The document discusses APIs and how they can be used to access and share data on the web. It provides examples of using Yahoo Query Language (YQL) to query data sources like Flickr, Craigslist, Google News, and Google Translate. YQL allows querying data across different sources and formats the results in XML or JSON. With YQL, developers do not need to read extensive API documentation and can easily create complex queries in the YQL console. The document advocates for building more APIs and data converters to make data on the web more accessible and usable by developers and applications.

1. the Web of Data
Par$c ipa$ng in
Chris$an Heilmann / @codepo8
Senior Developer Evangelist
Yahoo Developer Network
hCp://developer.yahoo.com
hCp://icant.co.uk
hCp://developer‐evangelism.com
Las Vegas, Nevada 17. March 2010

2. Pencil s down!
hCp://delicious.com/codepo8/mix10

3. We lcome to the web

4. al web developer
Profession

5. he Enter prise crew
Joining t
h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/rspeed/4115466351/

6. ings went wrong
This is when th

7. corporate world
Jo ining the

8. eb 2.0 *h ighfive*
Hey ho, W

9. ent wron g again.
.. .and it w

10. A nd now?
The web as the plaUorm
The Mobile Web
Geoloca$on

11. nges leave a track
Market cha

12. s$ck to a path...
Peop le like to

13. iX down a gear...
T ime to sh
h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/neurolysis/3335080917/

14. on denom inator
Finding t he comm
h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/kentbrew/3764641730/

15. he world of data
Tapp ing into t
h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/bixentro/2199711056/

16. Why A PIs work
Applica$on Programming Interface
End Users
Data
Source Developers
Other
Apps

17. Why A PIs work
Applica$on Programming Interface
End Users
On‐demand delivery of the needed
Data data in the right format.
Source Developers
Access of the data source only when
needed ‐ otherwise caching works.
Other
Apps

18. APIs m ade easy

19. APIs m ade easy
select {what} from {where}
where {condi$ons}

20. YQL examples
select * from flickr.photos.search
where text="donkey" and license=4

21. YQL examples
select * from craigslist.search where
loca$on="seay" and type="sss" and
query="flower pot"

22. YQL examples
select * from google.news where
q="healthcare"

23. YQL examples
select * from query.mul$ where queries in (
'select * from nyt.ar$cle.search where
query="healthcare"',
'select * from microsoX.bing.news where
query="healthcare"',
'select * from google.news where q="healthcare"'
)

24. YQL examples
select content from html where
url="hCp://www.foxnews.com/" and
xpath="//h2/a"

25. YQL examples
select * from google.translate where q
in (
select content from html where
url="hCp://www.foxnews.com/" and
xpath="//h2/a"
) and target="fr"

26. YQL examples
insert into wordpress.post
($tle, descrip$on, blogurl, username,
password)
values ("Test Title", "This is a test
body", "hCp://yqltest.wordpress.com",
"yqltest", "password")

27. API for APIs
hCp://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/
yql?
q={query}
&format=xml|json
&callback={callbackfunc$on}

28. APIs m ade easy
hCp://developer.yahoo.com/yql
No $me wasted reading API docs
Crea$ng complex queries with the
console.
Filter data before use
Fast pipes.
Caching + conver$ng
Server‐side JavaScript

29. t as a tra ilblazer?
Governmen

30. PIs out o f thin air
Conjuring A

31. in a good format.
Get the data

32. t onto “th e cloud”
The n throw i

33. a simple format
And pu blish it in

34. rn it into an API!
Then tu
select * from csv where url="hCp://
spreadsheets.google.com/pub?
key=tpWDkIZMZleQaREf493v1Jw&output=csv" and
columns="Year,City,Sport,Discipline,Country,Event,
Gender,Type" and Year="1924"

35. et to we b service
S preadshe

36. Som e more examples

37. hCp://icant.co.uk/goohoobi/index.php?research

38. hCp://uk‐house‐prices.com/

39. hCp://icant.co.uk/geomaker/index.php

40. In sum mary...
We have the network and we have the technology.
We have people who work effec$vely with the tools
they use.
We have a new genera$on coming who naturally use
the internet and are happy with our web interfaces.
If we use our efforts 50/50 on new and building APIs
and converters to get the data of the old the web will
rock.

41. Homework
http://github.com/yql/yql-tables

42. Lea rn more

43. T HANKS!
Photos: flickr.com,
oddlyspecific.com,
thereifixedit.com,
failblog.org,
epicwinOw.com,
the internets.