API

We got a nice little note in our inbox recently. It was from Visa, but it had nothing to do with our credit limit (eye-rolls and drum kicks appropriate).

“Congratulations on validating compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard,” it said. “The Visa Global Registry of Service Providers - PCI DSS Validated Entities. . . acknowledges service providers that have shown their commitment to security by meeting the requirements of the PCI Standard.  We appreciate your continued support and commitment to safeguarding the payment industry.”

Here at Mashery, we clearly talk about APIs all the time.  While US-based companies make notable moves in the API space, there is a whole world out there beyond our borders.  All over the world, companies are opening up and exposing their data and services to spread their brand for an international audiences. 

We’ve been talking about retail a lot on this blog in the past few months, and with good reason – more and more people are realizing the importance of mobile to the survival of traditional brick and mortar retail stores.  A study published a few weeks ago by Econsultancy, found that more and more young people are using mobile to shop and price compare.  The proportion of consumers using a mobile phone to make a purchase rose to 28% in 2012 from 12% in 2011 (accordi

With the holiday shopping season close at hand (can you believe it’s here already), people are looking to make the smartest choices at checkout time, especially for higher priced items like electronics. Shopping shouldn’t be difficult, right? Often, when it comes to consumer electronics and their ilk, we mere mortals face tough calls about a few things when it’s time to put our money down: will it work properly? Am I buying the best product for my dollar? Does someone else have a cheaper version of what I’m looking for?

The Business of APIs Conference (BAPI) is here and we are proud to announce San Francisco has sold out! 

Don’t despair if you didn’t get a golden ticket, the event will be live streaming!

We will also be live tweeting, so be sure to follow us @mashery or look for tweets with the #BAPI2012 hashtag.

Think Best Buy—a household name by any measure, the specialty retailer has a huge market share in sales of consumer electronics in the U.S., along with a growing presence in such regions as Canada and China. Now switch to Whit.li, a startup with a solution for SMB brand and social media managers to segment and engage social influencers in real time, based on demographics, rare interests, life-stage and personality.

While we’re putting the finishing touches on the upcoming Business of APIs (BAPI) conference, the premier global forum for API experts and professionals, we’re still keeping a close eye on the world around us. And that’s good, because there’s a lot happening out in API-land—just ask Amazon.

Following quite a bit of buzz, the online retailing giant has launched its new Maps API, which saw the light of day alongside the new Kindle Fire models that came out a few weeks ago.

Open APIs allow partners, developers and entrepreneurs to innovate with your data, content or service from outside the walls of your company. Startups on a strict VC budget crave outside innovation as much as the Fortune 500 companies challenged with limited product or engineering bandwidth. Through this proven platform strategy, companies can invoke new partnerships, watch their brand proliferate to new users through cutting edge apps & devices, and discover ways their APIs can fulfill previously unknown, but desirable user features.

After listening to the DreamForce 2012 Keynote address earlier this week it dawned on me that what the world has been experiencing in the last few years is nothing compared to what’s about to come.

Most people think of Facebooking or Tweeting is merely just a fun hobby or activity. For others it’s a business that is really still in its infancy.

Healthcare has been a hot topic nationally for the past few years now. Debates rage about what we should and shouldn’t be doing with our healthcare system. One thing that I hope most people agree on, however, is that opening up data can be part of the healthcare solution.

Photo Courtesy of 7-11

If you are looking for a way to illustrate how APIs are a piping hot way to better reach and understand your customers, here’s a tall cup of big brand proof. Your corner store is where APIs meet Main Street to answer a question on everyone’s mind: Obama or Romney?

When the App Store first started in the summer of 2008 it was a huge game changer. Now, for those of us with smartphones, apps are pretty commonplace. Apps help us do daily tasks and make our lives easier. Many of us feel very lost without our phones since they store all our information and entertainment. This of course poses the problem of forgetting, losing or leaving your phone somewhere. We all know that helpless feeling. Well, what if all your apps and all your information weren’t stored in a device, but were with you all the time?

What does The New York Times have to do with Best Buy? Or Intuit and ESPN? Maybe USA Today and Twilio?

The easy answer is that they are among the companies you’ll find represented at the annual Business of APIs (BAPI) conference, the premier global forum for API experts and professionals. The conference will be in the Julia Morgan Ballroom at Merchants Exchange in San Francisco on Oct., 360 Degrees in New York on Oct. 17 and Altitude 360 - 29th Floor at Millibank Tower in London on Nov. 6.

With the economy (hopefully) starting to gain steam, hotels are starting to see some relief. Prices have been creeping back up over the last few years after the lows of 2008-2009. But hotel owners and managers still face the basic business dilemma – how do you get more revenue? The answer is obvious: fill more rooms! But how you fill those rooms is also important.

As you're packing for this week's Shop.org Annual Summit, it's useful to keep in mind how digitizing the retail experience for your business's consumers via APIs can really make your business stand out as an innovative and more influential player in the retail space. To help keep things in perspective before the show, we'll use Best Buy as a case-in-point example for how a traditionally brick-and-mortar store transformed its business model into one that has proven great success in this post-website era.

THE PROBLEM