Data-mine Elvis: Yahoo opens music interface
The Internet giant has opened a programming interface that lets other Web sites use the data stored within its Yahoo Music service.
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Yahoo has released an API (application programming interface) that lets outside Web sites automatically extract information such as top 10 lists from the Yahoo Music site.
For example, a programmer can use the service to search for the numeric ID that Yahoo gives a particular musician, then use that ID to retrieve all the albums by that artist or to retrieve a list of artists Yahoo deems similar, according to self-described Yahoo music nerd Jim Bumgardner on the Yahoo Developer Network blog. The item ID for a particular video can be used to retrieve a thumbnail image for the video or the video itself.
There's a limit of 5,000 queries per day with the API.
The API is an example of Yahoo Open Strategy, the company's effort to open up its infrastructure to use by outside Web sites and to permit more third-party developers to build software that runs directly on Yahoo's sites.
For full details, see the Yahoo Music API site or its developer guide