Google Goes All In With Github, You Should Too With Your API

by Kin Lane on 01/24/2013

Google is migrating samples and tools for App Engine, BigQuery, Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Storage to a new Github account, they are calling the Google Cloud Platform.

Google is going all in with its use of Github, something I'm encouraging API owners to do. They are working to manage all of their essential API tools there like their start projects, which show developers how to get started with Google APIs as well as other helper tools like the OAuth 2.0 Helper, that helps developers be successful.

Github provides a lot of benefit beyond the obvious aspect of open sourcing your code. Google is actively engaging with developers using Github alongside all of these open source projects. If you think about it, this offers a more compelling way to engage with API developers beyond forums. On forums you end up with a lot of general, sometimes senseless questions--Github anchors questions or issues and pull requests around actual code libraries, SDKs, starter kits and other integration areas.

Github provides potentially more meaningful actions to occur between you and your developer community, beyond making code more accessible and openly licensed. It is good to see Google going this route.