Web APIs, not Web Services
26th May 2006
In Web Services are Dead, Long Live Web Services, Mark Nottingham suggests HTTP Web Services as a better phrase for discussing machine-to-machine communication using HTTP where the WS-* stack isn’t assumed.
I’d go a step further and say that the word “services” is ambiguous and confusing. I’ve met people who think that a Web Service is any application that you access over the Web—and it’s easy to understand their confusion.
I propose Web APIs as a better alternative. They’re APIs that you call over the Web. No Deathstar required.
Update: Joe Gregorio argues against the term API in this presentation from last year.
More recent articles
- AI assisted search-based research actually works now - 21st April 2025
- Maybe Meta's Llama claims to be open source because of the EU AI act - 19th April 2025
- Image segmentation using Gemini 2.5 - 18th April 2025