The key to any successful Web 2.0 deployment is the availability of an open API. It is a key that Google is now giving out for its base — Google Base that is.
Google’s mysterious Google Base service went live recently, allowing people to post any kind of information they want for free and to provide labels to describe it so others can easily find it.
The new beta service allows people to post "all types of online and offline information and images" that will be searchable on Google Base and, depending on their relevance, may be searchable on Google Search, Froogle and Google Local, the company said.
According to Google Code, the API allows for dynamic interaction with Google Base, developers can now programmatically query Google Base content as well as add, insert or delete content. As is the case with Google Maps, which has spawned a cottage industry of third party sites that "mashup" Google content for specific purposes, the availability of the Google Base Data API is likely to end up with its fair share of mashups as well. The company has posted an informative demo of the API’s capabilities.
“If you have information you want to share with others, but are not sure how to go about gaining an audience, Google Base is for you,” said the frequently asked questions section of the new service.
Google Base first appeared as a public beta in November of 2005. It had been in a somewhat quiet testing mode since at least a month earlier.
The protocol is based off of GData, which bears a special relationship to the Atom Publishing Protocol and even RSS. It looks relatively simple and easy to use. More importantly, it marks a major chapter in the history of Google Base.
Truly a Google Base
In many ways the API announcement can be seen as the completion of the launch phase of Google Base.
While some observers have speculated that Google is targeting the online classifieds market space, specifically eBay and Craigslist, with the service, a Google executive denied that that is the company’s intent.
"Students need as much information as possible when they are searching for the right college or university. Google Base helps us reach students and parents and deliver more of the information they need when making important college decisions," said Hal Higginbotham, president of CollegeBoard.com, as quoted on the Google Blog.
According to Google’s official description, "Google Base is a place where you can post all types of content and have it show up on Google."
Underlying the newly available Google Base Data API is Google’s GData API, which, according to Google’s definition, provides a simple standard protocol for reading and writing data on the web.
If indeed Google Base is aimed at battling online classifieds, it is the slowest ramp up to war seen in recent years.
GData combines both Atom 1.0 and RSS 2.0 XML syndication formats in addition to a few extensions for dealing with queries.
To acquire information from a service that supports GData, you send an HTTP GET request; the service returns results as an Atom or RSS feed; Google’s documentation states. "You can update data where supported by a particular GData service by sending an HTTP PUT request, an approach based on the Atom Publishing Protocol."
GData is already used in the Google Calendar API and Blogger Data API among other Google services.
Marc Leibowitz, Web search and syndication director, said Google merely wants to serve people who have information to share that is not already on a Web site and being crawled by a search engine to open it up to the public. In addition, much of the information in Google Base is expected to be noncommercial, a Google spokesman said.
We think about it being a utility so people can more efficiently post information to us. If there is more information in the search results the search experience is better, Salar Kamangar, a vice president of product management at Google, told reporters. "It is not a separate property we are trying to monetize. We are not at all focused on commerce or local commerce or classifieds."
Google has no immediate plans to serve ads on Google Base, a company spokesman said. Examples given of items people might want to post include party and event planning services, recipes, a used car listing and genome of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Come what may — The service is finally coming together. Google Base’s payment options and their existing retail experiments are clear signals indicating where Google Base is headed, but its usefulness will ultimately hinge on the adoption of this API. Now that real estate agents, consumers, car salesmen, and anyone else with data can programmatically upload it to Google Base and build applications on top of it, its true potential can begin to be realized.
After screen shots of Google Base were leaked on the Web last month, the search giant confirmed it was testing a new service.