Alex Bosworth writes on How To Provide a Web API. 

In a world where people are making interdependent webservices, API design and maintenance is pretty important. Unfortunately despite rising use and availability of APIs, there are significant problems with the way even big API vendors are deploying and maintaining their APIs.

What are a few simple rules for providing a web API?

1. Keep it clean and simple
2. Stick to standards
3. Make it about data
4. Keep it working
5. Design for updates

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Good, common-sense design principles, but Alex gives examples where they aren’t followed even by the likes of Flickr, Google, and Yahoo.