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Google offers mea culpa to calendar developers

Changing course from earlier this year, Google takes a more developer-friendly stance on two of its calendar APIs.

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Seth Rosenblatt Former Senior Writer / News
Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt covered Google and security for CNET News, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Formerly a CNET Reviews senior editor for software, he has written about nearly every category of software and app available.
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Seth Rosenblatt
A rare reversal for Google: The company decides not to lock down a previously open API. Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET

When it comes to services, it can seem that Google giveth and Google taketh away at random. But sometimes, the company listens to its customers, too.

In the case of one particular application programming interface used by developers to access calendar data, the open standard CalDAV API was set to be restricted to whitelisted partners later this year.

Google explained Wednesday that, following an outcry by developers, the company has "a better understanding of developers' use cases" for the API, and CalDAV will remain open to them.

The company also announced that "in the spirit of openness" it has made available to all developers the CardDAV API, which allows them to interact with contact information across the Web.

Google changed how developers can access the APIs, too. Both CardDAV and CalDAV have now been integrated into the Google API console, and work with OAuth 2.0 authentication.

While developer complaints may have gotten the desired outcome in this case, the odds are against the vocal minority complaining about the death of better-known services such as Google Reader.