Search Engine Optimization News Blog

Use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that are undocumented is a very grey area. The news that an application has shown up in Apple’s App Store that used an undocumented API has disturbed some users, especially since it’s against the terms that iPhone developers agree to when they download the SDK.

Google’s voice search function on the latest version of its Google Mobile search app is pretty darn cool. It knows when you hold the phone up to your ear, then delivers a prompt for you to talk into it, then resumes searching as you take it away from listening position. Pretty cool, right?

Google admits to using undocumented APIs to create the voice search mobile app, thereby violating the iPhone’s developers’ agreement. The real question is how did Google’s application made its way to Apple’s App Store?

This is all brand new, and an investigation shows that the code used to provide that level of functionality is completely undocumented by Apple themselves. This is NOT so darn cool. Apple is rigid about this type of thing, often rejecting apps for much, much less.

Using undocumented APIs is heavily frowned upon, as these are often in active development. This means they are subject to change; third-party applications that rely on them could break or crash as things progress. The real question is how in the world did this app with its glaring violation make it past the Apple watchdogs and into the app store?
Google has admitted that it used undocumented APIs, although they deny using private frameworks, which could have been disastrous from a technological point of view.

Did Apples just miss this, or did they know that the app used undocumented APIs and simply chose to let it go? Are they that threatened by gPhone and all the accompanying drama?