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The problem with so-called "web APIs" is that usually they function as a way to get users to "sign up" to a website in order to use it, then to track them by so

The problem with so-called "web APIs" is that usually they function as a way to get users to "sign up" to a website in order to use it, then to track them by some token, rate limit them at will or ask for fees. This is certainly not "accessibility". The common sense of the user is that either the information on a website is free or it is not free. But "web APIs" have tried to blur this clear distinction. The information is free only if taken in small amounts. Consume too much, too fast and it is not free. It is the Google model. Allow users to search public information on the web collected that Google collected for free from wesbites and has stored on its computers. But users may only query this public infromation in small amounts, and not "too fast". Otherwise users get blocked. Now some websites might claim they need the ability to rate limit because if too many users started accessing their website at Googlebot speeds, the websites performance would degrade. But can Google make that claim? Is their infrastructure really that brittle? We are continually bombarded with PR that suggests Google is state of the art. Is this really the era of "big data"? Users are restricted to very small data. The solution to any website performance being degraded by "too many" requests is to provide bulk data. For example, pjrc.org, where users can buy Teensy microcontrollers, makes the entire available as a tarball for users to download. The SEC traditionally provided bulk access to filings. There are countless other examples. Is this really the age of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc.? Teenagers and companies around the world build robots and the press gets excited. Yet websites block requests out of fear they are coming from "(ro)bots"? Is there something wrong with automation? (The majority of requests on the web are indeed from bots; using software to make requests, as Google and myriad other companies do, is far more efficient than manual typing, clicking, swiping and tapping.) Summary: The "Web API" is nothing more than an another senseless urging for users to "sign up" to receive free information. Not every "Web API" user is an app developer submitting to an app store, nor are they necessary running a "competing" website. Everytime a website collects unnecessary "sign up" credentials it is one more unnecessary risk for the user that those credentials will be leaked.

vhiremath4 9y ago
Web APIs are a mechanism and therefore a medium for many higher-level implementations. There is nothing that inherently makes it so web APIs blur this distinction of free or paid content. There is a point at which you are asked to enter payment information. You can hide this pay wall regardless of web API or a series of web pages. It’s based on how you order content and data. As for rate-limiting usage of a provider’s services, that’s what the terms are for. They’re providing the infrastructure and direcly covering the costs. It is an agreement between you and them to abide by their rules for what fair access is. If you disagree, no one is forcing you to pay and/or use that service. You may use another service or even start your own if you feel you can provide a better service. What you can’t do, however, is expect that these services provide some minimum threshold of computation power, especially at their ditect cost. Not unless it’s in the agreement you signed with them.

vhiremath4 9y ago

Web APIs are a mechanism and therefore a medium for many higher-level implementations. There is nothing that inherently makes it so web APIs blur this distinction of free or paid content. There is a point at which you are asked to enter payment information. You can hide this pay wall regardless of web API or a series of web pages. It’s based on how you order content and data. As for rate-limiting usage of a provider’s services, that’s what the terms are for. They’re providing the infrastructure and direcly covering the costs. It is an agreement between you and them to abide by their rules for what fair access is. If you disagree, no one is forcing you to pay and/or use that service. You may use another service or even start your own if you feel you can provide a better service. What you can’t do, however, is expect that these services provide some minimum threshold of computation power, especially at their ditect cost. Not unless it’s in the agreement you signed with them.