You might recall past coverage of Infochimps on ReadWriteWeb. But did you know that Query API access is free to noodle with on the Baboon tier? Let’s explore a bit more and see what a Query API Baboon subscription can monkey with for free.
Don’t worry. The example will be simple so you can go bananas on your own.
Right Turn Clyde
To the left there is the Infochimps Dataset API. With the Dataset API you can search, create, update, destroy, upload, and download data on Infochimps. This has always been free to use and open to any registered Infochimps user.
Let’s take a right turn and look at the Query API. The first step is to get an API key for the Query API just as you would with any API provider these days. It’s a simple process and you’ll be up and running quickly.
Next, you’ll peruse the documentation and examples to get complete your first query. For this simple example we will revisit YQL and examine Trstrank (Trust Rank).
source: http://y.ahoo.it/EPi8C7XT
If you want to perform the same type of query in PHP here is a simple command line approach that takes single argument for the Twitter screen name you are interested in to query Trust Rank.
You should expect to see output as follows:
You might say this sounds like a great idea for a simple web app!
Oddly enough…
source: http://trst.me/t/rww
Don’t worry though… there are plenty more big data sets and tires to swing on over at Infochimps.
Now it’s your turn to go ape. Have you monkeyed around with Infochimps data sets yet? Let us know in the comments below!
