LOS ANGELES, USA: Yammer has announced the release of their API to outside developers. Yammer launched on stage won "Best in Show" at the Techcrunch50 conference recently.

With the release of the API, Yammer users should soon expect to have many of the same applications already available to users of other services such as Twitter.

Seesmic, developer of the popular desktop client twhirl, has already announced that it would use the API to add Yammer support in the coming weeks. This will allow twhirl users to post status updates to either Yammer or Twitter from a single place.

The API should also facilitate the development of new productivity tools and the integration of Yammer with project management systems like Trac.

In addition, companies will be able to develop their own proprietary applications.Yammer already offers its own iPhone, Blackberry, and Desktop applications, built as clients of the Yammer API.

"We are thrilled that Seesmic is already working on integrating Yammer into twhirl," said Yammer founder David Sacks. "The coming weeks should prove to be very exciting as developers start to release applications built with the Yammer API."

Yammer's API offers much of the functionality available to users through a web browser. This includes access not just to posting messages and reading feeds, but also to Yammer's unique features like tags, threaded discussions, and a company directory.

The API mirrors security settings on the Yammer website. It supports SSL, and network administrators can block access to the API if the user tries to log in from outside the company's IP range.

Network administrators can also simply turn off the API for their network if they do not want to permit third-party applications.