API: API (application programming interface) is an interface that allows one software application to interact with another. In social media, the API is what allows sites like Twitter to be used through desktop applications such as TweetDeck or mobile applications like UberTwitter. Shared APIs also allows users’ Twitter updates to display on their Facebook page, and vice versa, and it’s how YouTube videos are able to be embedded on other sites and blogs. As long as developers can take advantage of public APIs, the number of new social media tools and apps will continue to increase, and the capabilities of the most popular networks will continue to amaze.

Past Words of the Week

Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags