My How We've Grown

NOV. 1, 2007

By DeWitt Clinton, Google Developer Programs

In 2005 we launched Google Code to provide a home for our developer and open source programs. Two years, dozens of new products and new programs, and one major redesign later, Google Code is bigger and more dynamic than ever. With today's relaunch we've added a new search auto-complete feature (to help you find your favorite products with a keystroke or two in the search box), an expanded and improved search results page, a cleaner and more comprehensive site directory, new blog and group gadgets, and a simplified and unified look and feel for product documentation.

To get a sense of how far things have come you can take a look at the first version of Google Code, back when the whole site almost fit on one page. Today we have thousands and thousands of pages of content on Google Code, and we've added the new site directory and new search features to help you navigate them.

One of the most exciting things about the redesign is that everything you see here was built using technology and APIs that are available to everyone. The pages we're serving don't rely on any secret back-end tricks; the site is built on plain HTML, JavaScript and CSS, each using our public APIs. In fact, all of the techniques used on Google Code can be duplicated on your own site.

For example, the search results pages use a combination of the AJAX Search API and Custom Search Engines. The homepage gadgets use the AJAX Feed API and Google Reader feeds. The videos are powered by the YouTube API, the blogs by the Blogger API, the events powered by the Google Calendar API, the metrics by Google Analytics, the forums by Google Groups, etc., etc.. And we're pleased to use jQuery, the wonderful open source JavaScript library (not ours, we're just fans), to help power each page. Stay tuned -- over the upcoming weeks we'll offer detailed articles and tutorials about how we built the various parts of Google Code using open technologies.

But the best thing about Google Code hasn't changed: And that's you, the developer, our never-ending source of inspiration. Your projects provide countless examples for the Featured Projects feeds, your words and wisdom power the developer groups, and your accomplishments and ideas never cease to amaze us with the possibilities and potential for a better web. This redesign was for you, and I want to personally thank all of you for being such an integral part of Google Code. Together we're capable of doing something very special.

Please join us on the Google Code Blog, (where we'll be enabling comments for this and future posts), and let us know where you're headed and how we can help you get there.