Featured API – YellowAPI.com
When you first start researching the Yellow Pages API, it seems pretty basic – 4 endpoints, a handful of options. But when you start working with it you and realize the depth of their dataset and how well put together their API support is, the possibilities are endless!
YellowAPI provides 4 basic endpoints for developers – FindBusiness, GetBusinessDetails, FindDealer, and GetTypeAhead. It starts off as a pretty standard business lookup tool, where you can use keywords, locations, and coordinates to get a list of businesses. From there, you get access to all of the rich, curated data from the Yellow Pages dataset, including phone numbers, business categories, product information, videos, photos, and business logos.
But the real power comes from the documentation. Using their “I/O Docs”, you can easily test out calls to the API from the browser, seeing exactly what your query should look like and what the resulting XML or JSON will be. Having a tool like this is extremely helpful to developers, and this is a great example for other APIs what interactive documentation should look like. On top of that, YellowAPI offers a handful of SDKs and tools for quick app development, for platforms like iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby. This makes API integration even easier for developers using those platforms.
YellowAPI also offers a Developer Program, which is a program they use to support developers using their API. They offer some seed money, support services to help launch your app, co-marketing opportunities, pay per performance models, and ad network solutions. Example applications that have used this program include Reservely, RendezView, MoodFood, Finish My Basement, HuWhere and Foodtree.
YellowAPI has been with Hackdays almost since inception. Since 2010, YellowAPI has been the lead sponsor of Hackdays.ca across Canada, ensuring the dev community was supported and the Hackdays.ca brand seen from coast to coast. They took part in our first hack in Nov 2010 in MTL and haven’t looked back since with hacks in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo, Guelph and of course where we find ourselves today – HackREGINA is just around the corner. YellowAPI has signed on again as a sponsor for 2012 and we are looking to have lots of fun!
YellowAPI is one of the primary sponsors for our upcoming events, HackREGINA, HackVAN, and HackTO.
