Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Google adds Shopping APIs for retailers

news
Dec 20, 20102 mins

The company also announces a planned deprecation of the Base Data API

Google unveiled late last week Shopping APIs enabling retailers to upload product data to multiple Google Web properties. The company also announced the planned deprecation of the existing Google Base Data API for content providers and search applications.

The Shopping APIs feature components for content and search, according to the Google Code Blog. The content API allows retailers to upload product data to Google for uses in online places such as Google Product Search, Google Commerce Search, and Product Ads. Search API makes it easy for Google Commerce Search customers, Google Affiliate Network publishers, and developers to build applications using product data, Google said.

“We are pleased to announce our newest addition to the Shopping family — a simple yet powerful programmatic interface that enables retailers to upload their content to Google and query data from Google,” said Alex Dovlecel and Andrew Eames of the Google Sopping team.

Shopping APIs replace the Google Base Data API for content providers and search applications. “We are deprecating the Base API and will fully retire it on June 1, 2011. For existing developers making the switch, we’ve provided a Migration Guide to help,” Dovlecel and Eames said.

“Developers using the Base API for shopping data should migrate to the new Shopping APIs for uploading their content and using data for search applications,” said Philippe Altherr and Wenchao Tong, software engineers with the Google Shopping Team, in the Google Merchant Blog. “There are a few non-shopping data types that won’t be supported with new Shopping APIs, such as jobs, real estate, events, and activities. We hope this won’t cause too much disruption, and we recommend developers use Google Site Search and other search technologies for those use cases.”

This article, “Google adds Shopping APIs for retailers,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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