Data.gov

2009 saw a number of interesting developments in the Government 2.0 movement. One of the most high-profile backers of this movement was - surprisingly - the U.S. government. With Data.gov and similar government projects that feature APIs, developers can now find a wealth of information that was previously hard to access.

By providing API access to this data, the U.S. government has opened itself up to more scrutiny, as citizens can now analyze this data with unprecedented ease.

New York Times APIs

No other news organization offers as many APIs as the New York Times - although the Guardian's Open Platform was also a strong candidate for this list. Over the course of this year, the New York Times opened up an API for accessing an archive of all the paper's stories since 1981 and APIs to access information about the U.S. Congress and the New York State legislature.

There can be little doubt that the newspaper industry needs to find new ways to monetize its product. For some papers, this has meant making it harder for consumers and developers to mash up their content. The New York Times, however, has decided that increased openness is a better strategy. [disclosure: RWW syndicates content to NYT]

Google App Engine

With App Engine, Google gives developers an easy way to develop and deploy cloud applications through a comprehensive set of services and APIs. This year, Google introduced Java as an additional language in the App Engine's repertoire. App Engine now also supports XMPP, which has allowed a number of developers to create services that push real-time updated to IM clients or third-party applications.

In addition, Google also announced a pricing structure for App Engine in February.

In November, Google had to face some negative publicity around App Engine when it became known that some hackers were using the service to host a bot net. Overall, however, the service has not suffered from any major security issues so far.

Azure

Azure is Microsoft's big push towards cloud computing. While it is still too early to judge the success of this platform, we think it would be wrong to underestimate Microsoft's commitment to this space and the size of its developer ecosystem. While Amazon and RackSpace's cloud services are clearly more popular than Microsoft's new service, there can be little doubt that the arrival of Microsoft in this market will help to push the incumbents towards more innovation.

Adobe AIR

While Adobe AIR is nowhere near perfect, very few other platforms have the same cross-platform reach as AIR. It allows developers to create one application and distribute it for all the major operating systems. Thanks to its auto-updating features, AIR also makes it easy for developers to keep their install base up to date.

This year, Adobe launched AIR 2, which now allows developers to access mass storage devices, drag-and-drop support for remote files and rudimentary support for P2P networking. In addition, AIR 2 also enables developers to use the multi-touch capabilities of modern screens.

Those are our picks! In the comments let us know your thoughts or what we may have missed.