Swooping in after a developer's anti-Facebook rant made the rounds, Google's Vic Gundotra has posted a message to other developers: "I'm not interested in screwing over developers."
Gundotra, the company's VP of engineering (pictured), prefaced his post by explaining why Google hasn't yet released its full write API for Google+. "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," Gundotra wrote on -- where else? -- his Google+ Page. "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."
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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.
To punctuate his comment, Gundotra included a link to developer Dalton Caldwell's "Dear Mark Zuckerberg" blog post from earlier this week. Caldwell does not appear to have responded to Gundotra's post.
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Of course, just because Google doesn't release official APIs doesn't mean that developers don't already build apps on its platforms. Last October, the new version of Google Reader got rid of some long-standing sharing features employed by the service. Not only did Google experience a backlash from some users, it caused problems for developers that had come to rely on unofficial -- but long-standing -- API hooks.
Your move, Facebook. Developers -- do you feel safe building on Google's platform? Let us know in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.