API is the abbreviation for Application Programming Interface. Well, you may have already known that. What you may not have known is that you interact with it on a daily basis. More than that, we bet you come into contact with them more than you think. Are you curious about where these APIs are hiding and what exactly they do? Then be sure to read on and find out in this blog!
You read in the introduction that you come into contact with APIs on a daily basis - if you do use devices such as a smartphone, tablet or PC. Are you thinking to yourself "I don't, otherwise I would have noticed"? You do. Often they are hidden behind actions you do out of habit - without really thinking. But they are there.
Everyday things where you interact with APIs
So if these so-called APIs can really pass us by without us noticing them, where exactly are they hiding? We look at some concrete examples where you where they play an important role in your search and user experience.
1. Find a hotel
Soon you will have a few days off, high time to get away from it all again. City trip to Barcelona, sounds good! In the evening you would like to be able to eat near your hotel, so you decide to look for a hotel near the city center. Google is your best friend. You open your browser and type in a search query that probably looks something like this: 'hotel downtown Barcelona'.
The search has only just begun and believe it or not, there the APIs are already there. At that point you ask Google to list the hotels located near the center of Barcelona. - Of course, here you already make your search as precise as you want by adding more keywords to your query, but the principle remains the same.
To collect all the data as quickly as possible, Google needs a little help. So that's where your browser uses APIs, which scour the entire net for information that meets your criteria.
You "ask a question" to Google. In response, your browser translates your question and collects the necessary information through a whole series of APIs. That way, you get to see a number of search results that you can work with. Found information? Super!
All the useful information for your search will appear on your screen. The first set of results - sponsored or not - are most likely to be websites that compare hotels in terms of price, location, amenities, ... Consider, for example, one of the most famous websites in that set: Trivago. To show you the best deals of the moment, Trivago also uses a tool. Hello there second set of APIs!
2. Consult the weather of your destination
A few days before you leave on your trip, you obviously check what kind of weather you can expect at your vacation destination. How else do you know what to pack and what not to pack? You open your browser and type in something like 'weather forecast Barcelona'. Immediately an overview of the weather for the coming week appears on your screen. For now, Google does not have its own "weather service," but searches for weather forecasts on other websites and sources on the Internet via an API. So you will quickly get the correct weather forecast within seconds.
3. Signing up with a social media account
On any website or online store these days, you have to create an account. Then you either choose to leave your e-mail address and a password, or you use one of your social media accounts to sign in. Websites like Spotify and Netflix use this feature. Ever thought about how it is that you can use these to sign in? Thanks to APIs, of course! The API forms a door between the website you want to create an account on and, for example, your Facebook account.
We could go on and on like this. The possibilities with APIs are endless and also keep evolving further and further.
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