[ ← blog / api ](/) Nov 28, 2011  ·  \#api  ·  1 min read 

# Google+ API and Library



 [Google+ has released a rough outline on their API for accessing data](https://developers.google.com/+/api/ "Google+ API").  The Google+ API only allows for read-access to data, but this will still allow you to integrate a visitors social features around Google+.  API calls can either be completed via an API key or an OAuth 2.0 token for user data.The Google+ API follows a typical REST design involving HTTP GET on many API calls and the results are in JSON format.Here is an example API call and response from the web site: Request 

```
GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/people/{userId}
```

Response 

```
{
  "kind": "plus#person",
  "id": "118051310819094153327",
  "displayName": "Chirag Shah",
  "url": "https://plus.google.com/118051310819094153327",
  "image": {
    "url": "https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XnZDEoiF09Y/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAYCI/7fow4a2UTMU/photo.jpg"
  }
}
```

For now the Google+ API covers People, Activites, and Commets.  Google has released Google+ API Libraries for [various languages that can be downloaded](https://developers.google.com/+/downloads "Google+ API Downloads") along with starter scripts. 

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