In need of a good business search API similar to Yelp's & Google Places

Question

Hey there -- I've been looking for a reliable, scalable, and accurate location search API. I would use Yelp's API, it is great, but I need to be able to store information, whereas Yelp disallows any of their content to be stored.

I'm currently using SimpleGeo, however I've found that their results can be horribly ordered. I'm considering writing a script to accurately order the results, but I thought I'd first check here if there's any other good alternatives.

I have signed up for a Google Places API key months ago with no response yet, as I've heard this API is flakey if you're not already sign up with it.

Another useful feature of an API I'd like to find is one that contains a thumbnail picture of the location match.

My queries will be requested by keyword and location.

Any suggestions? Thanks

Answer 1

我没有尝试过，但是Cloudmades“本地搜索”可能值得一看： http : //developers.cloudmade.com/projects/show/local-search

Answer 2

The Google Places API was opened up to all developers at Google I/O this week:

http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/05/places-everybody-show-is-about-to-begin.html

To get started take a look at the docs:

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/

Many thanks,

Thor.