A Good Recipe

This morning, I was pleasantly greeted with an optimistic text saying “Mostly Clear today! With a high of 84F and a low of 72F.” I think the best part about this, besides the fact that I did not forget to check the weather for once, is that I got a taste of optimism so early in my day. In this regard, I think IFTTT is a beautiful way of customizing my API use to its fullest.

According to Jer Thorp in his article “Art and the API”, APIs are already architectural feats to get data from one place to another. However, I think IFTTT takes this architecture to another level by breaking down the walls between APIs and allowing a person to reorganize the way they send and receive data. In addition to that, the design of the site is soooooooo user-friendly! I only have to click a few buttons in a few seconds to link my apps, and the text is really big to tell you “THIS STEP IS SUPER EASY”. It’s just one of those “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?” ideas.

Then again, when I compare IFTTT to the generic examples in Jim Campbell’s Formula for Computer Art, it’s pretty clear that IFTTT is a straightforward input-output design. However, what makes this so genious is that IFTTT’s output reaches every single person on a personal level through the APIs that basically define our networking world.

I also think IFTTT has a long way to go because many great APIs are still missing from the list (snapchat anyone?), and the action and trigger options are still relatively narrow unless you know how to customize RSS feeds. That said, I just joined and I am already hugely optimistic about what this may become in the future.