Can’t we all just get along?
The Internet’s gradually becoming a smaller place: we all know about next door’s Website and we want to borrow a metaphorical cup of sugar from time to time.
Pre-Web 2.0 this was virtually impossible or would involve lots of complicated things talked about by men who dress up as orks on Sundays. Now thanks to XML, HTTP and lots of cool things talked about by people who eat in sandwhich bars with French names, functionality and information can be passed around easily.
Web Services
Web Services allow two Internet-connected computers to communicate via XML to swap information.
The technology is used heavily by Microsoft and integrated into ASP.NET and is completely invisible to the naked eye, like all the best machine-to-machine communications.
APIs
An API (an Application Programming Interface) is a way of making information or functionality available in a standardised format, to a developer.
If you use Twitter with an application like Twhirl or you use a Facebook application, you’re using something that communicates via an API.
