--- layout: post title: Overview of 11 Places Data APIs image: >- http://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/api-evangelist-site/blog/CityGrid.png author: name: kinlane tags: - Data - APIs - Overview --- Since starting as [API Evangelist](http://apievangelist.com "API Evangelist") here at [CityGrid](http://www.citygrid.com "CityGrid"), I have been asked a couple of times how we stack up against other places APIs. So I went through the 11 other places APIs, gathering info, in an attempt to see what each offered. * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/citygrid_logo-300x66.jpg "citygrid_logo")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/citygrid_logo.jpg)**CityGrid Places API**** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by longitude/latitude, "where" using cities, neighborhoods, zip codes, metro areas, addresses and intersections. Details for each places is also available. * **Database Size** - 18 Million US Places * **Store / Cache Data** -  No Storage.  Cache up to 15 minutes. * **Attribution** - Include logo and phrase “powered by CityGrid; data from Infogroup ©\[YEAR\]” * **Multi-Provider IDs** - Yes * **Meta Data** - No * **Rating / Review** - Yes * **Deals / Offers** - Yes * **Revenue Share** - Yes * **Call Limits** - 10M / Month * **Response Format** - XML / JSON * **Authentication** - Key * **Pricing** - Free * **Check-In** - No * **Write** - No * **Delete** - No **Other** * **Places that Pays** - A program that monetizes the display of, and interaction with, CityGrid places is called Places that Pay. **URL** - [http://docs.citygridmedia.com/](http://docs.citygridmedia.com/) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/facebook_logo-300x99.jpg "facebook_logo")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/facebook_logo.jpg)Facebook Graph API** **Search Overview -** Providing the ability to search the Facebook Graph objects with a “type” of place, and longitude/latitude, keyword search and area to find places listed as objects within Facebook. * **Database Size** - Not Found * **Store / Cache Data** - No * **Attribution** - Yes * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** - No * **Rating / Review -Yes** * **Deals / Offers** - Yes * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - One call per second * **Response Format** - XML / JSON * **Authentication** - OAuth * **Pricing** - FREE * **Check-In** - Yes * **Write** - Yes * **Delete** - No **URL** - [http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/](http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/factual-logo-315x82-300x78.png "factual-logo-315x82")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/factual-logo-315x82.png)Factual** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by latitude/longitude, and “where” using full text search query string. * **Database Size** - 55 million entities in 47 countries * **Store / Cache Data** - Yes * **Attribution** - Yes * **Multi-Provider IDs** - Yes * **Meta Data** - Yes * **Rating and Review** - No * **Deals** - No * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - cross ref = 10,000 per day / crosswalk = 500 per day / read = 10,000 per day  / resolve = 100 per day * **Response Format** - JSON * **Authentication** - Unsigned and signed requests w/ 2-legged OAuth. * **Pricing** - Free * **Write** - Yes * **Delete** - No **Other:** * **Select** - What fields to include in the query. * **Places API - Resolve** - Resolve is an entity resolution API that makes partial records complete, matches one entity against another, and assists in de-duping and normalizing datasets. * **Places API - Crossref** - The Crossref API enables you to find the URLs for pages that mention a specific business or point of interest or vice versa. * **Places API - Restaurants** - The U.S. Restaurant table contains Factual's core places attributes in addition to 43 extended attributes on 800,000+ restaurants, bars, and casual eateries including datatypes such as cuisine, ratings, hours of operations, and price. **URL** - [http://developer.factual.com/](http://developer.factual.com/) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/foursquare_logo-300x93.png "foursquare_logo")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/foursquare_logo.png)Foursquare Venue API** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by  hierarchical list of categories, longitude/latitude, “where” using search term, managed by requesting users, over time range, trending and exploration. * **Database Size** - Could Not Find * **Store / Cache Data** - Okay to keep caches of foursquare data as long as they are refreshed at least every 30 days. * **Attribution -Yes** * **Multi-Provider** - Yes * **Meta Data** - Yes * **Rating and Review** - Yes * **Deals** - No * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - 5,000 requests per hour * **Response Format** - JSON * **Authentication** - OAuth 2.0 w/ To make a userless request, specify your consumer key's Client ID and Secret instead of an auth token in the request URL. * **Pricing** - Free * **Write -Yes** * **Delete** - No **Other**: * **Actions** - You can edit, flag, mark to do, propose edit for venues in Foursquare database. **URL** - [https://developer.foursquare.com/overview/venues](https://developer.foursquare.com/overview/venues) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fwix_logo_300.jpg "fwix_logo_300")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fwix_logo_300.jpg)Fwix** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by latitude/longitude, and text search based upon categories, address, city, province, postal code, country, neighborhood and text keyword. * **Database Size** - 23M in US. * **Store / Cache Data** - No storage.  