Users of the Google Documents List API have traditionally had to perform individual export operations in order to export their documents. This is quite inefficient, both in terms of time and bandwidth for these operations.
To improve latency for these operations, we have added the Archive Feed to the API. Archives allow users to export a large number of items at once, in single ZIP archives. This feature provides a useful optimization for users, greatly increasing the efficiency of export operations. Additionally, users can receive emails about archives, and choose to download them from a link provided in the email.
This feature had a soft release earlier this year, and we think it’s now ready for prime time. For more information, please see the Archive Feed documentation.