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Then again, we're yet to see the sort of buzz around these APIs that Google was able to muster. Where are the Yahoo equivalents of GoogleBrowser, Googlism and GoogleAlert? Guess there's still something more emotionally exciting about Google, at least for now...

But who will be the first to throw open the floodgates and actuallly provide unlimited API querying at a price? Businesses (such as (plagiarism detection), (rank tracking) and (advanced alerting) are starting to be built out of this stuff, so there's obviously a genuine economy out there for the taking.

Until the other search engines release competing APIs (hopefully with a higher than 1000 query limit), Google will remain top dog from the POV of /. types.

Does this mean that I've been missing a huge amount of important information until now? I'd just assumed that Google covered the entire relevant web but now it seems to cover the whole same amount again. My Google alerts also seem to have started producing a lot more results which suggest that a lot of these new pages are rated quite highly. Who knows how much more quality content on the web we're just not seeing?

What's this? A slashdot story not about Google? Quick... here's some links on Google and RSS. Phew!

Seems like Google are moving away from static browse-only-when-you-want-to information provision to dynamic, in-your-face services. Just some examples: email, alerts (like this third party) and SMS. In all cases, Google are getting a more dynamic relationship with their customers - giving more and (as they no doubt hope) advertising more in return.

Seems like an obvious crossover to me... Google could combine this kind of SMS service with the search alerting concept to provide regular alerts of information that would be useful on a cellphone - price reductions, new shops opening - and I'm sure later on there will be traffic, weather, etc...

I reckon good applications of the Google Web APIs should also get a chance at the winnings - some crackers that spring to mind are Google Cookin recipe search, Copyscape web plagiarism search, the TouchGraph Google browser, and Google Alert for tracking topics. Isn't the point of both the Jam and the APIs to invite external developers to weave their magic around Google's platform?

Obfusacation may have allowed people to be sloppy with their data exposure until now. But that is no excuse for people being lax with their own data security.

The Internet is built by it's users. The responsibility for protecting data lies squarely with the users at the edges.

Sounds like yet-another-data-visualization-startup - what we really need is a product which turns a database query into an RSS feed, so it's easy to keep track of new matches. If it can be done for Google, and these people are meant to be the next Google, why are they doing it for databases? Pointless story if you ask me.

The alerting space is also a growing one, especially considering the success of the third-party alerting Google Alert service based on the Google API.

With an already profitable business, and lots of extra money in its pocket, can we expect Google to start a buyout spree? Some targets might include Vivisimo with their clustering technology, Girafa for visualizing search, or even some of the better Web APIs applications like Google Alert or the GoogleBrowser, as this Wired story suggests.

• What kind of growth rate will Google see from the Adsense and Adwords advertising networks?
• How many millions of people will use Gmail once it finally goes live?
• What effect will the built-in search in Microsoft's Longhorn have on Google's traffic?
• How much will Google make reselling search to 3rd parties such as Google Alert?

Future successes in any of these businesses could make Google's current price seriously undervalued. And if some key ones fall through, it will have been far too high.

Google's main hope is to control the market for supplying results to other places. They can use RSS for website integration, SMS for mobile phones, voice for telephones. This won't help them this year or the next, but it will save them over the long term.

I think there's definitely a need for a Google manual. Apart from the importance of explaining how to search effectively, there are so many extra Google features that normal users simply won't know about, such as Google Local, the Google Toolbar and Personalized Search. That's not even starting to mention some extremely useful third-party add-ons that use the Google Web APIs, such as GoogleBrowser, GoogleAlert and CapeMail. Since they're not home grown, Google ain't going to be publicizing these on its own site any time soon.

Interesting that Google don't seem to mind about API applications keeping the whole word Google in their names, from Google Fight to Googlism to Google Rankings. The Google Alert tool states explicitly on its FAQs that Google "agreed to the use of the Google Alert name and googlealert.com domain". I guess it's all about the distinction between sites that feed into Google's brand value, and those that take away from it.

