Microsoft Answers Common adCenter API Questions

API Still in Pilot Phase, Will Open Up Eventually

Microsoft says it has had a lot of questions lately about access to adCenter API tokens, and the company has addressed these issues on the adCenter API blog. The API program is still in the "pilot" phase, so API tokens are not available to everybody.

"Each request is reviewed for certain criteria," explains Microsoft's Chris Norred. "Users who have a track record of monthly expenditures with adCenter are provided access to the pilot. Other criteria are also considered."



"We receive several requests from new businesses or developers who build tools or services using the adCenter API and have goals to deliver more spend," Norred continues. "Currently, however, support for the adCenter API in the pilot phase cannot serve all these potential customers."

The API lets users create apps that can:

- Create and manage adCenter campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads.

- Obtain the status on ad groups, keywords, and ads.

- Pause and resume ad groups.

- Generate keyword estimates.

- Generate reports about campaign performance.

- Perform ad group targeting.

Microsoft is planning to extend adCenter API access, as well as access to more APIs related to Microsoft advertising services. Currently access to the API is limited to the highest-spending customers, and tokens aren't available for purchase or through other channels, but in the future, access will be opened up for users who meet "a minimum criteria."

Microsoft does not charge for tokens, and the terms of use prohibit their reselling. The company says it will keep interested parties updates via the blog.

Google Releases Instant Messaging API

Google has announced the release of a new API for building Talk bots on top of Google App Engine, Google's product that lets developers create and host web apps on the Google infrastructure.

Google has released version 1.2.5 of the App Engine software developer kit (SDK) for Python and Java. This happens to be the company's first simultaneous release for both. The API includes XMPP (also referred to as Jabber) support, which is an open standard for instant messaging. This comes in the form of the XMPP API for both SDKs.

"Like the other APIs that App Engine provides for developers, XMPP is built on the same powerful infrastructure that serves other Google products," says Google on the App Engine Blog. "In this case, we take advantage of the servers that run Google Talk. This new API allows your app to exchange messages with users on any XMPP-based network, including (but not limited to!) Google Talk."

Developers involved with the preview of Google Wave can also use the API to build bots that interact with waves. Wave will be available to schools and businesses this fall, by the way.
"We're very proud of our first XMPP release, but there's still more work to do," says Google. "In the future we hope to provide even more functionality to apps, such as user status (presence) and info on new subscriptions."

More information about the API and SDKs can be found in this post.