hebig.org/blog
personal webnode of Haiko Hebig

What's it all about?

Google released a SOAP-driven Web API, allowing the user to programmatically query the Google search-engine from the comfort of his favourite programming language. That is, the vast amount of Google data can be accessed as if Google were a script running locally, and what comes back? Data, ready for processing, not a web page. So what is it good for? No one can tell yet. For sure, this is the first Web Service worth thinking about, and quite possible, it will not only shape the future of Google itself, but will have impact on how we use the Internet only the release of Netscape had before. For a very basic example, see the Top 10 Hitbox on weblogs.com.

General Threads and Ressources

• Slashdot-Thread
• Metafilter-Thread
• O'Reilly primer - highly recommended

Implementations

• How to use the Google API in Movable Type
• SOAP_Google. a class based PHP Google web API interface by Sebastian Bergmann (author of fabulous PHPOpenTracker). For another PHP implementation, see also this site
• Ruby/Google - higher level abstraction layer for Ruby
• For implementations in a variety of other languages, see the SoapWare.Org directory.
• For help, discuss problems on the google.public.web-apis Google Group. See the Non-SOAP API thread for a discussion on the use of a pure HTML API.

Odds and ends

• Like always, Google introduces killer features without playing a single PR drum. The story didn't spread far from target audience journals like Slashdot: wired.com et al, generating much of the current noise around Web Services, didn't say a word, and can't do better than playing buzzword bingo.
• With the API, Google introduces Google Accounts, " the easy way to access all Google services that require a username and password. The initial service available with your Google Account is Google Web APIs - a tool for software developers to automatically query Google. In the future, your Google account will provide access to all Google programs requiring sign in including: Google Groups, Google AdWords, Google Store, Google in Your Language program."
• The former XML-interface is shut down. The new SOAP-based interface is limited to 1000 searches per day and 10 results per search - enough to demonstrate to developers the power of Google in their applications and making them upgrade their account to a more industrial strength version.
• Doing this, Google opens up a new way to earn money on the Internet: not making the standard (end-)user interface a pay-service, but billing the use the XML/SOAP-interface, which will most likely be mainly used by professional users. It will be interesting to see the pricing model Google will come up with.

Google software engineer Nelson Minar will be talking about Google and Web Services at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, May 13-16, 2002 in Santa Clara, CA.