Interesting that Google don't seem to mind about API applications keeping the whole word Google in their names, from Google Fight to Googlism to Google Rankings. The Google Alert tool states explicitly on its FAQs that Google "agreed to the use of the Google Alert name and googlealert.com domain". I guess it's all about the distinction between sites that feed into Google's brand value, and those that take away from it.

They may also start leveraging the success of popular services that use their Web APIs , such as Google Alert and Copyscape , particularly with the commercialization of Google Alert. Positioning themselves as a general technology platform for the web is surely a step in the right direction to further raising their valuation.

Will be interesting to see how quiet they stay from now till the actual IPO...

In fact, they already provide programmatic access to their results via the Web APIs, spawning services ranging from a recipe generator to a site for detecting online plagiarism. According to this story, the developers of Google Alert, one well-known APIs application, have recently been granted permission to commercialize their service. My guess is that it won't be long before there are many more 3rd party Google applications, bringing in a lot of new money to Google's coffers. Anyone for a BUY rating?

Seems Google has a kind of dilemma. On the one hand, they want to avoid all automated querying since it undermines their marketing model and perceived advertiser value. On the other, they want to build up automated third-party services (such as TouchGraph GoogleBrowser or GoogleAlert, both big users of the Google APIs). How are they ever going to be able to push advertising alongside automated queries if they can't even be sure that click throughs on normal queries aren't being faked? Or are they resigned to a pure pay-for-query model?

No doubt fradusters will keep dreaming up more innovative schemes to get this done. I wonder if the Google API could be used towards this goal or in fighting it. Perhaps by setting up a Google Alert to search for fraud schemers, the good guys can stay a step ahead.

"The Google Web APIs service is made available to you for your personal, non-commercial use only"

"Google has agreed to our release of premium paid Google Alert services."

"The Google Web APIs service is made available to you for your personal, non-commercial use only"

"Google has agreed to our release of premium paid Google Alert services."

Google's usefulness is also being expanded by third party developers using their APIs to develop kitschy hits such as Google Fight and Googlism. But there are useful apps too... A recent release is Copyscape which uses Google to find people who have plagiarized your web content. It's from the same guys as Google Alert and works like magic. I reckon it won't be long (after the IPO?) before Google expand their APIs a lot further, to make image, news and group searching available to third party apps. Then things will get really interesting.

Same can be said for their Web APIs and some of the applications like Google Dance Tool and Google Alert that have developed from it.

While I think this is probably a case of people going after Google's newly deep pockets, it would be interesting if Google planned to release some of this code out into the open.

Google has been unclear about their future plans for the API, though it seems that it has allowed some apps to go commercial - see this article.

One wonders if this source code will actually add value to the developer community, or is simply a way of counteracting the capitalistic vibes of the IPO.

This discussion of Google using RSS for Blogger is all well and good, but what about the broader question of integrating RSS into their mainstream search services? By comparison, Feedster searches RSS, and provides its results in RSS. But to get an RSS feed for a Google search you need to use the 3rd party GoogleAlert. Not to mention that Google recently shut down a third party news-to-RSS service. Aren't the guys from the Googleplex supposed to have technological vision or something?

Pretty handy.

Seriously, I reckon that one of Google's main motivating factors behind the APIs is to have top development talent find them, and save them having to scour the earth. But they do also seem to be looking to make money from the APIs - see this article about Google Alert for an example.

It's not only a matter of internal PhDs at the company which help along their R&D efforts. Thousands of developers outside of Google are using the Google APIs to create new Google applications. Some notable hits are BananaSlug and GoogleAlert (the latter of which is indeed the product of a PhD, according to this article). The fact that Google is able to tempt so many to build on their platform is another sign of their popularity with the academic nerdy elite.

