My favorites ▼ | English ▼ | Sign in

Google Code Labs

FAQ


What is Google Code Labs?
Google Code Labs is a place for developer products that are still in their early stages of development. Our hope, of course, is that all of our developer products grow up to be huge successes, but we realize that not every single one will reach that goal. The Labs program offers engineering teams at Google and the developer community a chance to explore ideas and get involved early.
How will I be able to tell which APIs are in Labs?
The Google Code Labs page lists which APIs are in Labs and which have graduated. If a product is in Labs, its documentation has a logo with a beaker and page elements that are green instead of blue. Also, the header includes the word "Labs" in parentheses after the product name.
What does it mean for a product to "graduate" from Labs?
Graduating from Labs is a big step and indicates our long-term commitment to that product. One part of this commitment is a published deprecation policy. Please note that we're still working to get updated terms in place for all the graduated products, but in most cases they will have a 3-year deprecation policy. There will be some exceptions, however, such as the AdWords API, which supports old versions for 4 months. Graduating also includes requirements like having a dedicated, ongoing engineering team and comprehensive test suite.
Why are some features labeled "experimental"? Is this different from Labs?
Yes, experimental features are different from Labs. For products that have graduated from Labs, we want to make sure they're still able to explore new ideas and innovate rapidly. If a feature is labeled "experimental" that means it could change (or even be removed) at any time. To be clear, even though our deprecation policy says we'll continue to support old versions, that does not apply to features labeled "experimental".
What does it mean to have a "3-year deprecation policy"?
A 3-year deprecation policy means that we'll support each version of the API for at least 3 years from when it's deprecated or a newer version is introduced. For example, let's say an API is on v1 and then it launches v2 on March 1st, 2009. That means, that v1 will continue to be supported until March 1st, 2012. Similarly, if one day we announced that the API were being deprecated entirely, its most recent version would continue to be supported for 3 years from that date. For the full details on the deprecation policy, please refer to the products' terms of service.