Genius is really cool service (founders/owners aside) and I love it for song lyrics. An API into their backend sounds appealing but without some contract that keeps them from shutting down the API with little to no notice or pulling a twitter/soundcloud/netflix/etc I can't even begin to think about building on top of this (for anything but little fun side projects/POC's).
Genius API
11–20 of 31 posts
Re: Genius API
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't this a concern with most APIs? (Even paid ones can shut down, like Ordrx recently)
The problem I see with companies providing an API on top of their service is that their core business comes first, API second. So if someone were to use their API to build something that takes traffic from their core business, they will shut it down. Whereas a company whose sole business is providing an API won't run into that same problem. And I can't blame the companies for making that decision either, why should t…
It seems to me like this gives the company free ideas and feedback they can then turn around and implement in their core business. Is this too simplistic, or is this simply not practiced enough?
Re: Genius API
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually think this has a ton of potential. Quick example would be documentation for some framework. Users can comment directly on confusing parts of some documentation, and after some discussion, it can be edited to fix whatever confusion there was. That's just one example, I think anywhere you have big blocks of text this will be handy. Even simple things like marking typos in an article would be much easier if e…
Good point. Now, the question is, are the annotations available for download? If not, why bother? Annotations are useful if they can be saved and moved (just like bookmarks).
You could use the API to export all your annotation data
Re: Genius API
#14Genius is really cool service (founders/owners aside) and I love it for song lyrics. An API into their backend sounds appealing but without some contract that keeps them from shutting down the API with little to no notice or pulling a twitter/soundcloud/netflix/etc I can't even begin to think about building on top of this (for anything but little fun side projects/POC's).
but without some contract that keeps them from shutting down the API
Hello. Welcome to every API ever.
Re: Genius API
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't this a concern with most APIs? (Even paid ones can shut down, like Ordrx recently)
The problem I see with companies providing an API on top of their service is that their core business comes first, API second. So if someone were to use their API to build something that takes traffic from their core business, they will shut it down. Whereas a company whose sole business is providing an API won't run into that same problem. And I can't blame the companies for making that decision either, why should t…
Right, but that's the case with all APIs.
If your business model is entirely dependent on margins with other companies' APIs (free or paid), a price increase for those APIs would put you out of business anyways. The concern shouldn't be "What if they charge more for this API?", the concern should be "Why is my business so dependent on this company's APIs?"
Re: Genius API
#16I am very hesitant to build anything on a free API like this nowadays, after seeing what happened to the Twitter API, and more recently, the Soundcloud API. I don't feel comfortable building an app using their API, and then having them shut you down for whatever reason they come up with.
And the Facebook API. And Google APIs. I think this is more about APIs than about specific vendors.
Re: Genius API
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. Now, the question is, are the annotations available for download? If not, why bother? Annotations are useful if they can be saved and moved (just like bookmarks).
You could use the API to export all your annotation data
Nice. Is that a future proof feature? Will I be able to download the data in any point in the future? After being punched in the mouth but other APIs I'm wary of integrating without some understanding of what the future might look like.
Re: Genius API
#18I created a modest Genius API (http://genius-api.com/) when these guys had nothing out there, but still keen to try out their own creation.
I do wonder though how they will react to people using the API to make money off a webpage or an app.
Re: Genius API
#19APIs can shut down, bummer. But it's more of a bummer to never use them in the first place.
It'd be rad if you could integrate with Genius' API in such a way that if they ever shut it down, or you want to switch to another annotation service for any reason, you would only have to point to another annotation provider instead of rewriting all the syntax/semantics of the integration.
Sound cool? Get involved with:
* W3C Web Annotation WG: http://www.w3.org/annotation/
* OpenAnnotation Ontology: http://www.openannotation.org/spec/core/
* W3C Social WG and Vocabulary: http://www.w3.org/TR/2015/WD-activitystreams-vocabulary-2015...
Re: Genius API
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could use the API to export all your annotation data
Nice. Is that a future proof feature? Will I be able to download the data in any point in the future? After being punched in the mouth but other APIs I'm wary of integrating without some understanding of what the future might look like.
You'll have to create a backup service to periodically export your annotations.