I am working on my job currently and watching an interesting presentation about using a new API. API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface which is basically software that allows two or more apps to talk with each other in a way that makes it easy for a non-technical user to interact with the programs. APIs are basically all around us when it comes to technology. They help provide security because they usually act as an intermediary between a device and the server it is pulling data from. Programs use APIs to only pull the information said programs need instead of grabbing a bunch of information which can be interpreted or stolen by hackers. There is currently an economy based around APIs due to how valuable these interesting little programs are. APIs are regularly used by major corporations such as Google, eBay, Amazon, and Expedia as well as many others. Even Forbes has an article about the API economy which is based around offering APIs for various companies, hobbyists, and organizations to take advance of. This should give you some idea on why the people at my place of work find it so important that we have a new API and a new easy way to interact with the technology we have at our disposal. The APIs for Uber, for example, are loaned out from other businesses and not created in-house by the company (same with Visa and Salesforce.com which paid $6.5 billion of a management system for APIs), so having people within our company who actually make APIs that can be customized is a huge deal. The term API originated back during the 1960s and the 1970s. In general, most APIs that we talk about are web APIs (APIs for a web server or a web browser that is usual used for a web app's client side interaction with a computer program.
After this meeting and taking notes on the documentation for the API, I will probably spend some time watching videos online on YouTube. I might even watch some clips from the show American Dad and the new ICarly reboot (which I have to do because I do not have Paramount Plus. The only streaming services I have are SlingTV, Disney Plus, and Netflix). One of the people I am subscribed to will be streaming American Dad episodes and that is one of my favorite shows, so that is a fun little treat for myself after a decent week of work.
API is used for everything these days, even loading up any website today uses APIs, and doing anything on any website uses APIs too. I don't know any modern framework today that doesn't use APIs
@JustMegawatt Well yeah, APIs are pretty much all over the place which is why there is now an economy for them and why making them in-house is considered somewhat special.
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