The way computer programs share data and functionality with other computer programs. APIs are an increasingly critical part of the Internet’s interconnection. Many say that the future of the Internet lies in APIs because they help distribute and combine content. On the Web, APIs are generally special URLs that give back machine-readable data, in formats like JSON or XML, rather than human-readable data, which is usually HTML. Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps all have APIs that allow other websites or computer programs to use their underlying tools. The New York Times and NPR have also released APIs that allow other programs to draw on archives of movie reviews, restaurant reviews and articles.