Let Developers Register for Your API with Their Github Profile

by Kin Lane on 07/18/2012

I was playing with Singly, a unified social API last night. One of the first things I saw, after landing on the home page, were two choices for signing up as a developer--one with Facebook or the other with my Github account.

I’m seeing Github as an option for API developer registration, more frequently these days. And it makes sense. Each of my social networks have a place in my life--Facebook is my more personal social network, Twitter my more public persona, Google is my business platform and Github reflects my developer profile.

When registering for APIs and development centric platforms I’d much prefer to keep these associated with my Github profile. And for an API owner it makes sense to have developers linked using Github, because of the social effects and interactions possible with code library repositories and documentation.

With two clicks I was signed up for Singly, using my Github, and I dropped into the dashboard where I was given an option to add my first application and begin integrating.

Developer registration using Github should be standard operating procedure for all APIs. Github is the social network I want APIs to interact with me on, and it is definitely where API owners want to connect with their developers, so they can further interact around code, documentation and all the other geeky goodness Github provides.