Readr is made possible by the multitude of websites and services that make their content available via RSS and other standards. In keeping with this spirit of openness, we offer programmatic access to Readr's functionality.

Every user's update stream is available through RSS, located at: http://readr.com/rss/user/USERNAME

Every user's friends stream is also available through RSS, located at: http://readr.com/rss/friends/USERNAME

Readr API

In addition, Readr has an API that allows access to a user's friends list, accounts list, etc. The API utilizes a RESTful interface (i.e., parameters are specified as HTTP GET/POST variables), and the results are returned as XML. In order to access the API, clients must supply a valid developer key.

To get started with the Readr API, apply for your developer key, and check out the Readr Google Group. The API is brand-new, so if you think we should add and/or change something, let us know!

Integrating services with Readr

Readr can be used as a very basic platform for notification, eliminating the need for specialized applications to build their own "social graph" handling. Any application which outputs RSS can use Readr as a way to deliver updates to users' friends. In the future, we will be adding more API support for parsing of multimedia content like photos and videos so that Readr can display content from your site better. We'll post on the Google Group when we're ready to roll this out, and (as always) your comments and feedback are appreciated.