Google Code Labs and the SOAP Search API

As recently announced, a new program was introduced today for Google Code Labs. We're proud that the AJAX Search API has already graduated from Labs, which demonstrates our long-term commitment to it.

Also part of that announcement was that the SOAP Search API will be retired on August 31st, 2009. It was deprecated in 2006, when we stopped accepting new developers for the API. Since then, it's been steadily declining in usage and we believe the majority of use cases are sufficiently handled by the more comprehensive AJAX Search API.

In many ways, this AJAX API is a superset of the SOAP API, providing access to local, news, image, and video search results, among others, in addition to web search. Therefore, we encourage SOAP developers to explore our documentation and consider migrating their applications.

Please keep in mind that the AJAX APIs exist for the benefit of end-users; several of their features and usage guidelines are designed with them in mind. For instance, each search performed with the API must be the direct result of a user action. Automated searching is strictly prohibited, as is permanently storing any search results. Please refer to the Terms of Use for more detail.

And for developers new to the AJAX Search API, don't forget to check out our discussion group, a good resource if you have questions or need more help. Welcome aboard!