[yati]

> HTTP/HTML is also an API, just a bit more cumbersome to parse than JSON.

No it's not, HTML can change anytime. It is meant for human consumption. "API" has the word "Interface" in it because there is a well defined interface to a service, and is documented, and is meant for machine use predominantly.

> API key

While I agree with you, I also think it is important to be able to disable applications that might be misusing the API quickly.