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APIs are so vital for business companies like TechCrunch are beginning to treat them as products in their own right. This approach allows such companies to maximize platform reach, profits and partnerships.

Did you know that your digital data isn’t just for those you follow on Twitter or people on your friends list on Facebook?  There is a large, growing and yet unregulated market for your digital information. It’s not uncommon for data about you to be consumed by your doctor’s office, your car or even your refrigerator.

At Mashery we are very interested in the business of APIs (if you missed our Business of APIs conference earlier this fall, you should check out some videos of the sessions).  We love to talk about the benefits APIs bring to businesses all across different verticals.  From growing your brand awareness to internal development of new apps/products, APIs can make your business function better, faster and more efficiently.

(Image courtesy David Michael Morris on Flickr)

The Mashery Developer Outreach team is always heading out to hackathons and tech events. They have gone to over 60 in 2012 and the year isn’t over yet. We love to see what developers are capable of building in a weekend, or even a day!

Projects at these events are typically are limited in scope. Team building, education and fun are what draws hackers to attend.

We’ve all read about tech superstars who dropped out of college or never bothered to go at all, before launching successful startups. In the real world it helps to know a little about what’s actually out there. 

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?

As a matter of practice at Mashery, we regularly poll developers about their pain points in order to learn which resources help best address the points they identify. We advise clients to make it a habit to actively listen to developers -- both inside and outside their company -- if they want to design an API that developers will use. Listening can take the form of monitoring Twitter, Quora, and Stack Overflow, setting the right Google alerts, but if you prioritize correctly, you should also schedule opportunities to listen to developers in person.