ReadWriteWeb

With backing from the Sunlight Founation, non-profit CorpWatch launched CrocTail yesterday, an application to provide easy access to data from several hundred thousand publicly traded companies. We heard about it via Dion Hinchcliffe, a respected enterprise 2.0 consultant and blogger for ZDNet.

CorpWatch has also released the API they used to create CrocTail, one of only two to build structure around the filings data from the SEC's own EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) search system. The other, SEC Watch, was released in early March.

The Guardian just launched a new API which will allow third-party developers to access and reuse the Guardian's content database in their own applications. The new API is part of the Guardian's new Open Platform, which, as of today, consists of the API and a Data Store, but the Guardian also announced that it plans to offer more services in the near future. The Data Store is a collection of high quality data sets which are curated by the Guardian and hosted on Google Docs.

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Cloud computing has arrived. You can scarcely open a computer magazine or business journal without coming across an article about this transformative new approach to providing web-based services. Cloud computing is undoubtedly shifting the landscape. But what many observers miss is that, while cloud computing has arrived, only through APIs will its full business potential be realized.