Brady Forrest notes that as of December 5, 2006 — yes, two weeks ago — Google has deprecated their SOAP API in favor of their newer AJAX Search API:

The AJAX Search API is great for web applications and users that want to bling their blog, but does not provide the flexibility of the SOAP API. I am surprised that it has not been replaced with a GData API instead. The developer community has been discussing this and do not seem happy with the change.

The deeper I looked into this situation the less dramatic it appears to be, at least for the immediate future. From the AJAX Search API page, the description:

The Google AJAX Search API is designed to allow users to distribute search results to others, primarily through content creation applications like blog posts, message boards, etc.

I originally wrote about how to use the Google SOAP API back on January 12, 2003, nearly six months before this blog was begun and in fact did use their AJAX Search API to enhance the search area of this blog recently. I didn’t use Brady’s more pejorative reference “bling” because in front end situations like the one used here I think the AJAX API currently works better.

However, from a backend perspective for those who only want to get to the data and develop their own frontend, I can understand why developers are concerned why this was done wasn’t more publically explained. The AJAX Search API still has the sometimes open-ended words “coming soon” for activities like styling search results.

Also understand author and developer Paul Bausch’s concerns because this move will practically obsolete the Google Hacks book (published by O’Reilly, BTW) he authored for those who don’t already have a SOAP API key.

Which makes me wonder anyway how many developers who are upset about this don’t already have their own SOAP API key?

The Google SOAP API isn’t something that has caught on with more mainstream developers who seem to prefer the more non-developer friendly REST and AJAX solutions, but this definitely remains a curious move and begs the question about how long before Google totally unplugs the SOAP life support.

Those concerned should remember that the SOAP API has never emerged from beta and reading the warning in my first paragraph nearly four years ago rings eerily true: “Again, at the time of this diary entry it is a beta service, so it’s uncertain if this will be a permanent service.”

This has been the primary reason I’ve not used the SOAP API very much in our own projects. I don’t like putting much time and energy into projects where the critical API element isn’t guaranteed. Too many web pooh point oh services out there are built entirely off of APIs that may or may not be here six months from now. People talk about financial bubbles, but I see a very real potential for an API bubble bursting when/if some/more key companies start trashing their APIs. The threat is always there without something more concrete in place.

And Google showed that they will terminate beta services recently when they said no mas to Google Answers.

Enough pontificating, is the Google SOAP API dead at this point?

Google Product Manager Tom Stocky responds essentially saying not yet (emphasis mine):

Just to clarify, we’re not planning to shut off the SOAP Search API service for people who are already using it. The change is that we’re not accepting new requests for SOAP Search API keys and are no longer actively supporting it so that we can concentrate our efforts on the AJAX Search API.

This makes it sound at this point like a resources concern — perhaps more human than machine — rather than a technology concern.

Brady’s update from Tim O’Reilly has a Microsoft jab:

SOAP has always been a political football shaped by big companies who were seeking to use it to turn web services back into a controllable software stack. (I remember the first web services summit we did, where a Microsoft developer who I won’t name admitted that SOAP was made so complex partly because “we want our tools to read it, not people.”)

The whole SOAP vs. REST API debates remind me a bit of RSS vs ATOM. I try to stay out of platform and language wars like these largely because I’ve seen through history how something supposedly or actually “better” always comes along sooner or later. Waste of time and energy that could be applied to projects instead of politics and principles.

I do understand and agree that the Google AJAX API in its current state isn’t as complete and flexible an answer to the SOAP API, but until they actually shut off the SOAP services and devs who get Google Hacks under their tree this Christmas aside, this isn’t that significant.

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