Yelp API Released

Local review site Yelp quietly released an API today to allow third parties to access much of the content and features of the service.

The API allows a number of input requests. Applications can retrieve business review and rating information for a particular geographic region/location, display reviews and pictures for a business or businesses, pull up business information based on a phone number, etc. There are no commercial boundaries on the APIs for up to 10,000 requests per day – above that and you have to work out a deal with them.

We recently poked fun at Yelp when a review popped up for a “full service” landscaper – but in reality the site is doing extremely well. They’ve raised a total of $16 million in capital from Bessemer and Benchmark over two rounds. Competitors include Intuit’s Zipingo and Insider Pages, which was acquired by Citysearch earlier this year.

Comscore shows yelp at about 1.4 million U.S. visitors and 6 million page views per month.