Is Google taking a short term view on services?
Via Slashdot: Apparently Google has decided to kill its SOAP API.
I was perusing the comments for this Slashdot story and it struck me that the prevailing perception of this move, per the usual was summed up by this one comment:
“Google is a company…Their responsibility is more towards their shareholders, not so much towards their users.”
I’m about fed up with this view of all public companies, just as I’m increasingly angered by dealings with or investing in any company, public or private, that would bow to their investors’ whimbs rather than service their customers, past present and future. Techdirt had a pretty solid analysis yesterday about craigslist and the whole myth of maximizing (short term) profit. What I’d like to know is when these Wall Street analysts lost sight of that ol’ outdated capitalist notion that what’s good for your customers is ultimately going to be goddamn good for you?
The reason Google is special here is because of a decision the founders made before their IPO. They took an end-around from some of the Wall Street pressure by withholding voting rights from their common stock. Investors know this (or should) going in, and the crippled voting writes are factored into the share price accordingly. This doesn’t mean Google won’t ever “be evil” — but in this circumstance, pulling back on their SOAP web services probably has dickall to do with maximizing revenues or protecting brand value. Have you tried to code to a SOAP service? Without a tool it’s a practical impossibility.
For now, I just don’t believe Google’s pulling out of the services game. I’ll wager there’s a ReSTful interface already in the works. I’m just surprised they went the SOAP route in the first place — it really isn’t Google’s style.