Monday, November 01, 2010

Introducing the Google APIs Console and our latest API updates

After a busy year of creating, curating, and re-organizing our APIs, we’re pleased to share that:
  • We’re announcing the Google APIs console, a new tool to help you use our APIs in your applications and on your websites.
  • We’re introducing a new and improved Custom Search API and the new Translate API, which replace the old Web Search API and the old Translate API respectively, which are being retired along with the old Local Search API.
  • We’ve reorganized and rewritten the documentation for some of your favorite APIs (read more on the AJAX APIs Blog).

New Google APIs Console Improves API Experience

The new APIs console helps you manage your API usage across all of your sites and apps. Key features include:
  • Log in with your Google account to see the API projects you’re working on.
  • Create and manage project teams for projects that are shared with your co-workers or friends.
  • Get developer credentials to track exactly how you are using each API.
  • View information about how your site or app is using the APIs, including which of your pages are making the most requests.



Initially, the console supports over a half dozen APIs – that number is expected to grow rapidly over time. Please take a look at the APIs console and get started using Google’s new APIs today.

New Custom Search API Delivers Better Integrated Search Experience


Google Custom Search helps you create a curated search experience, tailoring a custom search engine precisely to your specifications. This is the perfect tool for helping your visitors find exactly what they’re looking for on your site, and is especially useful for businesses that want to create a customized search experience across their public content without the expense or hassle of developing and hosting their own search infrastructure.
Today we are enhancing our Custom Search offering with the introduction of new output formats and a new API. Now, in addition to using the Custom Search element or the XML API, the new API offers search results using your choice of Atom or JSON syndication formats. To get started, click here to log into the API console and add this API to your project.

Retirement of Older APIs

As part of our ongoing housekeeping of our first-generation APIs, the legacy Web Search API and the Local Search API are being retired, to be phased out over the next three years as per our deprecation policies. We’ll also be tightening up our enforcement of the rate limits for these and the Translate API v1 over the next few months with an eye toward mitigating unauthorized usage, so we encourage everyone to migrate to the new APIs as available on the APIs console, or over to the Custom Search Element, the Translate Element, or the Maps API GoogleBar as your needs dictate.

Looking Forward

We’re excited about the opportunities that the new APIs console and this first batch of APIs built on our new API architecture will offer to developers. Even though we’ve been building APIs for several years now and are quickly approaching 100 tools, products, and APIs for developers, we still feel like we’re just getting warmed up. We’d love to hear your feedback on the new Google API console and our newest APIs — please let us know what you think.

37 comments:

  1. Well, that's nice. We can say finally.

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  2. Still have limitation in Translation API: Default limit: 100,000 characters/day...

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  3. Please can someone confirm the meaning of the 100,000 chars/day limit...! I use Google Translate from within a mobile app which has thousands of users/day.

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  4. The "Retirement of Older APIs" section above mentions the "Maps API GoogleBar", with a link to its documentation from Maps API Version 2 which has been deprecated. Is an (official) GoogleBar implementation for Maps API v3 yet available or planned?

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  5. Why is the Prediction API set to 0 queries a day limit? You guys might as well remove it if you don't want anyone to use it!

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  6. what the fuck is an api and why wont google work

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  7. At last google released its API..

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  8. Hey Guys,
    Great news, glad to see an awesome interface for managing all Google APIs in one place. Will make things a LOT easier!

    However, I have one question and I would really appreciate an answer when someone has a chance.

    I noticed that the new Custom Search API has a 100 query/day limit. I'm using the Custom Search element that's generated through Google Adsense. I haven't had to use an API key for CSE in the past. Will I need to do so moving forward? And will that daily query limit affect CSE users going through Google Adsense?

    Thanks!

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  9. Hey, I'm going to chime in with omr. As he pointed out above, the GoogleBar is limited to use with the GMaps API v2, which was deprecated at IO back in May. What's worse, though, it utilizes the "legacy" Local Search API which you've just announced is being deprecated as well. And given that the Places API which is aiming to succeed the Local Search API is currently limited to "check-in" type applications, I fear that there is no long-term viability for what must surely be one of the most obvious, popular, and useful Maps and/or Search applications out there.

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  10. Awesome, we needed something like this!

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  11. @Mark Carter - We're working on solutions for increased quotas, but for now v2 is a Labs API that we've launched for people to start playing with.

    @omr and @jgeerdes - We’ll be adding similar functionality to the Maps API v3. It will be available long before v2 is retired, and it won’t be dependent on the deprecated Local Search API.

