Today, we are announcing the public availability of Glue API.
The API enables 3rd party developers to build Glue applications that leverage the way people connect with things around the web. The applications can leverage information from individual users as well as a rich set of aggregate popularity information.
The API is entirely REST based and relies on HTTP authentication. The developers need a Glue account to start using the API, and don’t need to request any special keys. Currently the API is free and limited to 5,000 calls per day. For more usage developers should email support@getglue.com.
Expanding Semantic API Family
Glue API joins the growing family of Semantic Web APIs. Previously, OpenCalais from Reuters enabled developers to automatically identify People, Places, Companies, etc. inside unstructured text. Zemanta API, similar in spirit, automatically identifies appropriate tags as well as related content around the web. Dapper API enables developers to define the rules for extracting structured content out of the web pages. Freebase and Evri API’s enable developers to access dictionary topics in a structured way and to tap into relationships between the concepts.
Glue API compliments the existing Semantic Web API family in two important ways. First, it brings the exciting social dimension to the equation, revealing how people connect around things and concepts instead of pages. Secondly, Glue enables developers to get meta data and related links for books, music, movies, video games, topics, stocks, stars, artists, wine from hundreds of popular sites, turning these sites into databases.
Glue API Features
1. Individual Attention
- Access user lifestream
For each user get the lists of recent books, music, movies and other things they are interested in. - User Profiles
Rich profiles with list of likes, claimed services as well as the lists of friends and followers. - Send in updates
Post visits, likes, comments and replies on behalf of Glue users from your application.
2. Social Attention
- Find people around things
For any book, movie or an album lookup users interested in it.
3. Aggregate Attention
- Get Popular Lists
Get the lists of popular books, movies, music - made fresh daily. Also, get top Glue users by category. - Stream Glue Activity
Get an instant stream of Glue activity to see what books, movies, and albums users are checking out right now.
4. Object Meta data
- Web-wide meta data
Send in a link to an object on a Glue site and get back structured information about it. - Object index
Send in an object key and get back the list of links to this object on popular sites.
Glue API Examples: Stream and Quilt
For this launch we have built a few applications that show you cool things you can do with Glue API. They are live right now and lots of fun to play with. Glue stream shows you what is happening on Glue right now. Watching it is like watching the pulse of the web. Quilt is the opposite, since it displays the aggregate of what was popular on Glue in the last seven days. For each object you can see the rank and the people who made it popular.
Got an idea for a Glue App or how to integrate Glue with your service? Go for it! We are here to support you and to help you rock the world using our API. We look forward to seeing what you will build.
