Patch News API Developer Blog

Great news for hyperlocal-loving geeks and media publishers across the country: We just released a fresh version of our Hyperlocal News API, which allows easy integration of local news stories and blog posts into your own sites and applications. We gave a sneak peek of the API at texting.ly's Geo/Mobile Hack Day this weekend, alongside other geo-tech startups in NYC, including foursquare, Meetup, and SimpleGeo (slides here).

Here's how it works:

Search for Stories

Send the name of any U.S. neighborhood, ZIP code, city, or state to our Stories Query Resource to get information about the region (including geographic centerpoint and containing region), plus the most recent stories we've associated with that region. You can filter the stories returned by:

• keyword: search within the titles, summaries, and topic tags associated with each story
• timestamp: limit your results to stories of a specified age
• feed category: our three-part source taxonomy allows you to specify the feeds you'd like to receive stories from by any or all of the following:
  • vertical: this includes topics like news, crime, and politics
  • format: this distinguishes by feeds that publish blog posts, traditional news articles, reviews, etc.
  • author type: this allows you to select stories published by mainstream media outlets, unaffiliated individual bloggers, sharing sites with multiple authors, etc.

Search for Locations

If you're building an application that requires user input to identify a location, you can use our Locations Query Resource to find locations matching any string. The location metadata returned includes a unique identifier that can be used to lookup stories for any matching location.

Get Your Key!

Check out our documentation and register for a key—you'll be approved immediately. We can't wait to see what you come up with! Send an email to lauren {at} outside {dot} in to get your app featured in our Application Gallery.

Stay in Touch

Follow @outsideinAPI to learn about future API releases and interesting apps built with our API.