Using the API

has a simple JSON API.

Send a GET request to followcost.com using the Twitter user name: 

  GET /lof.json
The server responds (formated for clarity): 
  200 OK
  Content-Type: application/json
  
  {"milliscobles_all_time":141.93,
   "average_tweets_per_day":3.01034,
   "username":"lof",
   "twitter_created_at":"2008/01/24 11:21:43 -0600",
   "at_reply_index":55.0,
   "milliscobles_recently":147.92,
   "average_tweets_per_day_recently":3.13738,
   "statuses_count":1165,
   "golden_index":3.0,
   "profile_image_url":"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/twitter_production\/profile_images\/50450572\/75756154_N00_normal.jpg"}
There is an entry in the JSON hash for all of the data points, including our easter eggs. We may add more easter eggs in the future.

We also support callbacks (described succinctly by Yahoo!) for your JavaScript mashup needs. Callbacks allow you to make cross-domain API calls via pure JavaScript, ala jQuery's getJSON function. Just add a handy, dandy callback parameter to your URL string.

If the user does not exist on Twitter, the server will respond with a 404 error. Other errors (such as Twitter being down or exceeding the rate limit) will result in a 500 error.

calculations are cached on our server for a period of time so that not all requests will result in a call to Twitter's API. Therefore, a user's will not always be up-to-date, but that is OK. Just don't tell them that. ;-)

If you use the API on your site or application, we would appreciate an email letting us know and link back to our site. Thanks!

There are currently no API limits. We may impose one in the future to prevent abuse of our API.