I’m getting a lot of pings about Snapchat’s Context Cards. Some thoughts...

Yes they seem very familiar (edit: to work I did internally at Uber (but never saw the light of day)
Understanding intent and efficiently fulfilling it Is the only way anyone has made significant money on the Internet
Using existing and implicit behavior as context for predicting intent is an incredibly rich and untapped area for innovation. Particularly at the application level where there’s more signal and domain specialization
You can do two distinct things with your API strategy. 1) Use it as a form of distribution - taking a ride on other peoples innovation. 2) Create a surface area for innovation within your own app. The former is a no-brainer. The latter is a game changer.
Will it be enough to stem the bleeding for Snapchat? I don’t know. Imagine if this concept was baked into something growing and used by savvy users with somewhere to be, though.