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Google Releases an API for Their Database
Ben Wills writes "Yahoo! announced that Google Released an API last Thursday.
"The service, launched Thursday, is called Google Web APIs, for application programming interfaces. The tools let noncommercial software developers "query more than 2 billion Web documents directly from their own computer programs," according to Google's Web site. For now, the service is free."
Google just keeps pushing the limits."
Lousy editing, grr :/
Delete this, it doesn't have too many posts.
I try not to give Yahoo any more hits after they messed up their privacy poolicy, so here's the same exact story on CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-882252.html.
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
our freedom!!!
The spirit of the internet is alive and well, it seems. Google isn't charging for their API, ID released the source to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Now, if only yahoo would announce that their pay for POP access was only a cruel April fools joke???
I won't hold my breath.
-- Adam
:wq
The world can now be revolutionized! We can get Google searches on Microsoft.com! The pigeons will come out of their cages and peck the buttons on the Microsoft servers, thus shutting down the evil megacorporation! Hail Google for saving the world! The pigeons will save us all, hail the open API!
Now we can sort strings in order of google hits!
Wow, very nice for word completion
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
PsPrEditor writes: "Yahoo announced that Slashdot Released an API last Monday. "The service, launched Monday, is called SlashPI. It will allow users to remove duplicate stories that have been plaguing /. for the past year. ""
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
Can it be used to query for Slashdot stories on the Google API?
Why do I get the feeling that Google is doing this to save bandwidth? How many people do you thing scrape Google for results? How much load are they going to save if people use the API rather than searching and scraping? That's what I thought...
What is your Slash Rating?
I posted this the last time, but since it didn't get much notice (I posted it quite late), I'll repeat myself.
It seems there is still time to enter the Google Programming Contest and although I have neither the time nor the skill to do it, I do have an interesting idea if someone else wants to take a shot at it.
Years ago, The Hollywood Stock Exchange was a somewhat popular game (maybe it still is, but it doesn't really interest me). The general idea being that you could "Buy shares of your favorite actors, movies, and music artists and watch their values rise or fall based on the success of their careers and personal life."
It would be interesting to see a similar game based on the popularity of queries. It's clear from the Google Zeitgeist that certain search terms do gain and lose popularity on a regular basis, and for someone tapped in to mainstream culture, it may not be too hard to predict.
I suppose you could do the same thing with the other info there (Browsers, OSs, Current Events, etc.) but I don't think it would be as interesting. Although... Anime searches might be neat.
Anyhow, just an idea I'd love to see someone run with.
-Tommy
"I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
is that the first time it was posted on Slashdot, it was CmdrTaco himself!
4 22 3&mode=nested
4 /12/112821 0&mode=nested
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/06/135
And then came Hemos (the one to whom most of you refer as the "first" post...)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/0
I think CmdrTaco needs something for memory improvement. Some herb or medicine, dunno.
Sigged!
An interesting article on K5
5
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/72154/506
talks about how now Google bombing is even more effective with this release.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
Can I be the first to comment on the repeating comments commenting on how people keep repeating that this is a repeat?
God sucks at running this place. Impeach God at
It's amazing to see the advances in what appears (to the non-programmer) to be a set of simple technologies coming out of little ol' Google. They're putting all the other search engines to shame, esp. including Yahoo!. Even Yahoo! is stealing ideas from Google, such as the really cool Zeitgeist.
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Dont forget that Google released their API for their database...
Am I one of the only people that contend that THIS is what the whole 'web services' thing is all about?
I think this is ultra cool. Imagine, if you made an application that had skins or used plugins, or whatever. You could have an in-app browser, powered by google, to search for new add-ons to applications, etc.
Actually, the possibilities are quite cool.
"Old man yells at systemd"
But they need to keep the volume up to justify the subscription model. When it doubt, start looking for crap in the trash can.
I wonder how hard it would be to trawl the cache for the good stuff?
It isn't a lie if you belive it.
Any real hacker already has perl/cgi/whatever code to do this for him :)
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.
Apart from that I think it is a pity that noone comes up with a Corba-over-HTTP standard. As an API, Corba IDL is nicer and more compact than WSDL, and all tool support is already there. WSDL offers no advantages over Corba. The only difference is the use of XML instead of (easy) IDL, and using HTTP as transport mechanism. Corba is transport mechanism independant; current implementations mostly use IIOP, but one could just as well implement Corba using HTTP as transport. Hell, you could even use some XML-over-HTTP as transport, to satisfy all XML freaks that think any machine-to-machine data nowadays should be human readable.
The only justification for XML web services is that MSFT hates Corba (because of their Not Invented Here syndrome they invented COM+ to compete, also helping vendor lock in) thus they had to come up with something else; switching to Corba would mean they loose their face.