    @Dean - The Prediction API (along with the Feed API v2) is a preview API. Read more here: http://code.google.com/apis/console-help/#ZeroDefault

    @Sahas Katta - For CSE, only the new API uses the API key. If you are using AdSense with your search results, then you are probably set using your current solution - no API key required.

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  12. @Adam
    Thanks for the response about the API key!

    Hopefully there is no query limit on Adsense Custom Search. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

    Thanks again.

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  13. This new API really sucks!

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  14. the web search api is built in so many products, mashups, libs and tools ... and it just worked, now out of nowhere - deprecated.

    :(

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  15. What shall we use instead of Local Search API in future? Places? It does not seem like a peer-to-peer replacement, because Places API is much more restricted, e.g., only 250m maximum radius.

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  16. How am I supposed to do custom web search now? In the past it looked like the AJAX api was the way to do it, but not it is deprecated. There was a guide there to calling it from not as a custom search box as well.

    Looking at the Custom API page there is a box asking for URLs. Do I leave this box blank if I want it to perform a Google search? Do I have to insert * or some other wild cards?

    The documentation could definitely be better....

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  17. that's nice.
    we needed!!!
    Cool!

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  18. I badly need Google CSE to allow me to exclude certain content from a page. A simple tag around text that tells the CSE to NOT index this bit of text would be SO helpful.

    Please!

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  19. I agree with @Chris F.
    If the AJAX API is now deprecated, How can I perform a standard Google search ? I've seen that the parameter cx or cref are mandatory in the request.

    Thank you

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  20. How does one perform searches that were performed via the ajax search api?

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  21. Hi:
    I'd like to know how to make a search using API that would bring me the same results as Google page without any site restriction? I join @Sotekno and @Chris in this question!!! :(

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  22. What about Trends API? Are you planning to integrate it with the console? This API has so much potential!

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  23. Hi

    Can any one helps me. I have developed shapefiles in ArcGIS, and converted them to KML (KMZ). And also I have a website developed by Dreamwever, where I embeded a google map with a bounding box of my area. The problem I have now, is how can I link the KMZs to my website?

    Please help me

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  24. nice... new API.. will improve search results...

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  25. Nice work, folks. Any plans to roll out a Google Scholar API? I realize there are likely some issues with publishers, but know I'm certainly not the only one who's interested in this.

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  26. The new CSE API does not seem to offer the same results as the Local Search API. Can you explain how I can use the CSE API to get local business data?

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  27. Hm, the Custom Search API does not really replace the functionality of the Web Search API, it is something different altogether.

    I NEED the Web Search API, please do not deprecate it! ;-(

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  28. I agree with @Chris F and @Sotenko - I don't see a way to create searches programmatically like the old API allowed. Perhaps you can do it but the docs focus more on creating user-facing custom searches? Whatever the case, a migration guide would be helpful for those of us using this for internal purposes rather than for user-based searches.

    Also, what is the rate limit for the older, deprecated API so that I can be aware of the expected issues?

    Thanks!

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  29. FYI, the kind of migration guide or one-to-one equiv would be to provide docs for supporting this kind of interaction (from your old API docs): http://code.google.com/apis/websearch/docs/#fonje

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  30. Seriously, a rate limit of only 100 requests on the most well known namesake product? Seems like it's really only going to limit reach and promote competition to me?

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  31. This is exactly what Altavista did in the year 2001 and they infuriated webmasters who were making a living off of the business, so "we" webmasters, drove the users to what was then, "Northern Light" and Excite. This was before Google. No offense my Google friends, but if webmasters cannot use APIs to service the very people they are placing on your search engine, they will swear to their clients that Bing is a better search engine. I have already been here. De Javu. I'm not angry in the slightest. I'm mostly retired now. I am just stating the facts. - Joe Griffin, Sr.

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  32. I hope the Places API allows more options before the Local Search API is deprecated entirely. Don't get me wrong though, I'm thrilled that the new API lets us restrict results to such common categories as roofing_contractors, shoe_stores and bowling_alleys.

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  33. Are you guys really serious about limits on books API? I've got an application + mobile app using the search for book search and I can't use the api with such limits anymore. I would need to use Amazon or Open library API instead - I am just not sure why are you limiting the API. Or is it just becuase its LAB and in beta? Anyway, I think lot of ppl with apps would prolly migrate to different services if you will keep such crazy limits (I personally would not stay until the limit would be more than 10k or rather 100k+)

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  34. Does anyone know if you apply this API and someone searches for your business in the local area, where your business will be displayed on the search page? Would you be the first listing?

    Thanks

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