GeoPlanet explained

GeoPlanet is a computer platform for coordinating world-wide geographic information, and providing both text and cartographic output, such as digital maps for any location in the world.^{[1] [2]} It provides a location infrastructure for search engines, portals and both Web and WAP sites. It was developed by GDC, a London-based geographic information company,^[3] which was acquired by Whereonearth in 1998.^[4] When Whereonearth spun off GDC in 2002, it kept GeoPlanet. When Yahoo! purchased Whereonearth in 2005, it acquired GeoPlanet.^{[5] [6]}

An integral part of GeoPlanet is the WOEID (Where On Earth IDentifier), a unique 32-bit reference identifier, now assigned by Yahoo!, that identifies any feature on Earth.^[7] In addition to the strict numerical WOEID, GeoPlanet also has a hierarchical structure that allows accessing surrounding locations, and zooming up and down administrative divisions. In 2009, Yahoo! released GeoPlanet's WOEID data to the public, but the last release was on 1 June 2012 after which Yahoo! decided to cease making the data downloadable until they "determine a better way to surface the data as a part of the service".^[8]

In June 2015, Yahoo announced that the GeoPlanet APIs would be dropped as the functionality is now available through their Yahoo Query Language and BOSS APIs.^[9] The GeoPlanet APIs stopped responding to requests in late August 2016.^[10]

External links

• Web site: GeoPlant: Key Concepts. Yahoo!.
• Web site: 4 February 2010. WOEIDs in Twitter's Trends. Twitter Engineering. https://web.archive.org/web/20130211055737/http://engineering.twitter.com/2010/02/woeids-in-twitters-trends.html. 11 February 2013. dead.

Notes and References

1. Tech Update: GeoPlanet. 2002. Internet Magazine. 2002. March. 21.
2. Web site: Free geo data solutions compared: GeoNames.org vs. Yahoo! GeoPlanet. 24 January 2010. Cosmo Code. 25 June 2014. 14 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161014082413/http://www.cosmocode.de/en/blog/schoenborn/2010-01/24-free-geo-data-solutions-compared-geonames.org-vs.-yahoo-geoplanet. dead.
3. Open for business. GEO Europe. 2001. 2001. September. 46.
4. Whereonearth has completed the spin-off of GDC through a successful management buyout. 2002. GEO: Connexion. 2. 1. 62.
5. Web site: Yahoo Buys Whereonearth To Bolster Local Search . 18 October 2005 . TechDirt . https://web.archive.org/web/20141028180214/https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051018/1445219.shtml . 28 October 2014 . live .
6. 2008. Directory of Companies, Applications, and Organizations. Release 2.0. 10. 43.
7. Web site: Yahoo! WOEID Lookup. http://Zourbuth Project. 2014-06-25. 2014-06-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20140625073353/http://zourbuth.com/tools/woeid/. dead.
8. Web site: Yahoo! GeoPlanet™ Data . Yahoo! . https://web.archive.org/web/20140822013444/https://developer.yahoo.com/geo/geoplanet/data/ . 2014-08-22 . dead . 2014-06-25 .
9. News: Q2 2015 Progress Report On Our Product Prioritization. Yahoo. 2018-03-20.
10. Web site: Yahoo! . 2018-11-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160802072936/http://where.yahooapis.com/ . 2016-08-02 . dead .