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Ask HN: What service should have an API, but doesn't?
I often have ideas for fun projects that hit a brick wall when I discover that a popular service I _assumed_ had an API in fact does not.
Examples: Netflix, Kindle, ClassPass, OpenTable.
Often these services do have _some_ kind of API—but it's super limited and/or only available to huge enterprises.
I'm curious if other people on HN run into this problem—and if so, what's the #1 service you wish had a powerful, startup-friendly API?
- AznHisoka 7y agoThis is an easy one for me: Google Search
- Raed667 7y agoHow would they display ads in an API form?
- AznHisoka 7y agoI'd be interested in just the organic search results returned in API format.
- surds 7y agoThat would be great, but they would never do that. It would make studying the organic search results much easier, allowing folks to better reverse-engineer the search algo; and game the system to a greater extent.
- AznHisoka 7y agoYep, that's true. The OP asked what I wanted. I know it's a pipe dream.
- unlinked_dll 7y agoIf I ran a popular consumer facing service, I would definitely not be inclined to provide a developer API. That's a risky business proposition. And as a startup I wouldn't hitch my business to a developer API on such a service, which is an even riskier business proposition. That said, I'd love it if Netflix or Pornhub provided their VOD infrastructure as a service. There's a lot of space for content platforms that don't compete with them directly, but are infeasible to get off the ground. I think a better question then isn't, "which services should have APIs?" but "which companies should provide IaaS?"
- yen223 7y agoOnline banks. I can understand why securely exposing an API for banking details would be challenging, but I would love a way to access my account statements and daily transactions programatically, without having to pass my credentials to shady 3rd-party apps.