Yelp recently launched some new developers tools, paving the way for programmers to build innovative mash-ups using data from its unique social networking service. But Yelp is also in danger of spoiling its own party by saddling potential developers with needless restrictions.
The site, which hosts reviews of restaurants and businesses written by users, has launched a new Application Programming Interface (API) that allows developers to query the site’s stored data and display Yelp reviews or ratings on their own sites.
The API features the ability to:
- retrieve business review and rating information for a particular geographic region or location.
- display review information for a particular business.
- determine accurate neighborhood name information for a particular location.
- track recent reviews for a particular business.
- display pictures of highly rated local businesses and of the top reviewers for that business.
- determine a particular business??? review and rating information based on the phone number for that business.
Theoretically, this new API allows developers to roll Yelp data into
their mash-ups. However, before you get too excited, consider the following restrictions:
You May Not:
- Collect end-user ratings or reviews of local businesses on any website that uses the Yelp API or Yelp Content;
- Aggregate Yelp Content alongside content from other sources (e.g., you will not create aggregate ratings combining ratings from Yelp and other sources);
- Display Yelp Content on any web page or application page that includes local business reviews from another source.
I can see where Yelp wants to be the one and only source for reviews. But it seems like if Yelp is really as good as it thinks it is, it wouldn???t need to put limits on the competition. After all, Google’s Maps API, the Flickr API and dozens of other similar APIs contain no such restrictions.
Another drawback: the default format for returned data is JSON rather than the more standard XML. You can also request that Yelp return its response in ???pickle??? (serialized python) or PHP, but if you???re not down with those three languages you???re out of luck.
For more info, check out the Yelp developer site. Also be sure to have a look at the great little Google Maps-Yelp mash-up example for some ideas on how you can squeeze some use out of the new API, restrictions and all.
Perhaps at some point Yelp will come to its senses and remove the silly handcuffs on what is otherwise quite a nice little API.
Using JSON instead of XML does seem like a rather odd choice, but I’d imagine most web developers at this point are familiar with PHP or Python (and if they’re not, anyone who knows C++ can learn PHP in almost no time), so that’s not TOO bad.
The restrictions on what you can do with the data pretty much ensure no one’s actually going to use the code though, except in VERY limited niche applications.
Didja see this e4d5.com thingy?
JSON is actually a great format, arguably quite superior to XML for a number of uses. Tons of languages support it (javascript, perl, python, php, ruby, java, C++, just to name a few), it’s easier for humans to read/edit, it’s simpler to parse, etc.
Your take doesn’t have anything to do with this does it?
http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/06/what-is-yelp-af.html
Our intent was to put something out there that is very useful. However for obvious reasons if you are competing with us we’re not going to hand you the keys to Yelp.
Google Maps API is a bad example because you aren’t going to build a mapping service using a map. As for standards this Google developer seems to agree with our use of JSON
http://blog.unto.net/opensearch/yelp-search-api/
Here is a handy list of apps you could build that don’t conflict with our terms:
+ Mashup apartment listings with restaurants, nightlife and shops.
+ Real estate listings with restaurants, nightlife and shops.
+ Transit system mashups
+ Firefox plugin that looks up all phone numbers on a web page, and pops up a star rating and business info if you mouse over the phone number.
+ When a user is booking a hotel, show nearby top restaurants and shops.
+ Mashup invitation & event sites Socializr, Evite, Sonicliving with local reviews
+ Show bars closest to mass transit stops
+ Showcase government service ratings (DMV, Courthouse, Libraries)
+ Mashup that shows cafes/restaurants along driving directions (say if you’re making a road trip)
+ Bar crawl builder
+ Meet up finder: put in two addresses and find the best restaurant/bar in between.
+ Explore Yelp reviews via pictures on a map and click on what’s interesting.
+ Wordpress plugin, where a user who is blogging about food/restaurants/bars can include review data from Yelp.
+ Dinner and a movie: Automatically pair a highly-rated place to eat with a nearby highly-rated movie theater and pick a good movie from rottentomatoes.com
+ Create Facebook apps that includes local reviews (a live example would be Yelp’s Hangouts App)
Happy coding!
As long as you want to just distribute our content, you can use it. Don’t expect any other value. Uh huh.
Ironically Google goes and scarfs up Yelp content and displays it in Google Maps. They also aggregate and display other sources and collect their own user reviews.
They don’t use the API, but if they did they’d violate every restriction of the API.
The Yelp boys hope to get rich off Yelp. Google might be a key if it decides to buy Yelp, so they gotta play nice to to Google. If you’re a startup, well they really don’t care about you and what you might be trying to do. They don’t care about innovation, they’re concerned about the money. All they really have are reviews, you expect them to give those away to you or help you make a site to aggregate them? Less page views, etc.
Whether or not they realize it, Yelp owes most of their success to Google yielding their site in their Google Local results. With their new restriction, they’re limiting themselves to plain old Search Engine results, and cutting off opportunities to grow their community!! Dumb.