Yes to cache. * **Attribution** - Yes * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** - Yes * **Rating / Review** - No * **Deals / Offers** - No * **Revenue Share** - Yes * **Call Limits** - 5,000 calls per unique user per day * **Response Format** - XML / JSON * **Authentication** - Key * **Pricing** - Free * **Write** - Yes * **Delete** - Yes **Other**: * **Geotagger Methods** - Returns places geotagged to a given web page. * **Content Methods** - Returns geotagged content in or near a location. **URL** - [http://fwix.com/developer\_tools/api](http://fwix.com/developer_tools/api) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/google-places-logo-square.gif "google-places-logo-square")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/google-places-logo-square.gif)Google Places API** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by latitude/longitude, keyword matched against all fields, name of place, type of place restricted by radius.   As well as pulling details for each places. * **Database Size** - Could not find * **Store / Cache Data -** * **Attribution** - "Powered by Google" logo is displayed above or below the data * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** - No * **Rating / Review** - Yes * **Deals / Offers** - No * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - 1 000 requests per 24 hour period * **Response Format** - XML / JSON * **Authentication** - Key * **Pricing** - Free * **Check-In** - Yes * **Write** - Yes * **Delete** - Yes **URL** - [http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/](http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/infochimps-logo-300x122.jpg "infochimps-logo")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/infochimps-logo.jpg)InfoChimps** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by longitude/latitude with radius, address, bounding box or IP address. * **Database Size** - Could not find * **Store / Cache Data** - Yes * **Attribution** - Yes * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** -  No * **Rating and Review** - No * **Deals / Offers** - No * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - Couldn’t Find * **Response Format** - XML / JSON * **Authentication** - Key * **Pricing** - Free w/ Premium Pricing * **Check-In** - No * **Write** -  Yes * **Delete** - Yes **URL** - [http://www.infochimps.com/datasets/business-places-by-locationary](http://www.infochimps.com/datasets/business-places-by-locationary) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/nokia-developer.jpeg "nokia-developer")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/nokia-developer.jpeg)Nokia** **Search Overview -** Providing a JavaScript places search that can be searched by search term, with a detail search for display by JS widget. * **Database Size** - Not Found * **Store / Cache Data** - No * **Attribution** - Yes * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** - No * **Rating / Review** - No * **Deals / Offers** - No * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - Not Found * **Response Format** - JSON * **Authentication** - None * **Pricing** - Free * **Check-In** - No * **Write** - No * **Delete** - No **URL** - [http://api.maps.nokia.com/places/index.html](http://api.maps.nokia.com/places/index.html) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/yahoo_geo_logo_med.png "yahoo_geo_logo_med")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/yahoo_geo_logo_med.png)Yahoo GeoPlanet** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be searched by type, county, state, country, oceans, seas, continents, hierarchy and full text search.  Also returns places detail by ID. * **Database Size** - Could not find * **Store / Cache Data** - No * **Attribution** - Must contain the copyright notice "Copyright © Yahoo! Inc. 2008, All Rights Reserved" * **Multi-Provider IDs -No** * **Meta Data** - Yes * **Rating / Review** - No * **Deals / Offers** - No * **Revenue Share** - No * **Call Limits** - “Reasonable Request Volume” * **Response Format** - JSON / XML * **Authentication** - Key * **Pricing** - Free * **Write** - Yes * **Delete** - Yes **URL** - [http://developer.yahoo.com/geo/geoplanet/](http://developer.yahoo.com/geo/geoplanet/) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Yelp_Logo-300x153.jpg "Yelp_Logo")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Yelp_Logo.jpg)Yelp API** **Search Overview -** You can search location using geo bounding box, longitude and latitude, neighborhood, address or city and filter listings by “where”, using a list of support categories.   As well as pulling details for each places. * **Database Size** - Could not find * **Store / Cache Data -No** * **Attribution** - Yes with logo * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** - Yes * **Rating / Review** - Overall count with 3 review excerpts * **Deals / Offers** - Yes * **Revenue Share** - Yes with Commission Junction * **Call Limits** - 10,000 calls/day * **Response Format** - JSON * **Authentication** - OAuth * **Pricing** - Free * **Check-In** - No * **Write** - No * **Delete** - No **URL** - [http://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation/v2/overview](http://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation/v2/overview) * * * **[![](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/yp-developer-center-300x67.png "yp-developer-center")](http://www.citygridmedia.com/developer/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/yp-developer-center.png)YP** **Search Overview -** Providing a places search that can be queried by keyword and longitude/latitude, street address, city, postal code, Neighborhood, state, points of interest or by phone number with a radius.  Places details are also provided. * **Database Size** - Could not find * **Store / Cache Data** - No * **Attribution** - Yes * **Multi-Provider IDs** - No * **Meta Data** - No * **Rating / Review** - yes * **Deals / Offers** - Yes * **Revenue Share** - Yes * **Call Limits** -  50,000 requests per day. * **Response Format** - XML / JSON * **Authentication** - Key * **Pricing** - Free * **Check-In** - No * **Write** - No * **Delete** - No **URL** - [http://developer.yp.com/](http://developer.yp.com/) If you see anything missing or incorrect, let me know at @citygridapiteam.