How does a REST API differ from URI?

Question

The MSDN Documentation on BLOB Service REST API leads to the understanding that REST API and URI are same.Can anybody explain the difference between REST API and URI?

Answer 1

A URI is used to identify a resource on the web (and other places).

A RESTful API uses URIs and HTTP GET/POST/PUT/DELETE to perform CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations on a web service.

One of the key identifying characteristics of a REST api is that the URIs are used to directly identify resources rather than web service methods that return resources

e.g.
REST: http://example.com/api/books/1
Non REST: http://example.com/api/getbook?bookId=1