1.	Here's why I think the release of the Google API is significant.
2.	1. It works. You can make a SOAP call to Google and get a response.
3.	2. It didn't take very long for them to do it. There was no excruciating phase lasting years with hundreds of people getting their shot at fixing it and changing it. It stayed simple.
4.	3. It's compatible. Within hours samples were available for AppleScript, C++, Frontier/Radio UserLand, Movable Type, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl and Visual Basic. Glue for Java, .Net and Perl were included in Google's developer package. No one hit any bumps or dead-ends, as far as I know.
5.	4. Google is the leading search engine. When the Macintosh platform went through this layer of technology in the early 90s, a simple utility called Stuffit got it started. Then Pagemaker, Filemaker, Quark, the Finder; and from there, scripting interfaces became commonplace. Some may want an orderly deployment of common practices, but leaders can move more quickly, and they will, and that's good.
6.	5. Developers are interested. There are enough people who are willing to try out an idea, overlook its flaws, and believe. That says that other market leaders who provide a programmatic interface to their data will likely get attention from developers. Could Amazon implement a money-making SOAP interface? Without a doubt. Same for Yahoo and eBay.
7.	6. SOAP is good enough. It may not be perfect, it may not have all the answers, but there are useful things you can do with it. Google helped SOAP out of a tight corner.
8.	7. It opens a conversation. Before this release, from Google's point of view, we were all users. Now some of us are developers. We get another chance to define what that means, based on what we learned being developers for Apple, IBM, Apple again, Netscape, the Internet, Microsoft and now the Internet again. It's a good time for a fresh start.