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Google Releases Web APIs

Posted by Hemos on from the developing-with-google dept.

skunkeh writes "Google have released the first beta of their Web APIs package. Used in conjunction with a free license key this SOAP based web service allows developers to execute up to 1000 automated queries a day, but is currently available for non-commercial use only. The download comes with Java and .NET code examples and includes a WSDL description for use with other SOAP supporting languages." There's also a write up about uses on Userland.

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. A great corporate move by shankark · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Other than being a really cool idea, this is a great tactical move from Google. On the one hand, by restricting the number of queries made to Google, they ensure that their APIs aren't misused/compromised, it also gives companies an initiative to purchase Google products and deploy this API (probably an unrestricted-query API) on their own network. Furthermore, an API such as this will easily muscle out any sniff of a competition from other search engine wannabes. Google has managed to do all this and yet be as compliant
    to an Open Source initiative as possible. Remarkable.

    1. Re:A great corporate move by gowen · · Score: 5, Insightful
      2. Does Google have any plans to sell Google Web APIs as a service?

      Not at this time.
      Sure, thats what they say, but what they mean is :

      "of course we do. You think we're doing this out of love? But we don't know what they are just yet, and we want to get things right. So go away, and we'll put out a press release as and when we're ready."

      Which is fair enough.
      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  2. Staggering Potential by Captain+Large+Face · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whilst the potential of a regular Google search is large enough, when you consider the Google search modifiers, the potential becomes staggering. Imagine using the following features:

    • Business Address Lookup
    • File Type Specific Search (.PDF etc..) (filetype:)
    • Stock Quotes
    • Cached Links (/. Favourite) (cache:)
    • Similar Pages (related:)
    • Linked Sites (link:)
    • Site Specific (site:)
    • Maps

    Does anyone happen to know if you can use the other sections of Google (e.g. news, images etc.)?

    Is Google the best company ever or what?!

  3. Synthesis by Asprin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ummmmm. Ok, check this out.

    This morning on /. we have an article about Google releasing their SOAP 1.1 API followed immediately by an article from a guy that set up a spambot trap on his web site, and in the margin a poll about giving spammers what they deserve. Putting 2 and 2 and 2 together, I got 4, popped open a google box and started playing.

    All I did was ask google to search for "mailto" and "@msn.com" and lo and behold, she spit back 111,000 hits - hits that contain what look like legit email addresses IN THE THREE LINE SUMMARIES.

    The point is, now that google can be automated, what's to stop spammers from SOAPing their way into Google to do their harvesting? Would there be any point over what they're doing now? It might be cheaper, because you only have to run over the google results not the whole sites and since Google caches pages, you can even grab addresses from the past, somewhat.

    IT ALSO DEFEATS SPAMBOT TRAPS.

    Doesn't this give spammers whole new avenues to exploit?

    Worse, are webmasters going to have to put a halt to Google crawls?

    --
    "Lawyers are for sucks."
    - Doug McKenzie