We’re in the middle of a new war for getting developer’s attention. Any API that tries to limit developers, or charge for its use, is just going to have slower growth than ones that are freely available.
eBay got that today and launched a developer challenge.
Advertisement:
Scobleizer Archives 
Google Reader Shared Items
Twitter Feed 
Tech Events Calendar 
Travel Schedule 
Daily Calendar 
Photos on Flickr 
Join my group on FastCompany.com 
About Me 
RSS Feed
|
Robert Scoble works at Fast Company.TV (title: Managing Director). Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here.
rscoble@fastcompany.com
+1-425-205-1921
Powered By WordPress
November 14th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
Heh.. the conflict between open/closed APIs sounds a lot like the conflict between open/closed source.
November 14th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
“You could win $5,000, or many other great prizes. “. Cheap, cheap, cheap.
November 14th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
huge amounts of DATA + great API’s =’s successful strategy.
For leading internet companies freeing large amounts of data and inciting development seem to be the corner stones for success. Closed API’s? That seems like an obstacle in the way of developers…that sounds like something that will only hold you back.
DION made a nice post about Amazon doing similar things here:
http://web2.wsj2.com/microsoft_gets_disrupted.htm
The long tail no longer applies to products, it now applies to services. I wrote a lenth piece about that here:
http://michaelmcderment.com/article/Web2ChroniclesVolumeOne.html
November 14th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Greetings,
Yeah, my users emailed me about this one today; it’s amazing how my users can keep me more on top of the news than almost any other news source.
But seriously…Wow. eBay’s API is backed to a VERY rich data store, and the potential applications (and not just for direct commerce) are amazing. They also upped their call limits to 1.5 Million/day instead of per month, which it used to be. (Yes, there are still call limits, which is understandable.)
The one API they haven’t opened up is bidding, and if you use the API, they forbid scraping, so you still can’t write an app that bids (which mine does).
It’s a great move, no qualifications.
November 14th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
it’s also true that such “developer challenge” is cheaper than extending company’s software development team
November 14th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
[...] Scoble [...]
November 15th, 2005 at 2:48 pm
Morgan,
eBay actually does offer an API call for placing bids remotely on the eBay site (it’s used for wireless and off-Internet apps). There is, however, a legal addendum with it, given the sensitivity around its use. Ping me if you want to take a look.
November 17th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
[...] [Via Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger] [...]
February 12th, 2006 at 8:28 am
[...] eBay APIs: Innovation without barriers Just days after announcing its RSS news, now eBay has confirmed that it is dropping their charges for use of their APIs. This is big news, and as Josh says, a huge Web 2.0 announcement. eBay’s developer program is already hugely successful. Today, there are 2 billion API calls a month and something like 22% of all of eBay’s listings revenue comes from third party developers. They have 10,000 affilitates, and 22,000 developers. After 5 years of providing their APIs to third parties and creating an amazing ecosystem - 10 affiliates and 22,000 developers - they are a true Web 2.0 posterchild. According to News.com, up until today developers paid eBay between $1.25 to $2.90 per 1,000 items listed and an annual fee of $500. This is now zero. Adam Trachtenberg of eBay explains: “For a long time, eBay’s offered up our API for both commercial and non-commercial usage, but we’ve always hampered ourselves by charging for access. The fees were low enough for commercial companies to write applications, but in a world where information wants to be free, we’ve been pricing out all the people who want to play with our data to see what interesting things they can build, remix, and give away. Breaking down those barriers has been one of my primary goals since I joined eBay last summer. We got partly there in June, and we’ve completed the journey today. Now all I need is to do my job and convince you to start writing eBay applications because I can’t use the pricing excuse with my boss anymore.” Innovation without barriers As Robert Scoble puts it: “We’re in the middle of a new war for getting developer’s attention. Any API that tries to limit developers, or charge for its use, is just going to have slower growth than ones that are freely available.” Chris Law has an interview podcast with Greg Isaacs, Director Developers Program for eBay confrims the move: “Greg - “We want to do two things by making the APIs free – number one to all of our developers who have been with us for a number of years say thank you and the second is around new developers, our motto is innovation without barriers. We want to remove as many barriers as possible. Let’s get rid of them and let developers do what they do best.” We’ll start seeing many more eBay mash-ups now the cost of playing with eBay’s APIs is now down to zero. Students and hobby developers, as well as the hardened pros that want to tinker will play have a chance to play for free and therefore create so many more new business opportunities for eBay and others. And this indeed is the whole point. Examples eBay mash-ups: markovic.com (eBay and Virtual Earth) auctionmapper.com 2RealEstateAuctions.com Other more traditional software developers leveraging the eBay platform: Infopia’s Configurator Mpire Filed Under: Web, Tech, Web 2.0, MSN API [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 10:25 am
[...] I haven’t read about “the long tail of web services” anywhere other than my comment here – so I figured I’d coin the phrase for posterity. Frankly the second half of Volume One is almost all about the long tail of web services and the clutter that is already emerging in the low end of the web services market. [...]
April 17th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Here’s a new eBay / Google Maps mashup, just released:
http://www.auctionsearchkit.co.uk
It combines an eBay search engine and Google Maps to provide a visual result to your search for eBay items. Ideal if you are a pictures person.