GeoPlanet is a computer platform for coordinating world-wide
geographic information
Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position).
It is also cal ...
, and providing both text and
cartographic
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
output, such as digital maps for any location in the world.
It provides a location infrastructure for
search engines,
portals and both Web and
WAP
WAP or Wap may refer to:
Music
* "WAP" (song), a 2020 song by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion
Organizations
* Weatherization Assistance Program, for US energy costs
* Western Australia Party, a political party founded in 2016
* Western A ...
sites. It was developed by GDC, a London-based geographic information company, which was acquired by
Whereonearth
Whereonearth was a company based in the United Kingdom and was acquired by Yahoo! on October 18, 2005.
The technology company worked with Hutchson and Yahoo.
The company was founded in 1995 with a purpose of producing geocoding technology for p ...
in 1998.
When Whereonearth spun off GDC in 2002, it kept GeoPlanet. When
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
purchased Whereonearth in 2005, it acquired GeoPlanet.
An integral part of GeoPlanet is the
WOEID
A WOEID (Where On Earth IDentifier) is a unique 32-bit reference identifier, originally defined by GeoPlanet and now assigned by Yahoo!, that identifies any feature on Earth. In 2009, Yahoo! released GeoPlanet's WOEID data to the public, with the ...
(Where On Earth IDentifier), a unique 32-bit reference identifier, now assigned by Yahoo!, that identifies any feature on Earth. 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".
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. The GeoPlanet APIs stopped responding to requests in late August 2016.
References
External links
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Cartography
Geographical technology
{{Cartography-stub