Technical Evaluations Using Web APIs - Report Example

Technical Evaluations Using Web APIs The Google Web Service API is used to add the power of Google search engine to any application developed today. The type of application developed does not matter as long as the developer chooses the right development language API Google has developed for the environment the developer works in (Google Developers). The best thing about web development is that new technologies come up every other day. It is only up to the developers and the stakeholders involved keeping up with the changes. It is common today to find that new products come up from development stages, to release, and move on to become household names commanding millions and sometimes billions of dollars in revenue. Over the years, we had seen the development of personal computers at a time when the massive IBM Company thought that the idea of developing and creating the personal computer was not viable. In their own words, they said that the personal computer was ‘a toy’. At the time, IBM was creating and building only mainframe computers. They ridiculed the idea of the development of the personal computers so much, so that the likes of Microsoft were forced to do something big while the others watched. Today, personal computers are found in almost every home and school. In the world of search engines, Google is developing very fast. The Google we have today is not the same as the Google we had 12 years ago or so. The company is making innovations every other day. It is becoming a juggernaut that crashes anything in its way; Google cannot stop to overcome anything that comes its way. The Google web API has been around for a while now. This API enables developers to create websites that have the Google searching services in them without much hustle (Chase). The Google Web Search API enables developers to put the Google Search services in the web pages they come up with using JavaScript. This whole process happens by embedding of the code that Google makes available on some of its web sites for developers to take and use for their own purposes. The use of the web search API is regulated with the terms and conditions that developers have to comply with the terms and conditions of Google as a company and service provider. Once the search box from Google is embedded in code, users can be able to search for anything from the web sites that have implemented the use of the web search API (Google Developers). The results from the web search can also be seen on the same page as the one the search made on with no problem at all. An example of a web site that has implemented the Google Web Search so well is http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/search.php This website has implemented the Google Search API in its search page. This has made it easier for the website’s visitors to quickly locate any content they are searching for. The search API lets developers embed code into the web sites they make in order to bring results they want the users to see. The developers filter the results according to the criteria they deem fit the visitors of the site should see and that meets the demands of all the stake holders of the web site. When visiting standard media web site, newspaper readers from Kenya may wish to search the contents of the site very fast and depend on the search field to give them very specific content they may be looking for from the web site. Use of the Google Web Search API has very little restrictions. Google Inc. has been at the forefront of development of open source software for a while now and their APIs are mostly open source too; in order to achieve this purpose. The API is available for download from the Google developers’ web site. At the point of download, the user or developer downloading the API is required to agree to the terms and conditions of use to access the API (Google Developers). Rich Interface Technologies There are a number of rich tech technologies in place today. Some of them are Ajax, JQuery, HTML5, which are used for the development of beautiful interfaces for mobile devices. HTML5 provides users of mobile devices with rich web applications that also showcase very improved usability. This technology is an improved version of HTML and XML technologies of old; with some extra new features added to it. The new features that it has, standardize the technologies and the use cases that are, today commonly found in smart phones applications. HTML5 is the newest version of XHTML and XTML. HTML5 defines one language that can be written in XML and HTML. It solves the issues that are found in the previous HTML versions and tries to meet the demands that modern web applications pose. HTML could not adequately meet the demands. HTML5 defines a detailed processing model that is used to foster implementations that are interoperable. It also enables improvement in the markup of documents. This new version of HTML also makes it possible for one to develop web applications through the APIs that are available for it so far. There are various features that this mark-up language supports that were previously not in the other versions. For instance, it provides for off-line support. This has been a great break-through in web development; and especially so for mobile phone applications. This is made possible by the fact that HTML5 makes it possible to have a database and an AppCache. These two tools give developers the ability to keep or store resources required by the applications they develop on the mobile devices; locally. Any interruptions in the connectivity of the mobile phone will not affect the a person’s ability to get some work done once the content has been loaded onto the phone. The ability to have offline support is very useful in that it allows web browsers to cache static pages. When caching is done, it is easy to load the web page content. However, if caching is not possible, the whole process of loading the web pages is painfully slow. HTML5 also supports streaming of audio and video.Although this is still in development stages, it will be breathtaking to see browsers play video and audio with support from flash. Among other things, HTML5 also supports GeoLocation. It has a GeoLocation API. This may not entirely be part of HTML5, but, it is supported. With the advent of HTML5, there are now frameworks that we can use to develop web applications on HTML5 mobile. Some of them are: 1. Sencha touch – this was the first available framework for development of mobile web applications. The framework is specifically for the development web applications that meet the demands of mobile devices. 