others. If someone were to create a spell-check API, then conceivably everyone in the world could simply hook into that. Gives a lot of power to the spell-check service provider, but that’s what companies are looking for, right?

That’s why Google and Yahoo are fighting like mad to give you services, even if they are free right now. They want be the service of choice. I doubt they will be free forever…