Google's new APIs and their effect on Google Talk, Gmail and yes, Google Phone

After speaking with three Non Disclosure Agreement-signing (but apparently loose-lipped) sources who attended a supersecret meeting at the Googleplex (Google's corporate HQ in Mountain View, Cal. Thursday, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has the scoop on some new initiatives Google will announce in the next several weeks that will open some Google apps to projects by third-party developers.

Mike writes:

The short version: Google will announce a new set of APIs on November 5 that will allow developers to leverage Google’s social graph data. They’ll start with Orkut and iGoogle (Google’s personalized home page), and expand from there to include Gmail, Google Talk and other Google services over time.

My take is that these third-party apps will be able to enhance GoogleTalk with applications none of us have thought of- at least as of yet. More than IM, which they do now. I'd think these new apps would work best when, as Google promises, GT will be SIP-compatible. This step, promised for nearly two years, would in turn pave the way for true PSTN termination for Google Talk, much in the manner of Skype or Yahoo! Voice.

Once this is done, some of these options then available to third-party developers could, at least in theory, make Google Talk-calls more manageable, configurable, and measurable. I'd expect for, or even hope for, diagnostic tools for each call, not unlike corporate-VoIP solutions we see from such companies as Cisco and Avaya.

I'd also expect a third-party service to come in and construct a name-searchable directory of all Google Talk numbers and Gmail addys, as well as enhanced searchability for Google's Orkut social network.

And if Google does get into a GooglePhone type mobile service, maybe some third-party could tunnel in and construct a searchable directory of those phone numbers.

Can Google do all this and ensure privacy? Once you grant API rights to third-party developers, strict access controls to your customer records becomes an even higher priority.