The Google API stands for ‘Application Programmable Interface’. As it’s name implies, it is an interface that queries the Google database to help programmers in the development of their applications. There are APIs offered for almost all of Google's popular consumer products like Google Maps, YouTube, Google Apps and even Google Wave.
In the real world, application programmers, developers and integrators write software programs that can connect remotely to the Google API’s. All data communications are executed via the ‘Simple Object Access Protocol’ (SOAP), which is a web services standards as defined by the industry. The SOAP protocol is an XML-based technology meant to easily exchange information entered into a Web application.
Google Maps API
Google created the Google Maps API to allow developers to integrate Google Maps into their websites with their own data points. It is a free service, and currently does not contain ads, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to display ads in the future.
Google Data APIs
The Google Data APIs allow programmers to create applications that read and write data from Google services. Currently, these include APIs for Google Apps, Google Analytics, Blogger, Google Base, Google Book Search, Google Calendar, Google Code Search, Google Spreadsheets, Google Notebook, and Picasa Web Albums.
Google’s API can better assist developers in easily accessing Google's web search database, empowering them in developing software that can query billions of Web documents, constantly refreshed by Google’s automated crawlers. Programmers can initiate search queries to Google's vast index of more than three billion pages and have results delivered to them as structured data that is simple to analyse and work with.
