Introducing The GeoAPI Datafeed With WeatherBug


WeatherBugFor those of you did not catch the news on TechCrunch, Mixer Labs is using the WeatherBug API to feed weather data into the Mixer Labs GeoAPI project. And with the GeoAPI offering access to a database full of 16 million businesses and points of interest, providing additional data from WeatherBug’s own network of weather stations only made sense., esspecially when you consider WeatherBug’s weather station network is among the biggest around.

Combined, this API blend translates into a richer media experience that developers can build from. In addition to WeatherBug, YouTube and FourSquare are also sharing data with GeoAPI.

So what the heck is GeoAPI?

The idea behind GeoAPI is to allow developers access to data that would provide applications with the ability to do geo-queries, along with utilizing other cool location-specific-media type events. One might think of Brightkite like functionality, but with a lot more room for expansion and feature sets.

So where does WeatherBug play into GeoAPI?

As you can see from this page, WeatherBug’s data comes into play when an entity’s globally unique identifier or “guid” to access the “weather call” so it can return real time weather conditions for the actual location for the given entity in question.

Examples in action

Here are a couple of real world applications. In this example, we have what is called “Location Check-ins“. In this instance, the developer would be able to make a call for the weather data function in GeoAPI (using WeatherBug’s API) and in turn, provide the real conditions of the person checking in at their location.

Another potential example, would be applying the same technique with Twitter. Rather than showing you something static, here the GeoAPI using Twitter with geo-locations - in real-time. Now imagine the same thing, but with a call to WeatherBug’s data! It’s amazing just how localized the data really is. Right down to the neighborhood…much like WeatherBug’s own network of weather stations.

WeatherBug is very excited about the prospects of seeing the WeatherBug API being put to this kind of use. And WeatherBug certainly hope that the developers using GeoAPI will be sure to add the weather functionality to their future web apps in development. After all, local data is great. Local data with the current conditions however, can save you any weather related surprises.

Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 00:29
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