Google Base, a mashups database for the REST of us

By the end of the presentation, I want to have answered these three questions:

1. What is Google Base and how does it help me?
2. How do I pull information out?
3. How do I put information into Base?

Google Base stores structured XML data and indexes it to make it searchable. There are very few restrictions on the XML entered into Google Base so items can describe just about anything. Once you put an item in Base, it will be searchable by anyone. Base provides a way to publish raw data to allow others to present and digest. You can interact with items in Google Base through the RESTful API based on GData and the Atom Publishing Protocol. Base contains a wealth of raw data, which you can leverage to create useful applications and mashups. I’ll cover the basics for simple queries and dive into the ever growing query language. If I have time, I’ll showcase some of the nifty applications which have been built on top of Google Base. I’ll cover specific details on authenticating with the service and adding, updating, and deleting items.