Google's Featured API's

A rundown of the current Google API services and tools

by Rupert Sharp
of http://www.oyster-web.co.uk

Last updated: 13 Feb 2008

I was in a curious mood so decided to have a look at the good ol' code.google.com to have a look at the current featured api's they have to offer and give a brief description of each as I saw them.

1 Android: Android as some of you may know is Google's new and flashy open-source mobile platform, that allows it's users to create their own applications, change phone settings, build functions and basically have freedom to change the whole system to how they personally would like to have it. This is quite an interesting idea, probably sped up by apples ever-growingly popular iPhone system that has a wealth of options and applications. The Android section offers the software and knowledge to have you start making your own applications for Android, you may get the central information about the way the phone-system works, how to edit it and the SDK for gratis. Definitely something that may expand and become popular in future due to it's sheer openness of design to beginners and hard-core programmers.

2 Google AJAX Feed API: This is quite interesting, basically it is a service that allows you to easily integrate live public feeds into your site or page to create “RSS mashups” so you can display a collection of your chosen feeds to others who navigate to the page. This can be done by simply putting a piece of developed Javascript onto your page much like the gadgets that you can get for your iGoogle homepage. An example of a RSS feed mashup can be found on the API page.

3 Google AJAX Search API: This API allows you to include search boxes that display Google results in your pages, these include regular search results, Google maps results and multimedia search (YouTube & image search). I'm not sure if it's this section but I'm sure it's also possible to have a search box that searches your own site for results, it does hint at something like that on the description “or use the results in innovative, programmatic ways” whatever you want I guess?

4 Google Calendar APIs and Tools: Google Calenders API's are applications and add-on like calender 'tools' that you can use on your website. The main categories are the embeddable calenders; which can be generated from your own Google calender and placed in any page you want, the calender 'gadgets'; that are small icons that you can place on your Google calender which can do what ever you want such as attaching an image of the event and finally Google event publishers; these are buttons that you program with your upcoming event and when a user clicks on it the code in it writes a note of it in their Google calender. I recently checked out Google Calender and it seems excellent and definitely useful if you're a business that wants to publicise events easier. Definitely cool.

5 The Google Chart API: I've written an article previously on this if you want to know more, basically Google charts allow you to create dynamically changeable visual charts from an image address combined with parameters. It's definitely useful and makes displaying information easier and more attractive.

6 Google Checkout APIs: An eCommerce shopping cart and purchase processing software package, this gives you full instructions of how to integrate Google Checkout into your site. This seems quite a good deal for budding online shops as it seems fully customisable for whatever your selling. It also combines with Adwords and Analytics.

7 Google Gadgets: I quite like this one, if any of you have got an iGoogle page you'll know that there are 'gadget' boxes that you can add and play around with such as games and social media apps. The Google Gadgets section of the API area allows you to design, name and publish your gadget to the Google Gadget library for others to use. You may also place that gadget on your own site(s) and Google will host it for you. Your gadget can basically do whatever you want it to providing it falls within Google's rules, you simply code it in XML/HTML/JavaScript, publish it then you can add it to your iGoogle homepage. Unfortunatly the Google online coding screen/system is unbelievably unreliable, sometimes it doesn't save your code right or write multiple copies of your code or flick your mouse up to the top of the screen.

8 Google Gears: Gears are confusing, what it seems to me is some form of local server and database that caches your web applications so you can use it on your machine offline. It claims that this will allow you to view HTML, Javascript etc. on your browser ever when your offline... but I thought you could already do that? Also it contains a program that allows you to increase application responsiveness.

9 Google Maps API: I'm sure we've all seen Google maps, well this API allows you to customise a map 'box' that you can place on your site that will make it easier to point direction to areas you may be talking about or even your company location. But apart from giving the user a basic pointer to certain area's you can also customise it to do other things and receive different data from the maps application using the new 'mapplets'.

10 OpenSocial: Opensocial is a Google & community driven initiative to create a collection of social networking addon's and patches that allow users to add their own applications to their pages and also so that the information from those sites can be easily portable to different mediums. For example you could have a widget on your website with your MySpace friends in it that people could click to get to their pages. A lot of sites already allow 3rd party application such as Myspace, Bebo, Facebook and Orkut. You can join up for a 'sandbox' account to create your own applications as the full movement is an ongoing project and has not been deemed completed yet, but Google still welcomes other developers to chip in.

11 Social Graph API: This application allows web-developers of any form of network to utilise a graph of connected users on other sites to ensure communication happens on the site. For example you join a new social networking site but your not entirely sure if it's worth going to all the bother of finding people you know by searching for them, Social Graph API is intended to allow developers to automatically make connections with people you have befriended on other sites (providing of course they are on that site themselves). This initiative is intended to make it less hassle for users and developers alike, as developers obviously want people to communicate if they own a S.N.

12 Themes API: The Themes API allows you to create new personalised themes for your iGoogle homepage. You can achieve this by making a simple static layout or if you want to have something that's dynamic you can do a bit of coding in XML and you add things such as time-of-day settings. Pretty cool, I've noticed though that most of the other layouts have larger fonts than the Google main ones, I'm not sure if that was just the ones I happened upon or whether it's a across the board job, like a badly set default font-size or something.

13 Google Web Toolkit (GWT): Although looking like an upside down Greenwich mean time, Google toolkit allows you to create dynamic Java/AJAX applications using helpful tools and services, this has been created to allow programmers who are not experienced in the classic cross-browser compatibility development method to write an application in Java which is then translated through GWT to Javascript and HTML with cross-browser issues already dealt with.

14 Picasa Web albums: This application allows you to integrate Google's online photo album technology with your own web-pages by making a browsable gallery for your visitors to view. If you haven't been on picasa before it is basically an online/offline web application that you can store and search photo's on. The flexibility of the code means programmers can customise the display of the Picasa images without using any form of set layout box, this obviously seems a good tool for saving bandwidth apart from anything as you can show visitors to your site your images without having to host them yourself.

15 YouTube Data API: You'll never guess what this one does! With YouTube API you can insert video's into your applications and pages, also allow search for information on YouTube users and so on. I think the most simple example of this is the 'embedded' code you can get on a YouTube video that allows you to put it where you want. The only problem I find is if that user removes the video from YouTube, you're left with a 'Video Has Been Removed' message across your video which doesn't look that good.

Well that's pretty much it, one thing that I spotted on the Google Maps API community section was Walkscore this seems quite an interesting application of the map technology to show house-buyers how walkable the area they may be moving into is (how many pedestrian walks and shops are close to where you are, whether you need a car to live there or not etc.). Well worth a look just for the shop listings in your area.