December 21, 2006

Earlier in December, Google removed access to its Search SOAP API to new users.

The move set of concerns from some programmers and developers who wondered about the technology and some potentially impending business implications.

Overall, the Google Search API (in beta at the time) is designed to allow developers to write programs that use SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) in order to perform a Google search.

Closing the API to new users appears to have first been reported on the O'Reilly developer blog.

On a forum thread, Google product manager Tom Stocky said that Google will allow existing users to continue using the API but the company is now favoring another way to tap into Google's search engine programmatically, via its Ajax Search API instead.

Google's new Ajax Search API is designed to allow people in placing a search box in their Internet application and enable newer features on their sites.

Additionally, the technical director of the Google Ajax Search API is Mark Lucovsky, a former Microsoft engineer whose defection to Google supposedly prompted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to throw a chair in anger... (!)

In the ensuing discussion, people who relied on the API for their applications voiced their own frustration.

Specifically, some people wondered whether Google is essentially picking a winner in an ongoing debate over the best way to offer Web services. Perhaps Google is trying to influence technical debates!

Google has also developed GData, another data access API. But in the end, Google is likely favoring the Google Ajax Search API for business reasons, in that they expect to see better Web applications and more traffic coming through that method.

Source: C-Net News