These days, the terms 'web 2.0 company' and 'API' seemingly go hand in hand, especially if the company has a climb up the market share ladder ahead of them. Unfortunately, Pownce must have missed this memo, as our own mixed review of the new social status / file and event sharing service criticized the clunky Flash AIR app and 3rd party-stifling lack of an API. After all, if a web 2.0 service doesn't allow others to hook in, it could easily get washed away into the web's Sea of Irrelevance.

Lo and behold, however, the folks at Pownce seem to have heard the cries of the masses and have promised an official API. Set for a hopeful release in September, the company also did something interesting by creating Pownce API Google Group to discuss some of the design and development aspects, such as what format to use and how authentication should be handled. If you'd like a say in how Pownce should open their doors to 3rd party apps and integration, that Google Group will be your best shot at getting your voice heard.

This official API will definitely make things interesting, especially since Pownce is truly bringing some unique things to the table with file sharing and event inviting / collaboration. The real advantage will appear when a Twitterrific-like app offers elegant, easy and yet powerful control over one's Pownce account, merging the reach of the web with the power of the desktop.

Hot on the heels of a major overhaul of Google Reader, Google has announced a brand new beta version of Google Groups. The new Google Groups, which is currently living at groups-beta.google.com, is slicker in every way, and also "fits in" a little better with the growing family of Google web apps. In fact, some parts of the interface look a whole lot like Gmail, with rounded borders around each message and a Compose form that's very familiar. On top of the interface changes, however, there are some serious new features. Members of groups can now collaboratively create web pages a la Google Page Creator, group administrators can now customize their group's color scheme and graphics, and now groups have a Files section where users can upload files to share with other group members. For the first time, Google Groups is starting to feel to me like an actual contender to Yahoo! Groups' long-held crown.

Google has made some changes to its home page, removing the Froogle and Google Groups links from above the search box and adding a link to Google Video in their place. The new home page adds a "More" link which, when clicked, reveals links for Books, Froogle, Groups, and "even more." These are the first changes to Google's home page in recent memory, and I'm hoping that the increased emphasis on Google Video means that service will be getting more features soon.

[Via Google Blogoscoped]

Google dropped the word a little while ago about some Open Source Community thingy they were working on, and Greg Stein said that he was just putting the finishing touches on it. Well, it looks like it has been released.

The new service from Google is a hosting environment called Project Hosting, that allows developers to upload and store any open-source project code they have in their arsenal. It also allows those interested, to search and download open source codes in Python, C++, Java, Audio, XML, CSharp, Graphics, and many other formats.

Google Code allows users to create new projects under the new hosting environment, giving it a name, summary, description, assigning it a license, (if it is licensed), and labeling it with keywords. The online description together with the keywords, is how users will find the open source code on the Google Project Hosting website.

When a project is opened, It is displayed with the title, description, licenses, and labels. There are also links to Blogs, and Google Groups info on that particular open source code. A great job from Google to help open up and grow the open source community.