These efforts have yielded some well known products, such as Google Alert and Google Dance Tool. Would be interesting to see how these API offerings will react to Google's IPO.

Alerting services, if high quality, are ideal ways to maintain customer loyalty.

I've been using the Google Alert free service for a while now and have happily upgraded to their paid service. If you get good information from something, you will likely stick with it.

This is just one of many moves Google are making to counter their primary business risk - that someone (or more specifically, Microsoft) comes along tomorrow with a better search engine and puts them out of business overnight. They are looking to create a long-term relationship with people - that's why they're moving towards Personalized Search, and are also working on a whole host of ongoing searching products such as their Web Alerts, News Alerts. They're even encouraging the third-party Google Alerts service to try their hand at making money from this kind of thing.

What will they think of next?

What will they think of next?

I'm pretty sure this is a joke (the PR's a giveaway). But I also wouldn't be surprised if Google are releasing something related to email shortly at local.google.com. This would make sense given their recent release of email-based information services such as the Web Alerts (a poorer cousin of Google Alert) which followed their previous News Alerts. Maybe a central location for managing Google-based email notifications?

- Their new look is much more graphically based.

- Their new Web Alerts are neat, and seem to be a scaled-down version of the well known Google Alert service, based on Google's API's.

- The personalized search is sure to be a hot space in the future.

Looks like they're gearing up to cover all their bases in the Search Engine Wars.

Interesing... the Web Alerts looks like a simple version of the Google Alert service, based on Google's Web APIs - is this the first example of Google drawing inspiration from the developer community they've built?

Google do seem to be covering all their bases. Their release of the Web Alerts doesn't seem to stop them supporting the efforts of Google Alert (which uses Google's Web APIs). On Google Alert's FAQs it says "Google has encouraged us to develop, and agreed to let us charge for, a premium Google Alert service that will be released shortly."

Google do seem to be covering all their bases. Their release of the Web Alerts doesn't seem to stop them supporting the efforts of Google Alert (which uses Google's Web APIs). On Google Alert's FAQs it says "Google has encouraged us to develop, and agreed to let us charge for, a premium Google Alert service that will be released shortly."

The upgrading of Froogle is only part of a much larger Google overhaul today. Other new features include a personalized search, and an email web alerts service. The latter seems to be a scaled-down copy of the well known Google Alert service. Can anyone find an overarching pattern to all these moves?

I think that Google is offering a similar, but far simpler version of Google Alert. It will be interesting to see how the parallel API/main-site model works out.

Had a look at both services. Both seem easy to use. Google Alert seems to offer more personalization features and deeper searching per term... On another level, Google seems to be drawing inspiration from its API developers?

If Google have copied it, that would be strange - on the Google Alert FAQs, it says "Google has generously provided Google Alert with a high-capacity Web APIs key for our needs, and agreed to the use of the Google Alert name and googlealert.com domain. Google has encouraged us to develop, and agreed to let us charge for, a premium Google Alert service that will be released shortly." Weird, huh?

Had a look at the two services. Both seem easy to use. Google Alert seems to offer more advanced features for personalizing an alert. It also offers deeper searching per search term.

Another new feature is the Google Web Alerts, which seems to be a simple version of the existing independent API-based Google Alert service. Is this the first example of a Google API application being copied by the mother ship?

Google also announced their web alerts at the same time. Looks interesting, but not as feature complete as Google Alert which has been around for some time.

Google Alert is another small business that Google might be making or breaking. According to their news page, Google Alert has "entered into preliminary negotiations with Google with the goal of offering a premium web tracking service for commercial use".

Google Alert is another small business that Google might be making or breaking. According to their news page, Google Alert has "entered into preliminary negotiations with Google with the goal of offering a premium web tracking service for commercial use".

We use it to keep track of certain search terms and it works just great. It has advanced search options, as well as RSS Feeds and Trackback. Google Alert seems to have received a lot of recent press coverage, including this recent article in SearchEngineWatch.