(April 22, 2002) - As an aid to the undeniable throng of folks who still wouldn't know the difference between a Web service and a hole in the ground, Cape Clear Software has recently published access to Google.com as a Web service - so that a Web search can be conducted entirely by e-mail.

Obviously this means that the search is asynchronous rather than immediate. But Cape Clear's thinking is that such a service may be useful for those with infrequent, low quality access to the Internet - people using mobile phones, for example, or offline laptop users. The way it works is that you send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with your search terms in the Subject line and the next time you're able to check your e-mail you'll find that it has automatically sent you back the top ten results. This makes it a perfect Web services app for wireless devices where Internet connections may be interrupted by network difficulties. It also, as a by-product, offers a way for people to keep a written record of their searches.

This follows the recent release by Google of its Web APIs, allowing software developers to query more than 2 billion web documents directly from their own computer programs. In the spirit of true Web services interoperability, Google uses the SOAP and WSDL standards so developers can program in their favorite environment, whether Java, Perl, Visual Studio .NET. or whatever http://www.google.com/apis/. When WSJ News Desk asked google@capeclear.com to go find the top ten URLs, the reply was returned within 3 minutes. Technical details about the service can be found at http://capescience.capeclear.com/google/index.shtml.