# The APIs That I Depend On For My Business

**Author:** kinlane  
**Canonical:** https://apievangelist.com/2012/08/02/the-apis-that-i-depend-on-for-my-business/

I maintain an active list of online services I depend on for my business, in Evernote. Each month I spend an hour or two maintaining this list, to make sure it is complete and actively change my logins when appropriate. As a recovering IT guy, and maintaining infrastructure for myself, but also [Audrey Watters](http://hackeducation.com "Audrey Watters")\--so I keep good tabs on the various services I use.

While going through this my services list this month, I added a new section to it, and started tracking if I depend on the service for their API. I have enough automated jobs running on top of APIs I needed to make sure I keep good track of which APIs I depend on. Here are some of the API I depend on to keep my business operational.

First I depend on a couple of key Google APIs:

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/google/gmail-logo.jpeg)](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/gmail/ "Gmail API")

**[Gmail](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/gmail/ "Gmail API")** - Integrate my daily emails, as well as email blasts with my administrative system

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/google/google-contacts-logo.png)](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/contacts/v3/ "Google Contacts API")

**[Google Contacts](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/contacts/v3/ "Google Contacts API")** - Keep business and individual profiles in my admin system in sync with my daily Google Contacts activity.

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/google/google-calendar-logo.png)](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/ "Google Calendar API")

**[Google Calendar](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/ "Google Calendar API")** - Publish hackathon calendars to Google Calendar as well as keep conferences, meetups and other events I pull through APIs and curate in sync

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/google/google-docs-icon.png)](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/documents-list/ "Google Docs API")

**[Google Docs](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/documents-list/ "Google Docs API")** - Publish copies of blog posts to Google Docs, as well as version of pages from my content management system to Google Docs

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/google/google-sites-icon.png)](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/sites/ "Google Sites API")

**[Google Sites](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/sites/ "Google Sites API")** - All of my research is in Google Sites. So I tend to publish lists of curated news, blog posts and other research to wiki pages under specific projects

Next, I would say Amazon Web Services delivers some pretty critical APIs I can't live without:

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/amazon/amazon-ec2-icon.png)](http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ "Amazon EC2")

**[Amazon EC2](http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ "Amazon EC2")** - I deploy and shutdown various EC2 instances for various jobs I run for API Evangelist. All APIs are managed on AWS EC2

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/amazon/amazon-s3-icon.png)](http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ "Amazon S3")

**[Amazon S3](http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ "Amazon S3")** - All heavy objects in my systems are stored at Amazon S3 including photos, PDFs, presentations and video

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/amazon/amazon-route-53-icon.png)](http://aws.amazon.com/route53/ "Amazon Route 53")

**[Amazon Route 53](http://aws.amazon.com/route53/ "Amazon Route 53")** - I use AWS Route 53 to manage the underlying DNS for all my applications and sites across multiple domains

Then there are an assortment of other APIs I use throughout my web sites and applications:

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/alchemy/alchemyAPI-logo.jpeg)](http://www.alchemyapi.com/ "AlchemyAPI")

**[AlchemyAPI](http://www.alchemyapi.com/ "AlchemyAPI")** - I use alchemy for content, keyword and author extraction on articles and site pages that I curate as part my daily routine

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/crunchbase/crunchbase-logo.png)](http://www.crunchbase.com/api "Crunchbase")

**[Crunchbase](http://www.crunchbase.com/api "Crunchbase")** - I pull company profiles from Crunchbase and use in my research and profile for API Evangelist

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/eventbrite/event-brite-logo.jpeg)](http://developer.eventbrite.com/ "Eventbrite API")

**[EventBrite](http://developer.eventbrite.com/ "Eventbrite API")** - I pull hackathons, meetups and conferences from EventBrite and use in my admin system

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/evernote/evernote-logo.jpeg)](http://dev.evernote.com/ "Evernote")

**[Evernote](http://dev.evernote.com/ "Evernote")** - I do all my note taking and recording of thoughts in Evernote, there are some folders I keep in sync with my admin system

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/flickr/flickr-logo.jpeg)](http://www.flickr.com/services/api/ "Flickr API")

**[Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/services/api/ "Flickr API")** - I've historically published a lot of public images to Flickr for SEO purposes, so many of my blog posts or events that I record a lot of images and video from get stored at Flickr using the API in my admin system

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/foursquare/foursquare-logo.png)](https://developer.foursquare.com/index "Foursquare")

**[Foursquare](https://developer.foursquare.com/index "Foursquare")** - I use Foursquare as a journal and pull the timeline into my admin system and apply as framework to my writing and traveling

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/api-evangelist/github/github-logo.png)](http://developer.github.com/v3/ "Github API")

**[Github](http://developer.github.com/v3/ "Github API")** - All my stories use Gists to display code and some of my larger productions have full repositories that I access via command line and via the API

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/paypal/paypal-logo.jpeg)](https://developer.paypal.com/ "Paypal API")

**[Paypal](https://developer.paypal.com/ "Paypal API")** - I handle subscriptions and white paper purchases via Paypal

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/pinboard/pinboard_in_blue.png)](http://pinboard.in/api/ "Pinboard API")

**[Pinboard](http://pinboard.in/api/ "Pinboard API")** - All my curation runs through Pinboard. Anything I bookmark while reading feeds or on the open web gets bookmarked with Pinboard, then with the API I pull into my admin system

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/programmableweb/programmableweb-logo.png)](http://api.programmableweb.com/ "ProgrammableWeb API")

**[ProgrammableWeb](http://api.programmableweb.com/ "ProgrammableWeb API")** - I use ProgrammableWeb's API to pull new APIs into my curation system

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/stackexchange/StackExchangeLogo1.png)](http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.0/usage "Stack Exchange API")

**[Stack Exchange](http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.0/usage "Stack Exchange API")** - I use stack exchange to monitor API activity on the forums and keep track of discussion counts for various APIs.

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/tumblr/tumblr-logo.png)](http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/api/v2 "Tumblr API")

**[Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/api/v2 "Tumblr API")** - I assemble some curated posts and summaries and publish to Tumblr via the API

[![](https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/apievangelist/api-evangelist/twitter/tweet-bird-blue-white.png)](https://dev.twitter.com/ "Twitter API")

**[Twitter](https://dev.twitter.com/ "Twitter API")** - Twitter is central to my API monitoring, ranking and curation system. I depend on the REST and Streaming APIs

I depend on these APIs to run [API Evangelist](http://apievangelist.com "API Evangelist"), [API Voice](http://apivoice.com "API Voice") and [The API Stack](http://theapistack.com "The API Stack") as well as support the other research and consulting that I do. Some of these services I pay for, some of them I use for free. Usually if a service sticks around in my world for more than 3 or 4 months I pay for some sort of premium account or access.

I’m sure I depend on a lot of APIs, partly because this is my game, I’m an API Evangelist. But it is also because APIs provide me with the data and resources I need to operate, and as a programmer I’m able to quickly put APIs to use for my business.

Tracking on the APIs I depend will be a regular part of my IT strategy, and I’m even going to publish this as a public page on my websites--showcasing what APIs have done for my business.