I was looking around the Google Developer area as part of some regular work, and I noticed an interesting page Google has under their mapping session, that help users decide which API they need based upon their goals.
As the page says: "The API picker lists the most common things you may want to do on a map or with location-based data, and suggests the API that most suits your needs. For details about each API, follow the links to the related documentation."
I don't think that the table layout Google uses is a particularly good one, resulting in a pretty busy looking matrix. I don't think it is a perfect solution, but I like the idea of providing developers with some sort of assistance in understand which API to use, based upon their goals.
This is something that a larger API provider would probably do, but a simple little needs calculator that could help users translate what they are looking for into what the API does, is an interesting concept to play with for some API providers.
