How Does API Search Work?

[kinlane]

API search is hard. We haven't seen a successful solution emerge in the last 20 years, and I think we need to think differently when it comes to this problem, taking incremental steps towards testing out what people (and systems) need when it comes to discovering APIs.

I won't go into the larger world of API discovery on this thread, and would like to keep just focuse don how API search works across APIs. I built in four distinct layers of search to begin with.

1. APIs.json - Each published APIs.json provides a modular index of an API operation in standard format.
2. APIs.io API - You can search for APIs indexed across APIs.json using keywords in title, description, tags.
3. APIs.io Website Search - You can search for APIs via autocomplete keyword search returning 25 results.
4. Google Search - Each API has a static detail page which can be indexed and searched for via Google search.

That is it. That is all I have now. I'd like to see more search solutions emerge that build on these four dimensions. Now there is a key addition to this conversation -- the APIs.io Rating System. This is ultimately what drives which way APIs get sorted via the API and the website search.

I can see providing a standard pagination search results page as part of the website search, but I'd like to hear more answers to the following:

• How should search work?
• How is search different from Google?
• How is search the same as Google?
• How will people search for APIs?
• Why will people search for APIs?

[kinlane]

I feel like API search will have to evolve with latest AI evolution and become more conversational, rather than like web search.