2. JQuery mobile – is built on JQuery and JQuery UI. This UI interface system is also used to build web interfaces on other platforms apart from on HTML5. 3. JQTouch – this is a JQuery plug-in that was developed for development of web applications for iPhones. While there are available native platforms, on which mobile phones can be developed and perform better than web applications, there is just something about HTML5 web applications for mobile phones. HTML5 provides the openness that is not found in Android or Apple iOS. There are a number of applications built on HTML5 and work on various platform with no problems at all. This is te beauty of HTML5; it is independent of platform on which it runs. For instance, there is the Google Voice application. This application has been built on HTML5. It enables users to make international calls cheaply with no need for a phone number. Google provides a phone number that is not for a phone or a SIM card. The application allows users to send free text messages, as well as to listen to voicemails and even read transcripts. The application is currently only available in the United States. The application has a very beautiful interface that is easy to navigate through; moving to pages is easy as pie. The application is also light. The number Google Voice gives the users is only tied to the user and not to locations or to devices. This application works with desk phones, mobile phones, and even VoIP lines. It helps users to manage their phones well; it helps user to determine which phones to use and at what times to use them. Electronic Payment Systems Electronic payment systems refer to the financial exchange that occur online when buyers and sellers transact. More often than not, the content of the exchanges is usually a form of electronic, digital financial system instrument. Examples of such instruments are electronic cheques, credit card numbers that are often encrypted, and digital cash. These instruments are often backed by intermediaries, or by a bank, and sometimes by legal tender. A number of reasons led to financial institutions to decide to make use of e-payment systems. 1. Electronic payment systems reduce processing and operational costs. This is because, the technology costs are reduced and consequently reduce the costs of processing. The commerce activities then become very less costly. 2. The electronic payment systems are cheap to use because of the reduced cost on technology. Networking technology has decreased in costs and are now cheaper than they were few years ago. Additionally, the internet costs are also becoming cheaper everywhere else in the world today. 3. There is increasing rise in online commerce activities today. Therefore, the need for these electronic payment systems is only coming at the right time. Apart from these reasons, there are problems with the old traditional payment systems that led to the adoption of new electronic systems of payment. Some of them are as follows: 1. There was a lack of security with the traditional systems of payment 2. There was a lack of convenience with the traditional systems of payment. This is because the consumer had to send a paper cheque or physically go to the point of the transaction to ensure a deal was successful. 3. There was a lack of coverage with old systems. Today businesses span countries and states. Therefore, they need to have to do transactions world-wide; in wherever locations they have points of sale. In this case, the points of sale are places that have internet access and users can use online payment systems. 4. There was a lack of eligibility with the traditional systems of payment. This is because not all people have bank accounts through which they can pay for items using cheques and other forms of paper money. 5. There was the lack of support from financial institutions, especially the micro institutions. Enter PayPal… PayPal is an online payments processor. Its purpose is to manage bank, check, and credit card online payments; and to receive as well as receive payments through the internet/world wide web. Online payment systems processors are one of the most important things businesses should have today. This is especially, a must have, for businesses that transact online. An internet business cannot happen without the existence of a system that manages how money is received online. Traditional forms of payment, as we have seen, are very slow and quite cumbersome and hard to manage as compared to this mode of payments and expenditure management systems. Additionally, the lack of an online system of payment would lead to the loss of potential customers. This form of payment also suits people with credit cards and are a substantial inclusion in the activities of the business. PayPal has revolutionized the whole process of paying for products and services online a whole lot easier than it would have been using paper money and checks. The web site; www.paypal.com is very complicated, as some users and customers have said. It would be lovely to simplify the interface to avoid confusion and all that. Works Cited Chase, Nicholas. "Building Web services applications with the Google API." 15 May 2002. IBM. Web. 29 February 2012 . Google Developers. "Google Web Search API (Deprecated)." 2012. Google Developers. Web. 29 February 2012 . Read More