December 15, 2005

Search APIs and Maps Building Blocks APIs now support JSON

We've added support for JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as an output format in all the Search and Maps Building Block APIs in addition to XML. New parameters enable you to get JSON output and to specify a callback function for easy processing inside JavaScript. The combination of JSON and JavaScript is exceptionally powerful as it makes you easy to use our web services data directly in your script without parsing. See the docs for each of the of the Search and Maps Building Blocks APIs or the Common JSON Documentation for more details.

Posted at 12:54 PM | Comments (4)

JavaScript Developer Center

JS is one of the most flexible languages available to create rich applications using web services, as well as the underlying language for creating Yahoo! Widgets and Yahoo! Music web plugins. We've created a central location where you can get links to our documentation, articles, tutorials, HOWTOs and other resources about using JavaScript with the Yahoo! Web Services and other Yahoo! APIs. Come join us in the JavaScript Developer Center!

Posted at 12:53 PM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2005

Announcing Launch of Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0

The Yahoo! Widgets team has been hard at work creating a new runtime environment to let you create even cooler Widgets. The new Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0 is out for both Windows and Macintosh. Now the Widget Engine includes an XML parser to get at dynamic data, along with support for XPath. Frames make layout far simpler and more powerful. And now your Widgets run faster because of improvements in rendering and animation of images.

Using JavaScript and XML you can make Widgets that sit on users' desktops to provide fun and productivity during the day. What can you dream up using the new Yahoo! Widgets technology? Get the knowledge and tools to build 'em at the Widget Workshop and show off your creations at Widget Gallery.

Posted at 1:45 PM | Comments (2)

December 5, 2005

New International Web Search Services

Since we launched the Yahoo! Search Web Services, we're received a number of requests to use our various regional search engines. We're happy to announce that you can now use the Yahoo! Web Search API to access the regional search engines behind Yahoo! UK Search, Yahoo! France Search, Yahoo! Germany Search and all the other available country-specific engines. Now you can specify the actual search engine used in addition to the country code of the search results.

To aim your search at a particular regional engine, simply pass in a region parameter (e.g. region=ca) to the Web Search API, and it will use the appropriate regional database.

In addition, Yahoo! Japan has made a Web Search API available in Japanese. Note that the Japanese Search Web Services are provided and supported separately from our other international web services; visit the Yahoo! Japan Developer Network for more information.

Finally, we've just launched Yahoo! Switzerland Search, and we'll have Swiss search functionality available through the web service in a couple of weeks. We'll update you then.
Until then, have fun!

Toby Elliott
Yahoo! Search Web Services

Posted at 2:34 PM | Comments (3)