More victims in the Google API Graveyard
Image via Wikipedia
On May 26th, Google announced the deprecation and/or shutdown of many of their most popular and widely developed against APIs, leaving many developers and even Google fanboys feeling dumbfounded, betrayed or at the very least neglected.
According to Google, the following APIs are now deprecated but have no scheduled shutdown date:
- Code Search API
- Diacritize API
- Feedburner APIs
- Finance API
- Power Meter API
- Sidewiki API
- Wave API
- Translate API (v2)
Meanwhile, the following APIs will be both deprecated and shut down (within 6-32 months):
- Blog Search API
- Books Data API
- Books JavaScript API (not new Books API)
- Image Search API
- News Search API
- Patent Search API
- Safe Browsing API (v1 only)
- Language API
- Translate API
- Transliterate API
- Virtual Keyboard API
- Video Search API
- Web Search API (deprecated since Nov.1st, 2010, not in this round)
Since most of the negative comments floating around the web are centered on the shocking loss of Google Translate, here are some possible Google Translate alternatives:
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Microsoft’s Skype Acquisition
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The web has been set ablaze over the past two and a half days since Steve Ballmer and gang announced their $8.5 Billion USD acquistion of Skype.
Many have fear the worst for the Luxembourg-based VoIP leader, ever since a slew of outages and downward slides via customer-infuriating changes to the much-loved Skype Interface. Some are calling this the final nail in the coffin for the company.
While I won’t go so far as to say I will never use Skype again, I have swiftly cancelled my Skype PRO subscription after the news, pending more indication that Microsoft is taking the company in a direction I approve of. Skype still has, to the best of my knowledge, the best free desktop screen-sharing tool of any of the VoIP or Videoconferencing solutions I’ve used.
So, I may be looking for alternatives over the next few months, but will also give ol’ “favorite to pick on” Microsoft the benefit of the doubt for at least making a forward-looking purchase of a truly innovative company for once.
So far, I can recommend the following alternatives:
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BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.