One of the frustrations among many developers who write tools, extensions and apps is Google+ yet doesn’t have a public write api to post content programmatically to Google+.

There are 3rd party libraries and hacks available that allow to write content via api (by manipulating the DOM through javascript)  to G+ but the problem is since these are hacks whenever something changes officially on G+, the api is guaranteed to break which in turn breaks your application. That’s why developers wait for the official api. G+ has repeatedly mentioned they are working on it and not ready yet.

So, +Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering at Google decided to write a post to detail why it’s not ready yet, here you go in his own words… (reproduced from his g+ post)

I get a lot of heat for not releasing a full write API for Google+. At SXSW I was even booed by developers in the audience when I said we were not ready to open an API.

I’ve repeatedly stated the reason – I’m not interested in screwing over developers. When we open an API, we want developers to feel confident that the innovations they build are going to be long lasting. Releasing an API, and then later changing the rules of the game isn’t fun for anyone, especially developers who’ve spent their life’s energies building on the platform.

So I’m sorry that we haven’t released a wide open write API for those of you who want one. We’re being careful because we want to be different. You know, actually respectful of developers who build on our platform. It’s novel. I know.

We admire him for taking time to write this and share with the developers. Let’s get the API right before releasing it to developers so that we don’t have to chase the tail.

Meanwhile there are other official api’s for reading posts, comments, hangouts api and even a write api to post to G+ history. Check it out and share your thoughts.