Google delivers AJAX API

Google Inc. has launched an AJAX API (application programming interface) designed to simplify the process of creating application mashups using JavaScript.

The new Google AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) Feed API eliminates the need for developers to write server-side proxies to access public data feeds using JavaScript, Google announced in an official blog posting.

Instead, with the API, feeds can accessed by writing "a few lines" of JavaScript. "The API automatically handles the proxying and offers a clean, straightforward interface for accessing syndicated data," a Google spokesman wrote via e-mail.

Sample tasks the API simplifies include displaying a dynamic blogroll on a Web page or photos from a feed from the Google Picasa photo management service on a site.

The new API supports the Atom and RSS syndicated feed formats.

Bret Taylor, group product manager for Google developer products, will demonstrate the Google AJAX Feed API on Wednesday at a presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

More information about the new API can be found at this site.