Yahoo! GeoPlanet™

Yahoo! GeoPlanet helps bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds by providing an open, permanent, and intelligent infrastructure for geo-referencing data on the Internet.

In practical terms, Yahoo! GeoPlanet is a resource for managing all geo-permanent named places on Earth. It provides the geographic developer community with the vocabulary and grammar to describe the world's geography in an unequivocal, permanent, and language-neutral manner. Developers can geo-enable their applications by using GeoPlanet to traverse the global spatial hierarchy, identify the geography relevant to their users and their businesses, and in turn, unambiguously geotag, geotarget, and geolocate data across the Web.

Originally introduced as "the Internet Location Platform", we are formally launching as Yahoo! GeoPlanet, a name which emphasizes the international breadth and local depth of the places we make accessible.

How Do I Get Started?

  1. Get an Application ID
  2. Read the online documentation
  3. Fire up a web browser or your favorite scripting language and explore the world

Using the API or Web Service

Overview

In simple terms, the Service allows you to look up the unique identifier - called the Where on Earth ID, or WOEID - for almost any named place on the Earth; it also allows you to resolve a WOEID you have received from a third party - such as Fire Eagle™ or Upcoming - to the place it represents.

The API is accessed via HTTP GET.

Application IDs

Yahoo! GeoPlanet (and the following examples!) require a valid Application ID to view the results.

Examples

Find the WOEID of a significant landmark:
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/places.q('sydney%20opera%20house')?appid=[yourappidhere]

Resolve a WOEID to a place:
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/place/2507854?appid=[yourappidhere]

Find the WOEID of a specific place:
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/places.q('northfield%20mn%20usa')?appid=[yourappidhere]

Obtain a range of WOEIDs that match a given place, ordered by the most likely:
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/places.q('springfield');start=0;count=5?appid=[yourappidhere]

Find the parent of a given WOEID (and return a detailed record):
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/place/638242/parent?select=long&appid=[yourappidhere]

Return the Placename for a given WOEID in a specific language (where it exists):
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/places.q('usa')?lang=fr&appid=[yourappidhere]

To obtain the representation of a place in JSON format:
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/place/2487956?format=json&appid=[yourappidhere]

To obtain a list of geographies that neighbor a specific WOEID:
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/place/12795711/neighbors?appid=[yourappidhere]

Rate Limits

Currently, users of this Service are limited to 50k queries per day.

Terms of Use

Use of this service is subject to the Yahoo! APIs Terms of Use.