Beginning of the End For Open Web Data APIs?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Beginning of the End For Open Web Data APIs?
Google is abandoning the Google search API (glad I never built anything that depended on it) and replacing it with an AJAX widget, which "forces you to hand over part of your web page to Google so that Google can display the search box and show the results the way they want." Just remember - when there is centralized ownership and control, there will eventually be limitations and restrictions intended solely for the benefit of that ownership, at your expense. It's true in the realm of world government, which is why we oppose fascism. It's also true in software. More...