EBay Opens Dev Program, APIs To All ComersEBay Opens Dev Program, APIs To All Comers

EBay Inc. on Monday said it has dropped its fees for members of its developers program, which enables Web programmers to incorporate EBay services into sites.

In addition to access to EBay application programming interfaces, developers also get at no charge membership to the program, certification and live technical support, the San Jose, Calif., company said. The free API calls are available only to program members placing calls using the unified schema that eBay announced in February 2005.

"By eliminating the fees associated with eBay Developers Program membership, we hope to encourage new ideas and accelerate the growth of our developer and affiliate communities who are taking the eBay buying and selling experience to the next level," Greg Isaacs, director of the eBay program, said in a statement.

EBay, Amazon.com Inc. and other Internet companies make their APIs available to developers in order to expand their network among third-party sites. Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. also do the same in order to build a bigger network for advertisers.

EBay developers have the option of promoting their applications in the eBay Solutions Directory, a directory of third-party applications designed to enhance buying and selling on eBay.

EBay says its developer program has more than doubled over the last year to 21,000 members and more than1600 member-developed applications.