Since launching the CrunchBase API less than two weeks ago we’ve seen a great response from developers, who have already developed a number of impressive plugins and applications. The CrunchBase API offers access to information from thousands of tech companies, VCs and startup entrepreneurs. It’s free to use, there are no accounts to sign up for and no request throttling. The API returns clean, pretty-printed JSON, and only basic attribution is required. Here are some of great applications already in the wild:
CrunchBase WordPress Plugins
Two plugins sprung up that make it easy to insert the CrunchBase widget into WordPress blog posts. The first, developed by Vaibhav Gadodia, queries the CrunchBase API to determine the CrunchBase URL for a company. Joost de Valk, the author of numerous WordPress plugins, also released a CrunchBase widget plugin that supports all of the CrunchBase entity types (companies, products, people, and financial organizations).
CrunchBase Social Graphs
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Finnish readers Mikko Kivelä and Bemmu Sepponen have generated whopper social graphs using the full web of CrunchBase data. One of the graphs maps company connections in CrunchBase, while the other is concerned with the people involved. They also created a fun text file that counts the degrees of separation from any company to Google (TechCrunch is 2 away). We’d love to see a version of They Rule using financial organizations instead of board members.
Semantic CrunchBase
Quite possibly the most exciting use of the CrunchBase API is Semantic CrunchBase, a RDF/SPARQL mirror of CrunchBase that adheres to the principles of the Semantic Web. Semantic CrunchBase comes to us from active Semantic/RDF community developer Benjamin Nowack. A RDF/SPARQL interface enables queries to be run against the CrunchBase data. For example, you can query for all the companies that were funded during January 2008 (which you can already do via a web interface with our advanced search page). Semantic CrunchBase is a great add-on that will open up new doors with respect to the applications people can create with CrunchBase data.
If you are doing something cool with CrunchBase data we’d love to see it. Become a member and post on the CrunchBase Google Group. Follow us on Twitter. Subscribe to the CrunchBase Blog.
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