Public API Availability Survey
Introduction and Methodology
WatchMouse monitored the availability of 50 API/cloud web services during the period of February 16th to March 17th 2011. A real-time status of each of the API's and a seven day history can be found on api-status.com.
The methodology for testing the sites includes one simple API call and check for a valid result. This typically entails an authentication action step for most APIs (e.g. a login) followed by a search or listing action, plus a check of the expected result action. The expected result can immediately return as an error or, if the expected result action is reported after four seconds, it is also logged as an error. These errors are used to count towards the percentage of availability or uptime for each of the sites.
The different API's in this survey use a variety of protocols for authentication, as well as different protocols to send requests and retrieve the response data, like:
- REST with user/pass authentication
- SOAP
- oAuth
Next to the differences in protocol, each API also offers different functionality, like:
- listing your friends in a social networking application
- performing a search
- retrieving a file
- etc.
Most of the API's offer all of the mentioned functionalities, and all API's offer a wide range of function calls.
For the sake of this survey we selected just one function (the most simple one that requires authentication) per API.
This means that this survey does not cover an in-depth functional test of the full API's, but but provides an estimate of the availability and working functionality of each API.
If the authentication step failes, or if the action after authentication (e.g. "list friends") didn't return the expected result, an error is registered.
Also, if the whole interaction takes more then four seconds, and this is confirmed from a second monitoring station, an error is registered.
The API checks were performed every 5 minutes from the 56 WatchMouse monitoring stations worldwide.
The results are presented in the table and graph below.
AVAILABILITY
PR_REPORT_AVAILABILITY
| # |
API |
Popularity* |
REPORT_UPTIME |
REPORT_DOWNTIME |
| 1 |
Basecamp API |
13 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
Delicious update API |
154 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
eBay shopping API |
207 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
goo.gl API |
- |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
Google Buzz API (feed) |
6 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
Google Charts |
69 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
Google maps API |
2195 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
Google search API |
170 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
Quora API |
1 |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 1 |
SimpleGeo API |
- |
100.00 |
0 minuter |
| 11 |
bing search API |
34 |
99.98 |
9 minuter |
| 11 |
Rackspace Cloud API |
- |
99.98 |
9 minuter |
| 11 |
WatchMouse API |
7 |
99.98 |
9 minuter |
| 14 |
Twillio API |
150 |
99.95 |
22 minuter |
| 14 |
Facebook API login |
239 |
99.95 |
22 minuter |
| 14 |
Yahoo Maps API |
134 |
99.95 |
22 minuter |
| 17 |
Amazon AWS S3 |
73 |
99.93 |
31 minuter |
| 17 |
Yahoo BOSS API |
50 |
99.93 |
31 minuter |
| 19 |
Google App Engine API |
81 |
99.91 |
40 minuter |
| 20 |
Yahoo Search API |
139 |
99.89 |
49 minuter |
| 20 |
Yahoo Term Extraction |
36 |
99.89 |
49 minuter |
| 20 |
NetFlix oAuth API |
13 |
99.89 |
49 minuter |
| 23 |
Shopping.com API |
52 |
99.86 |
1 timme, 2 minuter |
| 24 |
last.fm API |
183 |
99.84 |
1 timme, 11 minuter |
| 24 |
YouTube feeds API |
551 |
99.84 |
1 timme, 11 minuter |
| 26 |
Flickr API |
567 |
99.81 |
1 timme, 25 minuter |
| 27 |
Upcoming.org API |
39 |
99.79 |
1 timme, 34 minuter |
| 27 |
Yelp API |
37 |
99.79 |
1 timme, 34 minuter |
| 29 |
Wikipedia API |
60 |
99.75 |
1 timme, 52 minuter |
| 29 |
Box.net API |
71 |
99.75 |
1 timme, 52 minuter |
| 31 |
vimeo Simple API |
16 |
99.72 |
2 timmar, 5 minuter |
| 32 |
Twitter friend timeline OAuth API |
552 |
99.69 |
2 timmar, 18 minuter |
| 33 |
Yammer oAuth API |
- |
99.65 |
2 timmar, 36 minuter |
| 33 |
Yahoo Image Search |
58 |
99.65 |
2 timmar, 36 minuter |
| 35 |
Orange SMS API |
- |
99.61 |
2 timmar, 54 minuter |
| 36 |
Best Buy Remix API |
5 |
99.58 |
3 timmar, 7 minuter |
| 37 |
bit.ly shorten API |
21 |
99.47 |
3 timmar, 57 minuter |
| 37 |
Live Spaces API |
5 |
99.47 |
3 timmar, 57 minuter |
| 37 |
identi.ca public timeline API |
5 |
99.47 |
3 timmar, 57 minuter |
| 40 |
foursquare API |
38 |
99.44 |
4 timmar, 10 minuter |
| 41 |
SoundCloud API |
11 |
99.37 |
4 timmar, 41 minuter |
| 42 |
Tweetmeme Core API |
4 |
99.33 |
4 timmar, 59 minuter |
| 43 |
Salesforce Soap API |
38 |
99.13 |
6 timmar, 28 minuter |
| 43 |
PayPal API |
- |
99.13 |
6 timmar, 28 minuter |
| 45 |
Digg API |
66 |
98.66 |
9 timmar, 58 minuter |
| 46 |
Gowalla API |
8 |
98.52 |
11 timmar, 1 minut |
| 47 |
GeoNames API |
78 |
97.47 |
18 timmar, 49 minuter |
| 48 |
Eventful API |
43 |
97.20 |
20 timmar, 50 minuter |
| 49 |
Posterous API |
2 |
97.17 |
21 timmar, 3 minuter |
| 50 |
MySpace Open Search API |
25 |
94.32 |
1 dag, 18 timmar, 16 minuter |
*) Source: programmableweb
RESEARCH_COVERS Basecamp API, Delicious update API, eBay shopping API, goo.gl API, Google Buzz API (feed), Google Charts, Google maps API, Google search API, Quora API, SimpleGeo API, bing search API, Rackspace Cloud API, WatchMouse API, Twillio API, Facebook API login, Yahoo Maps API, Amazon AWS S3, Yahoo BOSS API, Google App Engine API, Yahoo Search API, Yahoo Term Extraction, NetFlix oAuth API, Shopping.com API, last.fm API, YouTube feeds API, Flickr API, Upcoming.org API, Yelp API, Wikipedia API, Box.net API, vimeo Simple API, Twitter friend timeline OAuth API, Yammer oAuth API, Yahoo Image Search, Orange SMS API, Best Buy Remix API, bit.ly shorten API, Live Spaces API, identi.ca public timeline API, foursquare API, SoundCloud API, Tweetmeme Core API, Salesforce Soap API, PayPal API, Digg API, Gowalla API, GeoNames API, Eventful API, Posterous API, MySpace Open Search API.
PR_REPORT_THECOMPANY www.watchmouse.com
