Mashery, the leading provider of API (Application Programming Interface) management and strategic services, revealed key insights from the Mashery API Developer Pulse, a study that polled more than 550 mobile and Web application developers at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) event in March 2010. The Mashery Developer Pulse asked industry leading developers to sound off about the APIs they choose to build with and why as well as asking general questions about the development environment today. Developers put Google, Twitter and Amazon at the top of the list for the “best APIs” available for application development, and also revealed a long tail of dozens of APIs that developers enjoy working with on a regular basis.

1. Mashery API Developer Pulse Results!
May 5, 2010!

2. Question 1
What are the best API’s out there for developers?
Best Buy/Remix # of % of
Selections
Responses Responses
CafePress
Foursquare Google 283 34%
Yahoo Flickr
Google Twitter 183 22%
Other
Amazon 107 13%
Other 105 13%
Yahoo 49 6%
Facebook 38 5%
CafePress 26 3%
Amazon
Flickr 14 2%
Best Buy ../
Remix 12 1%
Twitter
Foursquare 11 1%
• Total Registration Survey Size – 502

3. Question 2
What are most helpful to you as developers?
Question 2
Code
Samples
Clear API
400 License terms
in plain English SDK
Toolkits
200 Docs
0 Other
# of % of
Selections Responses Responses
Code Samples 357 33%
Clear API License
terms ..in plain English
267 25%
SDK Toolkits 244 23%
Docs 182 17%
Other 22 2%
• Total Registration Survey Size – 542

4. Question 3
Do you build services and apps with APIs...
Question 3
For both
For your own personal projects
For your employer: 30+
For your employer: 6 to 30
For your employer: 1 to 5
For your employer
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
• Total Registration Survey Size – 550

5. Question 4
Why do you work with APIs?
Question 4
# of % of
Selections Responses Responses
Fun, Fame & Glory 267 37%
My employer pays me to 257 36%
Make extra money outside of my day job 120 17%
Other 70 10%
Fun, Fame
& Glory My employer
pays me to
300
200 Make extra
money outside
of my day job
100
Other
0
• Total Registration Survey Size – 530

6. Question 5
What programming languages are you using?
Question 5
# of % of Python
Selections Objective C
Responses Responses JavaScript
.Net/VB
JavaScript 346 24%
PHP 339 24% Ruby
Flash/Flex 206 15%
Java 153 11%
Ruby 122 9%
.Net/VB 95 7% Java
Objective C 86 6% PHP
Python 69 5%
Flash/Flex
Other 0 0%
• Total Registration Survey Size – 530

7. Question 6
What platforms do you build applications for?
Question 6
Online/browser
Mobile
Online/Widget
Desktop
(Silverlight, AIR)
Hardware
# of % of
Selections
Responses Responses
Online/browser 445 41%
Mobile 346 32%
Online/widget 165 15%
Desktop (Silverlight, AIR) 94 9%
Hardware 34 3%
• Total Registration Survey Size – 540