Hyperlocal news aggregator Everyblock announced today that it is releasing a firehose API to integrate its data into large partner sites. Everyblock brings together real time and near real-time public records like 911 calls, restaurant health inspections and building permits, as well as news stories and blog posts that discuss user-designated areas in 16 cities around the US. That stream of data will now be available upon request to integrate into the sites of other large publishers and otherwise make use of.
Everyblock was acquired by MSNBC in 2009 and came to my city of Portland, Oregon this Spring. Things haven’t been the same since. Give me a Sunday morning and Everyblock on my iPad and I’m a happy guy.
In its announcement today the company emphasized that it offers a customizable lightweight widget, which it says will be most appropriate for most people. The new API is suitable for “partners with heavy-duty needs and who can devote a goodly amount of development time to work with the data.”
Competitor Outside.in released the 2.0 version of its API this Summer. Fwix is another hyperlocal news aggregator with an API to check out.
Everyblock was founded by Adrian Holovaty, whom tech thinker Anil Dash calls one of “the greatest data-hacker journalists of all time, along with Gina Trapani and Andy Baio.” It’s exciting to see that data-hacker journalist offer an API.
