Yahoo provides an interface to geodata

    Starting today, Yahoo has opened software interfaces to access its global WoeID (Where on Earth ID) database. Now third-party sites can use this service for free on their sites.


    The main purpose of WoeID is the assignment of unique identifiers for objects that are on the earth's surface. In these short numerical identifiers, the exact longitude and latitude of the area of ​​the object are encoded, as well as its name, country, type of object, etc. This is a very convenient identification system that can be used as tags for a wide variety of information. For example, it is used to tag photos on the Flickr service. Since the system stores other information besides geographic coordinates, whenSearching for photographs can limit the search not only to a square on the ground, but to specific territories: for example, by state or city.


    In addition, a search engine is built into the Yahoo geoplatform, with which you can get the exact coordinates of objects by simply entering the URL with the search word in brackets, for example, the request http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/places.q(moscow%20russia) returns the coordinates of the city of Moscow (WoeID = 2122265). As you can see, access to the database is open simply through HTTP GET. Currently, the limit on the maximum number of database queries is 50,000 per day.


    The WoeID service is only part of the fundamental geographic platform Yahoo Internet Location Platform , which is currently undergoing testing.

    Also popular now: