API Status is a free service provided by WatchMouse, a company which ” tests the behaviour and availability of websites, services and applications utilizing an infrastructure that includes over 50 worldwide remote monitoring stations and a global network of checkpoints in 26 countries.”
“WatchMouse conducts checks from an external perspective to replicate real-time user experience and writes transaction monitoring scripts to identify a wide variety of possible issues, from slow page response times, to monitoring the behaviour of forms such as login pages and shopping carts.”
For those unfamiliar with what an API is, according to WatchMouse, an API is, “An application programming interface (API) is a set of data structures, protocols, routines and tools for accessing a web-based software application. The practice of publishing APIs allows web communities to create an open architecture for sharing content and data between communities and applications. Content that is created in one place can then be dynamically retreived, posted and/or updated in multiple locations on the Web.”
In laymen’s terms, an API is a grand tool used by those with a website, blog, ect… because they guarantee that all programs using a common API will have similar appearance, work in a similar, thereby making it easier to share one’s content.
What API Status aims to do is provide a real-time status report for the most used Public APIs. It is a an easy, visually appealing, way for users of particular Public APIs to determine if one is down, or simply loading slow.
Further, the site provides Public API up-time, down-time and performance history, updated every five minutes from one of the 49 WatchMouse global monitoring stations.
API Status is an extremely useful tool for anyone utilizing the dozens of Public APIs listed on the site, and should be referenced anytime you experience a Public API acting oddly.
Tip of the hat goes to kottkie.org, @KOTTKIE for exposing us to API Status.
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