6 of the best for Google! The search giant has owned up to breaking the rules of Apple’s iPhone SDK when it created the latest version of the Google Mobile application for the iPhone.

Apparently, Google Mobile uses undocumented APIs (application programming interfaces) in order to use the iPhone’s proximity sensor to prompt a verbal search. iPhone developers are supposed to use only the APIs that Apple publishes in their SDK when creating their ‘home-brewed’ applications - it’s written in the terms!

Although Google has put their hand up over breaking the terms of the agreement it has denied a far a more serious charge; linking to private or dynamic frameworks in the Google Mobile application. Now, I’m not a hardcore developer but even I know that merits more than a slap on the wrist. Undocumented API’s have a major failiing - the lack of documentation around means that future updates of Apple software could break as a result of an undocumented API being used.

It’s not clear if Apple knew that Google were using undocumented API’s but it’s likely that they just sort of slipped through the net. Apple has a hard time policing policing all the apps that go into the App Store so it could be a simple oversight…or it could be part of Google’s plan to take over the whole world, one mobile vendor at at time.

If Apple decides to enforce the agreements terms, Google could be forced to rewrite the Google Mobile code. Simple enough, you might think but look at it another way; Google Mobile’s proximity sensor/verbal search software works because it uses undocumented API’s. Without them, the code will probably be bloated and a long time coming - not the sort of news that current users want to hear.

There is one other solution - Google can simply buy Apple. Or Apple could build their own search engine…..hmm.

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