4.11.2012

Searching ScienceSeeker blogs

ScienceSeeker is developing an API to allow other services to access
our database, and we'd like your input as we proceed. The details of
an API can be complex, but the concept is simple: It's a way that
websites, applications, and other services can use our data to build
additional functionality. For example, a journal might want to show
its readers how frequently their articles are being cited by blogs,
and when our API is complete, they could use ScienceSeeker's database
to find out.

The API consists of a single web request to the search application. All
search parameters will be contained within that request, as parameters
in the URL. The search application will return XML-encoded data which
will contain relevant search results.

You can search for blogs, for posts, or for topics. For example, you
might want to search for all blogs which contain "Skeptic" in the title,
or all posts with a topic of "Deep Sea Dive". (You can't search blogs
and posts at the same time; you have to select one type of object to
search.)

The supported list of search queries, or "filters," is still in
development. We expect to support searching by title, topic, summary
text, citation, URL, posts to a blog with a specific title or topic, and
some other filters.

We are also in the process of developing a second means of accessing the
API, which would support more complicated queries with AND, OR, and NOT
syntax. For now, multiple filters in a query will be considered to be
"AND"ed together.

The documentation for the API is not solidified yet, but is available
for reading
. Feedback is welcome!

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