Simon Willison’s Weblog

What company had the first API?

11th October 2010

My answer to What company had the first API? on Quora

They weren’t the first to have an API, but Flickr were the first consumer web site that really pushed the concept in my opinion. They originally promoted it as “you can always get your data back if you want to”, but they then greatly benefited from the ecosystem that grew up around it.