Are other companies/products/websites providing access via Google Data APIs?

Question

Google uses the XML/RSS/Atom-based Google Data APIs to provide programmatic access to its various services.

Because it is Google doing this, these API are becoming quite popular, as in: there are many client applications supporting it. Google even provides a lot of client libraries themselves.

It should be possible to use the APIs for other (non-Google) data-sources, as well.

Is anyone doing this?

If I had to provide an API to my calendar web site, would it be a good move to use Google's API instead of CalDAV, which is a "proper" standard but probably more difficult to work with?

Or are the Google APIs too Google-specific, not well documented enough, or inappropriate for some other reason?

Answer 1

For calendaring, the CalDAV protocol and ICS file format are well established and portable between applications and services. I wouldn't try to copy exactly what Google's APIs do, because they can be specific. Offering REST based APIs with XML/Atom support is not terrible choice. Probably all depends on what you're trying to do. For calendaring, CalDAV/ICS are probably the best choice.