ReadWriteWeb

Tropo is a cloud-based API for adding voice, SMS, IM and Twitter support to programming languages. The service runs on telecommunications company Voxeo's infrastructure. You can use Tropo to build voice operated phone menus, automated VOIP applications, voice mashups, SMS applications and more. Tropo is free for development. Once an application moves into production, customers are charged per minute for voice services or per message for SMS services. Customers pay for only what they use.

Mashery, a provider of API services, recently conducted a survey of attendees of its Business of APIs conferences in London, New York and San Francisco.The survey found that 64% of respondents cite "fostering third-party innovation" through APIs as a high priority for 2011. This was the most popular goal for API providers. The second most popular goal was "getting on as many devices as possible," which 41% of respondents cited as a high priority.

Mashery also announced new analytics capabilities this month, which will help API providers measure the business value of APIs as developers use those APIs to spread web services to multiple devices. Disclosure: Mashery is a sponsor of the main ReadWriteWeb site.

There are many reasons to love delicious and hope that it survives its current rocky patch, but as a programmer there's one thing I've found it essential for. I often write applications that need to process and organize thousands or millions of Web pages.

To do that, I need to know something about their meaning, what topics they're associated with, if they're blogs, political, technical, commercial, and what other categories they fall into. One way is run an API like Zemanta or OpenCalais on the pages' text, and hope to use significant terms to pick categories. This is an extremely intensive process on large collections, and even the best semantic analysis is nowhere near as good as a human summary. What if you could get millions of people to categorize the pages for you, for free?

UserVoice, one of our favorite idea management services, launched a new API today. UserVoice has completely revamped its API, which is available in two varieties: a free read-only version and a more powerful commercial version. The company built its new Facebook Page App and iPhone SDK using the new API.

The TweetSentiments.com API is now open to any developer interested in using Twitter for sentiment analysis. Brand monitoring is the most obvious application, but I'm sure a few of you will come up with more creative uses for the API. So far, only three calls are available. More information on how to use the API is available here.

TweetSentiments.com uses a machine learning method called support vector machines (SVM) to analyze sentiment on tweets, topics and users. It's available as either a service or as a stand-alone application that runs behind the firewall.

I was in a Point-of-View session at Defrag with Laura Merling of Alcatel-Lucent, Brian Mulloy of Apigee, and Clay Loveless of Mashery. Laura and Brian gave interesting talks, but since they went before me, I was too occupied to take notes. I did take notes for Clay's talk, however, since he went after me.

Clay gave six tips for making an API work:

Paul Hunkin is using the API of the New Zealand auction site TradeMe to realize an XKCD strip about a guy who uses a script to buy a random inexpensive from eBay everyday. In the original comic, the script buys one $1 item with free shipping each day. Hunkin's bot gets a $1 a day and has a one in three chance of buying something each day, so that it has the chance to buy some slightly more expensive items. It also filters items by rarity to increase the odds of purchasing something obscure. Hunkins has a Twitter bot that chronicles the script's bids and purchases.

Calling itself the "first ever APIs marketplace" and the "Etsy of Cloud Services," Mashape launches today with a service that's meant to make it easier for developers to gain access to cloud services and API components for their projects. Mashape also simplifies the ability to generate a simple ready-to-use API and add it to a marketplace, giving developers an opportunity for better distribution of their API - and to earn a little cash.

APIs are increasingly becoming an important way to distribute information and to access services, and APIs are quickly becoming a crucial part of companies' online products. In other words, it's no longer enough to simply have a website or an app; you need an API.

MapQuest, owned by AOL, has taken backseat to newer mapping services like Google Maps and Bing Maps of late. But the venerable driving directions site added some exciting new data to its open API: bike routing information. Users and developers will now be able to access routes optimized for biking through MapQuest's Open Directions Service.

With Thanksgiving and the holidays right around the corner, the urge to give may be welling up inside. Also welling up may be the laziness that comes with the cold, grey winter months, but don't let that stop you - giving can be as simple as a Tweet or Facebook update.

HelpAttack! is an Austin-based startup that connects your online activities with donations to the offline world and Twitter and Facebook are just the beginning for a company that looks to bring donations to the data-driven Web.