Yahoo has launched a new Contacts API, which uses OAuth. With the API, applications can allow users to read, write, and sync access to their Yahoo Address Book, which is one of the biggest address books on the web.
“We’ve completely reengineered the existing Contacts API and added more useful functionality for developers,” says Yahoo Social Platforms Product Manager Shirish Anand.
The new API has all of the same features as the old Yahoo Address Book API, but it’s also part of Yahoo’s Social API stack, so it is compliant with all of Yahoo’s other social APIs like Social Directory, Updates, and the Status API. This means developers can mash up any of these APIs to create different social apps.
“With this release, we are also going to stop active development on the old Address Book API,” says Anand. “If you are currently using the BBAuth-based Address Book API, we encourage you to migrate to the new API so you can take advantage of the following new features, with many more to follow shortly!”
The Contacts API updates contacts automatically. When 2 users create a connection, the contact info in their address books is kept in sync after that. The new API is also faster and more reliable according to Yahoo.
The API allows developers to sort users’ socially relevant contacts (connections). This helps identify the users’ trusted contacts. In addition, Yahoo has added filtering mechanisms, so that contacts can be filtered more efficiently.
Documentation and more details about the new Contacts API can be found here.
