Raymond Yee, April 1st, 2008 Comments(4)

Yesterday, WhitePages.com announced a new search API that gives developers access to a substantial database of 180 million people, which represents approximately 80% of US adult population and includes 25 million “at work listings”. There are many potential applications for this API. We’ve created a new API profile here and according to their developer documentation, the WhitePages API lets developers use HTTP GET to retrieve XML or JSON for the following types of searches:

Find Person: search by a person’s name and location to find the person’s complete address and phone number.
Reverse Phone: search by phone number to find the related name and address.
Reverse Address: search by street address to find the related name and phone number.

A quick way to get started with the API is to sign up for an account, apply for a key, and then head over to the QueryBuilder, which lets you try out the API functions in your browser.

Should the API get you worried about your own privacy, follow the instructions provided by WhitePages.com on removing your contact info from its database.

One option for getting up to speed with the API is to consider entering the WhitePages.com API Contest (deadline: May 15, 2008), which is offering prizes for two categories: “best iPhone application” and “best social networking application”. The WhitePages Application Gallery gives a set sample code to implement some basic uses of the API: Outlook integration, a “Who Called Me” app, and a mashup of Google Maps and the WhitePages API.

To learn more check out the FAQ and WhitePages Developer’s Blog, both of which contain some very enlightening tidbits (and for more launch coverage see ReadWriteWeb).