Bookraft

Takethe5th, my Political Finance website, is now available in 25 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, Hebrew, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh and Yiddish among others. And I say among others because Google has added two new languages in the past few weeks.

So you can enjoy Takethe5th commentary in your native tongue - and if the translation is a bit shaky readers can see the original English by just hovering over the paragraph with their mouse and the original English pops up as shown in the screen shot. Please enjoy responsibly!

The second reason that I mention this bit of Google Free Goodness is because this is a)ridiculously easy to program [ just go to Google Code to see how easy it is] to add translations to your website and b)the cost is zero, nada, rien, nicht. The third and most important reason is because Google is working triple overtime this year to establish an ever-expanding number of "free" Google APIs as the defacto standards for the Web. In effect, Google is trying to make its APIs as essential as the Microsoft Windows APIs are to desktop programmers and developers[a 95% desktop PC OS monopoly certainly makes the Windows API a defacto standard for many programmers]. But the fourth and most important reason is because Google's APIs are becoming essential in the publishing and media business.

Lets take a quick look at some of the Google APIs and actions and see how pervasively important they are becoming in the Writing and Publishing:
First, Google just bought MobileAd - which means they will be bring Google ads to mobile telephones. Many of the 100,000 Apple iPhone apps are really lead-in ads for service by companies savvy enough to program the the "apps".
Google Search API - is used on many websites as default search engine; however many popular blogs/CMS systems like Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress have their own search engines so Google is having mixed results here.
Google Adsense API - is used as the dominant Web ad source. I have seen Google Adsense ads appear on sites as diverse as the NYTimes and The Atlantic. Given,te economic times, publishers cannot ignore Google Adsense.
Google Ajax APIs - sets the ground work for using other Google APIs, gaining in popularity.
Google Maps API - this is the competitive advantage API for the new Android smartphones and many retail outlets. Google Maps are pervasive.
And there are 50 more APIs! In short, trying to keep up with all the new and/or improved Google APIs has become a major task. Google still does not have for all these APIsthe "must-have" pervasiveness of the Windows APIs; but like Google's new Go programming language, Google's APIs certainly have Web developers and users attention. And likewise, writers and publishers will have to pay attention as well.