Google Introduces Real-Time Gadget APIs

Aside from announcing its new collaboration platform Google Wave today, Google has also introduced a set of real-time gadget APIs. These APIs allow Google gadgets hosted in different users’ browsers to communicate with each other.

Google’s overview of the APIs says:

The obvious application of these APIs is 1:1 gaming — at its most basic a Tic-Tac-Toe game between two users. However there are many other more complex (and arguably — depending on your thoughts about games — more interesting) scenarios that these APIs enable; for instance, a chat application that translates text as participants type it, or a shared whiteboard, or an application that lets a couple choose the best flight for their upcoming vacation.

Google Shares the following examples of applications utilizing the real-time APIs:

- Rock, Paper, Scissors
- Chess
- Interpreter

Moishe Lettvin, who announced the APIs on the Google Talkabout Blog, says that his "20% time" has been dedicated to this for a while, but eventually turned into his "80% time." You can tell how excited he is about this (and likely other big Google announcements coming out of the Developer Conference):

Also on Twitter, Kevin Marks points out that these APIs were discussed on Open Social a while back. Documentation for the APIs can be found here. There is also a discussion group set up, where Google is encouraging feedback.