Live data from Hacker News

Announcing the Pollen API

cloud.google.com

51–60 of 88 posts

Re: Announcing the Pollen API

#53

> According to the World Health Organization, up to ⅓ of the global population suffers from allergic rhinitis, Has anyone yet figured out why so many humans suffer from an allergy to many natural plants which we have lived around for millions of years? It looks like the first documented case of Hayfever was March 1819[1], and at the time it was considered a very unusual and rare affliction. When and why has it now be…

In addition to other answers, I’d speculate there’s no strong negative selection against moderate allergies. There might simply be no evolutionary disadvantage to being slightly itchy and having running nose for H.sapiens.

Re: Announcing the Pollen API

#56
post #23

I think this should have been the link: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/going-b... It's a new initiative with multiple new API's: Solar API, Air Quality API, Pollen API. And that link gives an overview for them all.

Solar I sort of get since I don't think anyone does it the scale like Google Sunroof, but not sure what the added value is for Google to create the APIs for Air Quality and Pollen? There are service providers and models that do these already at global scale (e.g. https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/air-quality & https://silam.fmi.fi/ ).

They show the data in search results

Re: Announcing the Pollen API

#57

Google: We're shutting down Google domains cause we need to focus. Also Google: Here's the pollen API you guys have been asking for for ages.

Came to the comments for this. A pollen API smells exactly like the sort of product that Google will rug in a few short years when it inevitably turns out that nobody is building apps that need pollen data.
Post reply on HN