Already see this on Friday? It was released thursday, so it possibly couldn't be a different story...
Google releases Web APIs
Am I a hipster-doofus?
I'm glad the army of highly-trained rodents that processes Slashdot submissions was able to catch these reduntant stories. We've seen this a few times before:
The first story even included a link to the API page on Google's site.
Damn! I wrote my own about two months ago.
Maybe I'll grab theirs and see if it gives me any ideas.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Google xml-rpc interface
I personally refuse to support and or recommend anyone using SOAP web services due to the patent fiasco. I asked on the xml-rpc list if anyone knew of a xml-rpc gateway and Dave Winer immediately jumped to the challange and put up a public gateway.
Thanx Dave
Got Code?
Why would Microsoft be pissed? It's a great opportunity for them to show off how .NET works between different platforms. And why would Microsoft be annoyed that it works with Java? WebServices are a standard. Microsoft themselves have had booths at developers conferences where they would show WebService interopability between .NET and IIS on Windows and SOAP/Apache on Linux.
As for CORBA, WebServices fit a bill that both CORBA and COM don't really fit, stateless and async internet-based programmatic communication.
How is releasing an API pushing the limits?
The database obviously has a list of "related links". Both the original "article" and this dup have the same link, to http://www.google.com/apis/. Why not just list all the other "articles" which contain that same "related link" in the last 2 weeks or so when the "editor" (and I use that term very loosely) submits the "article" (which I also use very loosely).
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
How long until slashdot offers this service? (No, I don't mean just the headlines, I mean the whole site).
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
Microsoft has a Not Invented Here syndrome? Are you crazy? They buy 90% of their technology (FrontPage, Windows Media, Visio, etc...). They don't have a Not Invented Here syndrome, they have a "We want to do it our own way" syndrome but that doesn't preclude them from purchasing technology.
Like everyone else, they will get you hooked, a bunch of programs using it, then change it to some sort of pay service.
Not that im against pay service or them making money... just not by suckering people into it instead of being up-front..
I even bought staroffice.. but not after that same sort of crap was just pulled by sun..Is it too much to ask for them to be honest about intentions? Most of us would pay a resonable price.. for quality..
/rant OFF
---- Booth was a patriot ----
That's not what Web Services are about.
Although current applications (and some implementations) focus on RPC-over-HTTP-using-XML (and "section 5" encoding), most of the big WS vendors believe the real meat of WS is in literal-encoded documents in long-lived message exchanges.
This buys you a lot; instead of needing to have objects at both ends, you send messages that are described by a schema; the implementations are relatively independent. WS are more flexible, more loosely coupled, and more dynamic.
In this manner, WS is closer to message queuing solutions (e.g., MQSeries, MSMQ, Tibco, etc.) than it is to Corba.
The intermediary model in SOAP hasn't been exploited much yet, but should prove interesting.
Another interesting feature of SOAP is the extensibility that Modules bring you; this should allow a number of common behaviours (like reliable delivery) to be standardized.
Finally, SOAP isn't just over HTTP; again, many vendors believe that HTTP is too limiting and tempermental to be useful for the more interesting applications.
I was about to submit this story:
Slashdot is reporting that Google is opening their API. Slashdot's Hemos was unable to be reached for a reply, but Slashdot's CmdrTaco decided to post the story anyway.
:)
I just believe they're doing it for a reason that makes business sense to them rather than out of the "this is a really great technical idea" motivation. (Hence the cynical tone) I agree that it would be good if there were some sort of standard API available (like RSS does) that allowed you to do this sort of thing for all sites. Then again...(cynicism=on) Microsoft would just find another way to corrupt the standard.
What is your Slash Rating?
I think this was a large part of their reasoning for releasing this API. If people are going to do this ANYWAY (and it would be highly impractical to try and force people not to), why not create a way that will save both groups time, bandwidth, and CPU cycles? Rather than taking their ball and going home (or telling their lawyer to go beat up the mean person on the playground who doesn't want to play their way), like many large corperations seem to do, Google is working with people who use their service in creative ways to save themselves time and money.
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
When even Commander Taco has stopped reading Slashdot ;)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
This was announced early in the morning on Friday. It's just now posted on Slashdot at 1:00 PM EST?
Whatever happened to 'release often, release early?'
mbbac
Microsoft has offered TerraServer access as a web service for over a year now. You can still see the current incarnation at TerraService.net. As I said, it's been around for over a year now, because I still see cached articles about it from last April. Nice try, though. ;)
If only Slashdot had a Google topic, they could have noticed this whole thing sooner.
Schnapple
I just believe they're doing it for a reason that makes business sense to them rather than out of the "this is a really great technical idea" motivation.
