1. Location Business Summit
GeoLocal APIs
unencumbering the
Tyler Bell GeoLocal ecosystem
14 September 2010
tylerwbell@gmail.com
Twitter: @twbell
2. The Local Ecosystem
Local Ecosystem
Interconnected resources that facilitate an
informed, real-world consumer
experience…
and the value of a product is proportional
to how many other products it
communicates with
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell http://www.flickr.com/photos/leafy/3826214063/
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3. GeoLocal
Built Environment and AR Daily Deals
Maps Utilities, Routing, Geocoding
Places and Listings
Social Location
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell -3-
5. Three Ways In
Crawled
Content
Contribution
API To Local
Ecosystem
Application
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell -5-
6. Monday: TechCrunch/SimpleGeo
Q: What is it you do?
A: See our API docs….
This is the only appropriate answer to a developer
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/13/what-is-it-you-do-the-need-for-simplicity/
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell -6-
7. Marketing (paper maché)
Piñata
API (candy)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esquipulas/561125635/
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell -7-
8. APIs are the soul of a product
They reveal its naked capabilities
and the intentions of its creators
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell -8-
9. Source and Crawled Content
robots.txt is hugely insightful
as is ‘viewing source’
…both make for lousy presentations
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell -9-
10. Example: Google Places PM
“We are going to focus initially on check-
in applications [and] have now begun
reaching out to developers”
- Google Maps API Product Manager
http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/07/checking-in-with-places-api.html
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 10 -
11. Example: Google Places API TOS
• Applications may not store any Place data
permanently except References and IDs.
• Place data cannot be redistributed via your own API
• May only be used in conjunction with displaying
results on a Google map
• Using Place data without displaying a map for which
Place data was requested is prohibited.
• May only be used in response to end user actions.
• So there.
Paraphrased from http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 11 -
13. Product does not facilitate new
No Doors approaches, applications, or
business models
http://www.flickr.com/photos/raulc/4429603/
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14. Multiple Product Options
Product creates multiple new
opportunities for exploration, integration
and experimentation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentdanley/211734796/
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15. A Look into some Local APIs
Short commentary
on what APIs reveal
(now, not planned roadmap or intentions)
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 15 -
16. • Ease of check-in at
expense of data
accuracy (this is OK,
and worked well)
• Massive dupe prob
– solvable. Larger
issue of traction has
been addressed
• Search provides no
name-to-venue
disambiguation
• Robots.txt: restricts
http://aboutfoursquare.com/superusers-mislocated-venues/ websearch
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 16 -
17. • Only user names
exposed to crawlers
• Massive API presence
(of course)
• Does not employ own
metadata standards –
see API note above
• Robots.txt: heavy
restrictions – again,
pushing for API use v.
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 17 -
crawled content
18. • No ‘place pages’,
therefore no crawled
metadata
• Tweets from 4sq
check-ins are tied to a
Twitter place – done
via BD rather than API
• Three geo endpoints in
API: nearby, details,
and rev. geocode
• Place serves now as
tweet-centric hub –
more certainly coming
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 18 -
19. • Hcard encoding on
listings (nice)
• FB Like Button
• No venue resolution
on search API
• Literally impersonal:
no people
parameters in API
• robots.txt contains
‘three laws of
robotics’ (geek cred)
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 19 -
20. foursquare:venue=516723
Krohn Conservatory
• Machine tags allow
cross-reference into
any namespace (incl.
OSM)
• Huge API
• But also indexed and
discoverable across
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisirmo/4560462516/ search
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 20 -
21. Wrap Up: Use of Wire
Razorwire v. Datawire
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 21 -
22. Datawire Connect and Plumb
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 22 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerplish/250836258
23. Razorwire Partition and Control
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyboybrian/113445631/
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24. Thank You
tylerwbell@gmail.com
http://radar.oreilly.com/tylerb/
@twbell
Tyler Bell | tylerwbell@gmail.com | @twbell - 24 -
