14 DAY TRIAL // Google+ may not exactly be a developer's preferred social network, for the simple fact that there are no APIs. Technically, Google+ does offer some API access, but what is there is nothing more than a proof of concept.
Thankfully, Google is moving towards creating more Google+ APIs, albeit rather slowly.
One API that we know for sure is coming is a photos and videos API. This will enable developers to access photos and videos on the site, in read-only mode at first.
A trigger happy Google employee managed to publish the announcement of the new API before Google was ready to unveil it. The blog posts have since been removed.
But you can't remove something from an RSS feed so anyone subscribing to those blogs got to see the post and the details. Google cache has the post as well.
"Today, we’re making it easier to leverage the power of personal and professional images by releasing our first Google+ API for photos and videos," Yongzhu Li, Google+ software engineer, wrote in the announcement. Obviously, the "today" part is not exactly accurate.
"Google+ gives users full control of their information, and we’re starting with read-only access to public albums, photos, and videos. Google also supports Creative Commons licensing, which we expose so developers can easily respect copyrights," the post explained.
When ready, the photo and video API will enable developers to access content from Google+. This means they'll be able to incorporate photos and videos on their sites or in their apps.
But it won't allow third-party apps to upload content, a feature a lot more developers would appreciate. That is coming as well, but developers are starting to get tired waiting for the Google+ API.
That said, there's no word on when even the limited API for videos and photos will actually be launched.