Reuters Thompson is opening up the way people can use its content across the web by making available a limited range of non-commercial API opportunities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API) through the Reuters Lab.

Reuters could be looking to extend its distribution through this experiment as it will allow developers the change to build new editorial web-based applications using content from Reuters.

However, developers have to make requests to the lab for permission to develop new applications claims Mashable.