14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been making moves to have most if not all of its services available via a secured SSL connection. Gmail works via HTTPS by default , so does Docs and more recently Picasa. Now, it's starting to ask developers that build on top of the Google APIs to do the same and is issuing a deadline for switching to SSL connections.
"For most APIs, our technical documentation, client libraries and code samples already use SSL. Many new APIs and versions will be SSL only. Further, the Google Maps API, which previously offered SSL only to Premier customers, is offering SSL to all developers starting today," Adam Feldman, from the Google Developer Team, wrote.
"Additionally, beginning September 15, 2011, Google will require that all users of Google Documents List API, Google Spreadsheets API, and Google Sites API use SSL connections for all API requests," he announced.
Google has been accelerating the push to have its products work over HTTPS, in some cases only over HTTPS.
The advantages don't need any explaining, implementing significantly better security for users via a technology that has been around for ages is not a hard decision to make.
"Many user-facing Google products now allow or require SSL, including encrypting Google web search, defaulting to SSL in Gmail, and requiring SSL in Google Docs. Next on our list is to improve SSL support for our developer facing APIs," Feldman explained.
But now that its products are mostly sorted or, at least, on the right track, Google is moving its attention to third-party apps that access its APIs.
It's no use of Google to secure its own products if the same data can be obtained from apps that don't have the same security features as Google.
For now, Google is making SSL the only options for the APIs that are already used mostly via HTTPS. But it plans to drop support for regular connections when new versions of the APIs land and developers are advised to start making the switch sooner rather than later.