Google AJAX library APIs
It starts to become an almost weekly returning news item but Google has again introduced an interesting new project, called AJAX Library APIs. Development of AJAX like webpages often relies on a series of Javascript libraries like JQuery, prototype, script.aculo.us and more. Google realized that including these libraries into your webpage and making them work together has become a prerequisite step that isn't always trivial. The Google AJAX Library APIs now makes this process a no-brainer.
By working together with the developers of the individual libraries they have now made the most popular javascript libraries available via a simple loading mechanism. Google has optimized the libraries to ensure a speedy download, which is further helped by the fact that you make use of their impressive global infrastructure. Another big plus is that the developers at Google have made sure that all these different libraries play together nicely as well.
So if you are doing any AJAX or Javascript development make sure you head over to their Google code webpage to give it a try or read a more detailed overview in this article, written by one of the Google developers.
Comments
libraries availabbility
Just to clarify: does that mean you can reference these librairies from your web pages, and not have to serve them yourself?
Yep
Exactly that's the whole idea, they host them for you, you only have to add 1-2 lines to your webpage and they're downloaded from Google, making use of their globally distributed infrastructure and optimized libraries. They also guarantee that each version they decide to host will be hosted indefinitely.