In addition to the 6.5million reviews already available in the APIs, a new set of 2.5M tips from the Foursquare community are now available via API.

Similar to other reviews these must be attributed to the content provider, link to the providers site, and display a “read more” link to the full review.

All reviews will be tagged as from Foursquare to make it easy to choose whether to display them and when to attribute.

Examples for your viewing pleasure:

• http://citygrid.com/fathers-office-los-angeles
• http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/712464370
• http://citygrid.com/boulettes-larder-san-francisco-3
• http://citygrid.com/the-museum-of-modern-art-new-york

Sample “Verified” Icon

How do you know the information on local businesses provided is accurate?  We just added one more way for you and your users to know the info we’re providing is top-notch.  In our Places Detail API response, we provide a “claimed” element that lets you know if the merchant has verified their listing.

Beyond these places being flagged as “claimed”, they often also contain additional content. Local business owners can add images, a teaser, an offer, and external menu or reservation urls.  They can also customize how their name and address are displayed across the CityGrid network.  Merchants can claim their listings today on Citysearch.com, and in the future possibly from your own site or application.  The process involves phone-verification in order to minimize fraudulent claims.

Start using the “claimed” element today to show your users know the information they see is verified.

That’s why you’ll now find our SDKs on github.  iOS is located here and android here

Go ahead and fork the code on github and when you’re ready to submit changes post a merge request in the “citygrid-dev-talk” Google forum.  You can also submit an SDK in an additional language or let us know of examples you’ve built.

We can’t wait to see what exciting things you’ll come up with.

Our taxonomy is published daily in two formats: first as a list (available here) and second as a tree (available here).  Both are in json format.

Want more details? Check out our documentation on tags.

Per the CityGrid API usage requirements, publishers aren’t allowed to store CityGrid places data, and really you don’t want to–with the constant changing and volume of data, developers really want to make live API calls to get the best quality data.

However in the scenario where you want to link places in your database with CityGrid places, many publishers would like to store the CityGrid place ID in their local database–instead I recommend using the business phone number as the ID link between your local database and CityGrid.

The CityGrid Places Detail Search lets you search for business just by providing a phone number. So on every one of your places, all you need to link up with CityGrid places is the phone number. No need to store ID’s locally, the business phone number becomes the unique identifier in the system.

As data in the CityGrid network changes, including ID’s, you will always be able to link your sites or applications business listings with the rich places data available via CityGrid, with just the business phone number.

Fourteen sponsors stepped up to make the event happen including CityGrid, CloudyRec, Jeppesen, Factual and Spire.io.

Out of 13 projects, 4 stood out, taking home the top prizes:

• 1st Prize ($5,000.00) – Spot+Go (#spotplusgo) - A local discovery application allowing you to easily explore places around you.
• 2nd Prize ($2500.00) – N the Middle (#nthemiddle) - A local discovery application that provides information on places that are in the middle between you and someone you wish to meet.
• 3rd Prize ($500.00) – Find Me (#FindMe) - A location sharing application allowing you to securely share your information via email and SMS with the people you choose.
• 3rd Prize ($500.00) – Recommend LA (#RecommendLA) - An places affinity API and application that goes beyond just reviews, and find places that other people who have common interests.

Judges really liked both Find Me and Recommend LA, and decided to split up 3rd place for both projects, making space for all four winners.

With 13 projects built total over the weekend, 80 attendees coming and going over 48 hours and numerous bagels, sandwiches, pizzas, red bulls, coffee and red vines consumed, 428 tweets by 181 Twitter users, I consider the hackathon a success.

Coloft, the co-working space that hosted the event was awesome.  The facility was comfortable and perfectly setup for a hackathon, and the staff was extremely helpful, even mentoring some projects throughout the weekend.

I’m gathering our thoughts from the weekend, and later this weekend, I will begin planning the other 8 hackathons we have planned for the CityGrid 2012 Hackthon Tour.