After many months of work, YQL has finally launched. It’s exciting to see such a powerful tool released that unifies many of Yahoo’s web services and allows mash ups from external sources.
I created the console part of YQL, which is a small part in the YQL picture – but it allows developers to test out queries quickly without having to setup their environments to debug. OAuth authentication is required to run any YQL query – since the console doesn’t need this, it’s the fastest way to test and create new queries. The console also gives developers sample queries to help them get started and show what data tables are available. YQL results come either in XML, JSON or PHP (if using the PHP SDK) formats.
Tip – You can share YQL queries with your friends like this:
http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/?q=<query here>
Jonathan our team architect gave an awesome presentation recently on YQL, please check it out. Props to the rest of the YQL team Nagesh, Josh, Brad and Sam.