Google has introduced a new way for developers to kick the tires on its JavaScript APIs: the Google AJAX API Playground.

In a Jan. 21 blog post about the Google AJAX API Playground, Google Developer Programs Engineer Ben Lisbakken said, "I have been working on this in my 20% time and today I am proud to announce that we are launching the AJAX API Playground as the official way that Google will show JavaScript samples!" Google gives its developers 20 percent of their time free to pursue projects other than those they do for work.

Explaining his impetus for creating the Playground, Lisbakken said:

For me, documentation isn't always enough to learn about APIs; I need examples that I can play with. That's why I started a fun project recently—a tool for teaching developers how to use Google's JavaScript APIs: the AJAXAPI Playground.

Lisbakken said the Google AJAX API Playground has more than 170 samples for eight Google JavaScript APIs: Maps, Search, Feeds, Calendar, Visualization, Language, Blogger, Libraries and Earth. Developers can run and edit these samples to see the APIs Google has to offer and which ones they may want to use.

The Google AJAX API Playground is built on Google App Engine, Lisbakken said, and the code is open-sourced under an Apache 2.0 license.

Dion Almaer, co-founder of Ajaxian.com and a former Google colleague of Lisbakken's, said Lisbakken "has done a really nice job creating a Google Ajax API Playground, an area that allows you to touch and feel the APIs in real time ... Very nice indeed."