Getting code that would properly authenticate and download GMail contacts was painful. A couple of their reference codes didn’t work. The documentation was extremely unclear. The API is poorly designed. It resembles a grab bag of function calls, rather than a clearly thought out interface.

I’ve complained about the Amazon Web Services documentation in the past. Compared to Google, Amazon is a paragon of completeness and clarity.

This is another example of Amazon investing in user services, where Google doesn’t.