It looks like everyone has blissfully forgot that API access is often one of the first things to go/get significantly limited once companies reach monopoly velocity (i.e. competition exit velocity).
APIs are awesome, but we need APIs that don't break. I think that happens one of two ways:
- APIs built on scraping (EULAs make this untenable -- companies will just login-wall everything that isn't already)
- Standards-compliant APIs that lock companies into complying to be able to even compete with the others that are standards-compliant (ex. if your API doesn't comply with the SimpleAccountingV1 standard, no one would dare use it)
APIs are awesome, but we need APIs that don't break. I think that happens one of two ways:
- APIs built on scraping (EULAs make this untenable -- companies will just login-wall everything that isn't already)
- Standards-compliant APIs that lock companies into complying to be able to even compete with the others that are standards-compliant (ex. if your API doesn't comply with the SimpleAccountingV1 standard, no one would dare use it)