saynotopremium.co.uk

After having been on the message boards at saynoto0870.com these last few days I now realise that it’s imperative to have an open API to the numbers database. There are so many developers on the saynoto0870 message boards who are desperate to use the data to create all sorts of wonderful applications - often offering to do it in their own time for free, and they are all getting flatly ignored by the site admin.

When you couple that with the fact that the saynoto0870 site hasn’t upgraded or shown an ounce of innovation since it was set up, that’s pretty annoying. The service could be so much better than it is and people are literally begging to improve it. For free. But still the site owner won’t budge, desperate to hold on to their sacred ad revenues at all costs, presumably frightened that an API will tempt people away from the site and from the google ads.

Apart from anything else I think it’s a major disservice to all the users who have contributed to the numbers database over the years, what are they getting back? not much from what I can tell. Anyway I don’t think an attitude like that is sustainable, especially not for a small company that depends on the goodwill of it’s readership for it’s entire business.

I’m confident that opening up an API to the saynotopremium database can only be a good thing, there is indeed a chance that the site traffic will dip as people use their preferred method of access (be that a firefox plug-in or a desktop widget or an iPhone application). But I strongly suspect that it will mainly result in more people finding out about, and using the service. And that means more people saving money by dialing the cheaper alternative to the premium numbers that companies give out. And that, at the end of the day is what it’s all about.

Get in touch if you’re a developer and want to help out, what API would you like to see implemented first? I’ll probably do an XML and a JSON one to start with, but I’m happy to prioritize according to demand.