ReadWriteWeb

Today on its Geo Developers Blog, Google announced support for spatial queries in Fusion Tables. Google announced last week that the Google Maps API Maps DATA API is being deprecated and that Fusion Tables is the replacement. In that announcement, it was mentioned that spatial queries were added to Fusion Tables. It's not clear whether there were new queries added today or if this announcement is meant to reiterate the transition to Fusion Tables. The documentation for spatial queries in Fusion Tables can be found here.

To develop a Twitter application, the developer must clear a significant hurdle and it requires going beyond the authentication process. That can be a chore for the uninitiated.

Part of the problem comes with cURL, the standard for making HTTP requests through an API. cURL was first developed in 1997. It is built into every command tool created but it does not know the steps that come with authentication, particularly with OAuth, the standard for authorization with Twitter and a host of other applications.

The answer: move cURL to the cloud and into application developer platforms. That's what Apigee is now providing with the latest version of its free, API development platform.

This week, Facebook unveiled a number of updates to its mobile platform, including the launch of a location-based coupons and discounts offering called Facebook Deals, a more open read/write location API, single sign-on support for mobile and revamped iPhone and Android applications.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't give specific numbers on how many people were using Facebook Places as compared with its competition like Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR and others. So you tell us: are using it as a consumer? Or if you're a developer, what your plans are to integrate it into your app?

Today, Location Labs is announcing the launch of its newest location, controls and security platform called "Sparkle." The platform, which will exist both as a pre-loaded client and set of APIs, provides access to location services, security and user level controls for things like voice, data and applications.

With Sparkle, developers can do things like add geo-fencing to location-aware applications, or control the time of day an app can be used. It can even detect the motion and velocity of the handset.

The folks at Alcatel-Lucent have cooked up a plan with the organizers of the Glue conference that even the most jaded blogger would find of interest.

Fifteen winners will be flown to Denver for the Glue Conference next spring to show off what they created using APIs that leverage the cloud.

But here's the cool part. Alcatel-Lucent and the Glue folks will sponsor a nationwide hackathon tour leading up to the conference. And you get a say in what cities they visit. The top winners from those hackathons will go to Gluecon.

Today, via its Google Code Blog, Google announced its new APIs Console for managing Google API projects. The company also announced it is replacing the Web Search API with a new Custom Search API, replacing the Translate API with a new version and retiring the Local Search API. The old APIs will be phased out over the course of three years.

Goodreads has opened its API that will give parters free access to the book lovers' social network and the book reviews, meta data, and literary discussions.

Developers using the API can pull Goodreads ratings for over 2 million different titles and reviews for over 500,000 titles. Goodreads has more than 4 million members and more than 110 million books cataloged. While other online stores may offer customer book reviews, Goodreads members are (not surprisingly) active with their review contributions.

The API also features Goodreads Connect, a Facebook-Connect like OAuth connection.

Developers have access to a growing number of options for spinning up virtual machines. With each new software release from virtualization titans such as VMware there are also developer community efforts such as VI Java API with a wide base of contributors. Just as the contributors expand so do the options for developers familiar with other languages.

Let's take a look at how VMware is expanding options with a recent beta that targets the PHP developer community.

Matt Asay compares APIs to open-source. The more open the code, the more difficult it can be to sell the software. The new generation of Web players like Facebook are taking a similar approach with their APIs. Facebook, for instance, is giving significant access to its platform in exchange for all the data from sites with the Facebook icons and gadgets on its Web pages.

But due to its openness, the question becomes how the revenue can well surpass the certain costs that come with serving the Facebook developer army.

There was a recent post on ReadWriteCloud about 10 common mistakes made by API providers. I think this is a very thoughtful post, but I think it's an inward look at the problem. In other words, they are looking at problems that developers face while implementing their own APIs. I think biggest mistakes are not necessarily how to implement your API, but how API consumers will perceive, implement and use the API. So I came up with my own list based on nearly a decade of implementing APIs from the receiving end.