api

What do you get when you mash up the latest, greatest Google feature with an unconference full of hackers?

I'm tempted to say pure magic, but instead I'll say you get Hacking Google Street View, the report from WhereCamp that I found on my favorite blog, Waxy.org, Monday.

So what is it? It's hackers playing with the Street View APIs, figuring out ways to do things like mash up Grand Theft Auto with the hot new mapping phenomenon.

"Greg Sadetsky cracked Street View a couple hours after the announcement at Where 2.0," the … Read more

Garmin and MapQuest want others to share the geospatial wealth.

In conjunction with the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, Calif., both companies on Tuesday announced moves to share application programming interfaces (APIs) that let programmers take advantage of their products. For years, products or service APIs were often kept secret, but nowadays it's vogue for companies to share them in an attempt to become a vital part of a larger ecosystem.

Garmin, which makes GPS (Global Positioning System) devices that tell people where they are, announced a number of free and licensed APIs that permit sophisticated interactions … Read more

Digg launched an API recently, a way for developers to write new ways to submit stories to Digg and to extract data from the service. One intriguing new app that uses the API is the Smart Digg Button for Firefox. There have been toolbar icons that make it easier to Digg stories before, but what this add-on does is a little different. It tells you, in the lower-right corner of your browser, how many Diggs the page you're visiting already has. If you click on the notification, you can add your own Digg, too.

It's a cool idea … Read more

Need a Web application, but don't have a bevy of developers on your payroll? No problem, you have options.

Dapper.net is a place to build Web apps or mashups using content from any site. Before building, first check to see if there are any search for "Dapps" out there already doing what you want (for example, converting Webware content into a Netvibes module). There are 10,000 Dapps in existence so far, according to Dapper CEO Eran Shir. But, if a search comes back negative, you can create your own Dapp. Just tell Dapper which Web … Read more

Have you ever wanted to create your own Google map? Maybe a top 10 list, or some of your favorite eateries. There are ways to do this with Ning and Yelp, but what if you really wanted to make changes later down the road and have those updates pushed out to anyone viewing your map immediately? Google has put together an experimental wizard for creating your own Google Maps mashup using data from Google Spreadsheets. The tool uses APIs from both Google Maps and Google Spreadsheets, but you won't have to know a lick of code, or anything super … Read more

CampusRank is a new service for ranking fellow college students, using a variety of yearbook-like categories. The service ties into Facebook, making use of the social network's application programming interface, so users simply log in with their Facebook account to begin voting. CampusRank launched quietly last week, and is making its official live service announcement tomorrow morning. The service is limited to just under 300 college networks, and does not allow private groups or company users.

CampusRank lets users choose from 34 categories to nominate friends for things like "Most Athletic," "Most Friendly," "Best Hair," and so on. And by friends, I mean that CampusRank won't let you nominate people from your school who aren't on your Facebook friends list. You can't even look them up--a major flaw in my opinion. To sort through the people who are your Facebook friends, CampusRank provides a quick list to scroll through. Once someone has been nominated, there's a ranking system where other CampusRank users can rate them on a scale of 1 to 10.

CampusRank is an interesting take on combining social democracy tools and social networks in one space. However, things get mired down by the friends list limitation and by requiring Facebook users to venture off-site to use the service, two things that need to change before the service can really take off. Screenshots after the jump.

Related: Mosoto, HotOrNot

… Read more

Yahoo on Wednesday plans to open up the APIs to Yahoo Mail, inviting outside Web developers to build mash-up applications with its mail service.

One application that Yahoo will make available creates a link between Flickr and Yahoo Mail. The service looks at the subject line of an e-mail and searches Flickr for photos related to that word, such as "party."

The company envisions a whole list of applications that can be built using mail.

For example, people can find ways to access e-mail from different mobile clients or to combine social networking features and multimedia with mail, … Read more

BlackBerry is branching out. Beginning Tuesday, Research In Motion will open the BlackBerry platform further by offering developers APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow them to make more interesting lifestyle-oriented applications.

Having customer relationship management software on your smart phone is cool and all, but soon BlackBerry addicts will have access to applications that are far more consumer oriented: apps with embedded audio and video, more location-based services, support for better 3D graphics, and more customizable wallpaper and ringtones.

The new collection of BlackBerry APIs are based on the industry standard Java Micro Edition.

If you upload pictures, video or illustrations to iStockphoto or are a customer who uses the site to buy that content, you could have some new options soon for using the site.

The company has released some details of its interface so that outsiders can create Web sites or software that tap into the site's abilities, according to a company forum posting earlier this month. The objective: "to allow the iStockphoto community to expand the functionality of istockphoto.com, provide useful tools for community members, and attract new members."

Some users already are coming up with ideas … Read more