FriendFeed’s Latest API Spreads Real-Time Goodness

by editor on Jul.20, 2009, under TechCrunch

FriendFeed is launching version 2 of their API for beta testing today, adding a plethora of new features for developers to work with. We’ve written in the past that FriendFeed has long been in the driver’s seat for experimentation for social media and today’s announcement reinforces that thought.

With the new version of FriendFeed’s API, developers can replicate that real time stream feeling, direct message users from other apps/sites, and add file attachments. Developers can now add the never-ending stream of updates as a user interface feature, and the API supports “long polling” to be able to speed up how fast feeds show up in the stream.

The API also allows for OAuth support and simplifies an application’s response format. So a third-party application doesn’t really need to know the difference between a user and groups or how a “friend of friend” works in the interface. All of these entries include the HTML within the API, so this doesn’t need to be replicated, making it much easier on developers.

FriendFeed recently made search results real-time and has a few more real-time goodies in store for the site, including, track for topics (it already has it for people and groups).

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