Google have released an API Explorer to allow developers to discover, use, and test Google’s wide range of APIs.

Currently the API Explorer is limited to the Buzz, Custom Search, Diacritize (Arabic language conversion), Moderator, Shopping, Translate, and URL Shortener (goo.gl) APIs, but Google “expect that number to grow rapidly over the coming weeks and months.”

“Google is always looking for new ways to make it easier for developers to get started with our APIs” writes Anton Lopyrev of the Google Developer Team. “When you come across a new Google API, you often want to try it out without investing too much time.”

“The API Explorer is an interactive tool that lets you easily try out Google APIs right from your browser.”

The API Explorer is similar to Apigee’s API Console, a web app that allows you to debug your own APIs, and try out other people’s APIs to see what responses you get, for example. Twitter have had a similar service for their own API for some time; it is loosely based on Hurl, which was created over 2 years ago with a similar purpose.

All of these services are aimed at making it easier for developers to get into using APIs, lowering the barrier to entry, and spawning cooler mashups.