Google AJAX API takes the pain out of Atom and RSS mashups

A new AJAX API (application programming interface) from Google, the Google AJAX Feed API, takes the pain out of developing mashups involving Atom and RSS feeds.

The new API makes it possible to download any public Atom or RSS feed using only a few lines of JavaScript, rather than having to deal with complex server-side proxies.

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a programming approach that allows the development of interactive web pages. In AJAX just parts of a web page are updated with new information, so that it’s not necessary to download a whole new web page every time information needs to be updated. This saves bandwidth, but it also allows web pages to be more interactive, usable and faster.

A sample of the new API on Google’s official AJAX Search API Blog shows the AJAX Feed API being used to display a rotating collection of iTunes RSS Feeds

Users need to signup for an API key in order to be able to use the new API. Google warns that the because the API is new, it may contain bugs.

The new Google AJAX Feed API supports the following feed formats: Atom 1.0, Atom 0.3, RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0, RSS 0.94 , RSS 0.93, RSS 0.92, RSS 0.91, and RSS 0.9.