Arnold

Developer API for Google+: It’s coming

by Rafe Needleman

Google’s new social network, Google+, has only been public for two days, and developers are currently serious about access for the service so they’re able to roll out add-ons and improvements.

Luckily for them, and ultimately for Google+ users, developer access is coming. It is basically a matter of time. As Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of social for Google, told me at a Internet two.0 Summit cocktail party tonight, “I’m a developer guy at the core. It truly is inconceivable I’d create a thing devoid of a platform.”

Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice-President of Social for Google.
(Credit: Julie Blaustein)

Gundotra worked for 15 years at Microsoft before leaving for Google. His final job there was as general manager of platform evangelism. It’s fair to say he’s got the background for creating systems that developers can make upon.

However it is just not surprising that Google+ launched with no developer access. The service is far from completely baked. “We’re just obtaining started!” Gundotra gushed to me when we talked. The functions and functions of Google+ will most likely modify substantially in short order. More functions will likely be surely be added to the service, at the same time as improved integration with other Google apps. Giving developers access now could be premature, as some may assemble solutions that finish up duplicating attributes that Google itself is just about to layer into the publicly out there service.

But opening up Google+ to developers at some point could enable all manner of add-ons and enhancements, from third-party access apps, like Tweetdeck was for Twitter (before Twitter acquired it); to Zynga-like games that access the Google social graph; to other utilities and add-ons. Personally, I’d prefer to see a utility that makes more quickly work of managing and sorting contacts into circles.

Google is collecting names from developers who wish to know once the firm launches developer tools. There’s an e-mail and Google Group sign-up on the internet now.

Read extra: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20075974-250/developer-api-for-google-its-coming/#ixzz1Qq5niq00