5 Reasons I Hate Google APIs

1. The documentation is terrible and hard to find what you need.

When trying to find what you need within the Google APIs documentation, good luck. It’s nearly impossible to find what you’re looking for, and when you do find it, the documentation is often confusing and unhelpful. Documentation is crucial for any API, and Google’s is sorely lacking. Google should take a page from Stripe’s book and make their documentation clear, concise, and easy to navigate.

2. There are way too many APIs.

Google has over 60 different APIs, and that’s just too many. This makes it difficult to know which API to use for which task, and makes it more likely that developers will choose the wrong API and end up spending hours trying to figure out how to make it work. This lack of clarity is a major problem, and it makes Google’s APIs much less user-friendly than they should be. Instead of 60 different APIs, Google needs to consolidate its APIs to make them more manageable and easier to use.

3. The APIs are constantly changing.

Google is constantly changing its APIs, which can be a pain for developers who have to keep up with the changes. This makes it difficult to keep code up-to-date, and can lead to problems down the road. It also makes it difficult to keep track of which version of an API is which. This is especially true for larger companies who have to maintain a lot of code that uses Google’s APIs. Google needs to be more stable and consistent with its APIs to make life easier for developers.

4. The pricing is outrageous.

Google charges way too much for their APIs. If you want to use any of the more popular APIs, be prepared to shell out a good chunk of change. This pricing structure makes it difficult for small companies and startups to use Google’s APIs, and it’s one of the main reasons I avoid them. Google needs to make its pricing more reasonable if it wants its APIs to be more widely used.

5. There’s a lack of support.

If you have a problem with one of Google’s APIs, good luck getting any support from them. They have a few forums where you can post questions, but the answers are often unhelpful and there’s no way to contact Google directly for support. This lack of support is a huge problem, and it’s one of the main reasons I hate Google’s APIs.