1. YQL and GEO
Prajwal BS
Developer,
Hacker, Evangelist

2. Agenda
• YQL Overview
• Making Queries and the Console
Sandbox
• Demo
• Geo Hacking
• YQL and GEO

3. Hacking together
systems in 24 hours is
lot of fun

4. Data manipulation
Hacks = +
Data visualization

5. The web has lot of data around

6. ProgrammableWeb.Com – 3517 APIs

7. Yahoo! has also
opened up its data

8. http://developer.yahoo.com/everything.html

9. The trouble with data
• You need to find data API
• Get Access – Signup for key
• Find data endpoint
• Read docs to learn what parameters you
have
• Get data in obscure format
• Use data after converting and filtering
• More APIs you use, more is your
annoyance

10. To make data access
easy on the web,
Yahoo! created YQL

11. YQL turns web
services and data on
the web into
databases.

12. YQL lets you access
almost all API’s in a
standardized
manner.

13. API List on console

14. select {what} from {where}
where {conditions}

15. You can select, filter,
sort and limit data and
you can even insert,
update and delete from
it.

16. YQL: http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console

17. Finding Videos about IIT-M
SELECT * FROM youtube.search where
query=’IIT Madras'

18. Selecting Photos of Hackday
SELECT * FROM flickr.photos.search where
text="hackday”
SELECT * FROM flickr.photos.search where
text="hackday” LIMIT 5

19. Inserting data
INSERT INTO bitly.shorten (login, apiKey, longUrl)
VALUES ('ME', 'API_KEY', 'http://yahoo.com')

20. updating data
UPDATE social.profile.status
SET status="Using YQL UPDATE”
WHERE guid="NJFIDHVPVVISDX7UKED2WHU"

21. Accessing Private Data
http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/yql
Uses OAuth 1.0 for authorization
OAuth is complicated – use one of our SDKs
https://github.com/yahoo

22. Retrieving my profile
SELECT * FROM social.contacts WHERE
guid=me

23. Mix and Match several
web services using IN
command

24. Guess what this does?
select * from google.translate where q in
(select text from twitter.search where
q='hacku') and target='hi';

25. You want more??

26. How about these formats
Atom Json
Csv Microformats
Feed Rss
Html xml

27. Company Headlines anyone??
select * from html where
url="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?
s=YHOO" and xpath=‘//
div[@id="yfi_headlines"]/div[2]/ul/
li/a’

28. Company Headlines anyone??

29. Using the YQL
Console makes it very
easy to use it.

32. url structure
http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/yql?[params]
http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql/
[params]
Params
• q = [ YQL QUERY ]
• format = [ XML / JSON ]
• diagnostics = [ true / false ]
• debug = [ true / false ]
• callback = [ function name ]

33. Let’s See It

34. GEO HACKING
• GOOD NEWS! - Not hard to do.
• YQL as always has a solution to
most geo problems.

35. REQUIREMENTS
• Finding current location.
• Turning a location into a place.
• Finding geographical hierarchy.
• Geo-tagging information.
• Displaying geo information.

36. Current Location
IP Sniffing
W3C geolocation API
User Social presence (foursquare,
twitter, flickr etc.)

37. REQUIREMENTS
• Finding current location.
• Turning a location into a place.
• Finding geographical hierarchy.
• Geo-tagging information.
• Displaying geo information.

38. GEOCODING AND REVERSE-GEOCODING
• converting street addresses or place
names into geographic coordinates
(and vice versa).
h"p://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/#h=desc%20geo.placefinder

39. YQL to the rescue
select * from geo.placefinder where text="IIT
Madras India"
select * from geo.placefinder where
text="13.063970,80.243110" and gflags="R"

40. REQUIREMENTS
• Finding current location.
• Turning a location into a place.
• Finding geographical hierarchy.
• Geo-tagging information.
• Displaying geo information.

41. YQL GEO.PLACES.*
• geo.places.ancestors
• geo.places.belongtos
• geo.places.children
• geo.places.common
• geo.places.descendants
• geo.places.neighbors
• geo.places.parent
• geo.places.siblings

42. REQUIREMENTS
• Finding current location.
• Turning a location into a place.
• Finding geographical hierarchy.
• Geo-tagging information.
• Displaying geo information.

43. PLACEMAKER
• Takes text/web URL and
extracts the geographical
information from it.
• SELECT * FROM
geo.placemaker WHERE
documentContent = "Hey,
I am in bangalore now.
Will visit mumbai and
delhi before going back to
sunnyvale" AND
documentType="text/
plain"

44. EXAMPLES
• SELECT * FROM geo.placemaker WHERE
documentURL = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Country" AND documentType="text/html”
• SELECT * FROM geo.placemaker WHERE
documentURL = "http://
timesofindia.feedsportal.com/c/33039/f/
533917/index.rss" AND documentType="text/
rss"
h"p://developer.yahoo.com/geo/placemaker/

45. REQUIREMENTS
• Finding current location.
• Turning a location into a place.
• Finding geographical hierarchy.
• Geo-tagging information.
• Displaying geo information.

46. Use Maps to visualize geo data.

47. Use YQL in your hacks
using Javascript.

48. USEFUL LINKS
• http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/
• http://isithackday.com/geoplanet-explorer/
•
• http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/yql-geo-library/
• http://www.hostip.info/

49. Final Lessons: Links
• All Yahoo! APIs and Services
• http://developer.yahoo.com/everything.html
• YQL Documentation
• http://developer.yahoo.com/yql
• YQL Console
• http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console
• YQL Github Account (Contribute Tables)
• http://github.com/yql/yql-tables

50. LETS LOCATE YOUR HACK!
THANKS!!
If you throw a guy on Foursquare and a guy on Twitter off a cliff, which one
would hit the ground first?
The guy on Twitter. The guy on Foursquare would have to stop halfway down
to check in!
PRAJWAL BS
Twitter - @prajwalbs
Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net/prajwalbs
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