Wait, let me get it straight - is it really your original and insightful contention that a for-profit company is making decisions because it makes business sense to them? oh the sheer defiance of their behavior from the norm just fucking shatters me! Can you be any more controversial?
But I was taking the controversial (around here) approach that a business was trying to make money versus the (conventional, around here) approach that they were doing new things for technology's sake. I suppose I could get really wild and suggest that they were doing this to get people hooked and then would set the hook by making it a subscription service, but that's pure speculation.
What is your Slash Rating?
Will there be ad links in the database results?
What was the last law that benefited people but not corporations?
Why would Microsoft be pissed?
It's simple... Take VS.Net and build a client application to utilize the google.com web service.
Now do the same with Java.
It only takes 10 minutes or so to build the entire client UI in VS.Net. How long will it take the Java developer? *That* is what Microsoft is selling...
Whee! ;-)
Now we really CAN modify slashcode to "Ask Slashdot to Ask Google" without user intervention
It would be kinda cool...
-twb
google shows you don't need .NET but can just as well use Java to make use of XML web services
Of course anybody who has any background knowledge of web services knows that pretty much any language with text manipulation can be used to create web services. The point of .NET is not that it is the only way of creating web services but rather it makes creating them a lot easier; WSDL, DISCO, SOAP, etc. are abstracted away to make the developing web services easier. Yon don't need to know the bare protocol to start coding (of course it always helps).
WSDL offers no advantages over Corba. The only difference is the use of XML...
The use of XML is an advantage. XML is easy to use, and is an open standard. Although binary specs are slightly more efficient in transfer time and space requirements, this is becoming more and more negligible. More important is a developer's time. It is a lot easier to use and debug and text-based spec like XML than a binary spec.
The only justification for XML web services is that MSFT hates Corba
Maybe before you spout worthless anti-msft drivel you should research the origins of Web Services. Check out this article by Tim Berners-Lee for a quick intro.
hghWhile I'm sure that Google's interpretation will be very reasonable, I don't really like the license text.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
How long will it take the Java developer?
About five minutes, using the Java classes that Google included with their API. RTFM, man.
The nice thing is that it's more a push of pure Soap than .Net. You could use Java, Perl, Ruby, or really anything against the Soap interface (as long as you have a soap library to wrap up the calls, or are willing to create a wrapper).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
As this is an example of a feedback loop, rather than the sort of coordinated manipulation that a GoogleBomb is, I felt it deserved it's own term, so I decided to call it GoogleThrashing since this could at least potentially cause the Google Pagerank algorithm to thrash, depending on the extent and type of feedback involved.
:-)
Besides, it sounds cool
I posted a short description of GoogleThrashing to my weblog and also posted it to the Google API discussion group.
The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 15, @11:02AM
from the now-thats-a-duplicate dept.
Ben Wills writes "Slashdot announced that Google Released an API last Thursday. "The service, launched Thursday, is called Google Web APIs, for application programming interfaces. The tools let noncommercial software developers "query more than 2 billion Web documents directly from their own computer programs," according to Google's Web site. For now, the service is free." Google just keeps pushing the limits."
Apparently CmdrTaco didn't get the memo about April Fools being over, and decided to post a THIRD article about the Google API. You funny guy, you.
*waits for a Google pop-under to appear*
I love Google, but 3 articles about it in the last couple of weeks which are all about the same thing!?!?!
Then again, staring at Slash code everyday can't be good for you...
Goodbye, Sweet Karma.
Heh, because Google wrote all of the code for you. That's quite a bit more than just an API, wouldn't you say?
He's talking about building the UI, which is incredibly easy in VB, using the GUI builder. The API is easy to use with either language.
Not really.. All Google's API does is generate the right XML for you, which you could do yourself with a third party XML library or an hour's hacking. They are using completely off-the-shelf components - SAX to do the XML, and Apache's SOAP library for Java.
Yeah but if you use J#.Net.... :)
Web Service are intended to be used to charge people for using.
I'm sure your local drug dealing will give out some free samples to hook the kids.....
Think about it....There have been some recent article regarding MS and IBM "patenting"
the internet via web services....
You can find a PHP interface to the Google API here. It builds upon the PEAR SOAP implementation for PHP, which is currently under development and can be obtained by CVS.
I say we dust off and nuke the Middle East from orbit.
It's the only way to be sure.
Serving HTML (particularily the ad free Google content) is much less costly in terms of front end servers than processing SOAP requests which require parsing XML (usually to DOM), doing the search query and then building an XML document. Parsing some URI parameters and spitting out HTML (even whizzy HTML) is always going to be cheaper. Also, SOAP is pretty verbose so the HTML may even be smaller.
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
Some goddamn idiot posted this on my website and wouldn't believe that perhaps it was not true.
Writers imply. Readers infer.