Is there a service or website to get content pertinent to a specified City/State or Zip

Question

I have been looking around for a website that can automatically provide me we content relative to either a city/state combo, or a zip code. Essentially I want to have a bit of content pertinent to where my user actually is. Does anybody know of any online services that provide something like this? I also wouldn't be opposed to spidering content from a site that provides data like this (with their consent obv.) Thanks!

Addition I was asked to clarify what I meant by content. Basically all I need is local news for a specified area.

Answer 1

Take a look at http://compass.webservius.com It's a listing of nearly all businesses in the USA in REST API form, searchable by address / zip code / latitude / longitude / etc. You can also search by industry code (e.g. Restaurants), thus solving the "nearby places to eat" part of your question.

Answer 2

There are actually several providers in this space.

CitySearch which has been renamed to CityGridMedia has a Publisher API where you can get their business listings, reviews, and other services: http://citygridmedia.com/publishers/

fwix's local API also provides basic geographic data along with local news: http://wireapi.pbworks.com/?geo_short=api

GeoAPI was recently purchased by twitter, and it provides a reverse geocoder, business listing information, and a bunch of other services: http://www.geoapi.com/

SimpleGEO also has a very compelling service offering with their mobile SDKs along with their API. You can search by radius, lat/lon, or by address: http://simplegeo.com/

Outside.in also has some great hyperlocal news information which is bundled up into a easy to use API: http://developers.outside.in/

Similar to CityGridMedia, MerchantCircle has an API that provides a listing of states, cities, zips, and categories. Along with business listing information, coupons, and reviews: http://api.merchantcircle.com/api/v1/docs

That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are other API services that specialize in more niche categories like Real Estate, Events, Hotels, etc.