14 DAY TRIAL // Along with the Google I/O 2011 developer conference, Google also launched or updated many of its APIs. But it's not all good news, Google is also shutting down or deprecating a number of its APIs, some of which don't have alternatives or newer versions. Google has provided a list of APIs getting the axe.
"Some of our older APIs have been superseded by bigger and better things and others may not be receiving the necessary love," Adam Feldman, a Product Manager at Google, wrote.
"As the web evolves and priorities change, we sometimes deprecate APIs – that is, remove them from active development – to free up resources and concentrate on moving forward. Today we're announcing a spring cleaning for some of our APIs," he announced.
"Following the standard deprecation period – often, as long as three years – some of the deprecated APIs will be shut down. The rest have no scheduled date for shutdown, but won’t get any new features," he explained.
There are several reasons why these APIs are getting left behind. Most of them are either not of interest to Google or are for products that have been killed off or are in the process.
These are the Google APIs that will be deprecated but will not be shut down for the foreseeable future: Code Search API, Diacritize API, Feedburner APIs, Finance API, Power Meter API, Sidewiki API and Wave API.
Google won't be developing any of these so no new features are coming, but they will continue to work, though sometimes with some limitations.
However, these next APIs aren't so lucky, they're getting the boot and will deprecate after the periods specified in their terms.
These are the APIs being shut down: Blog Search API, Books Data API and Books JavaScript API, Image Search API, News Search API, Patent Search API, Safe Browsing API, Translate API, Transliterate API, Video Search API and Virtual Keyboard API.
Some of them have been replaced, or their functionality is being duplicated in other APIs, and for some of them Google decided not to support them anymore, mostly for lack of interest.
For one though, the Translate API, Google is much more straightforward, it says it will shut it down "due to the substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse." The number of requests allowed per day will also be lowered.