By DeWitt
Clinton, Google Developer ProgramsIn 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.
