Yahoo BOSS is sahweet!

A couple of weeks ago I ran across this article on Techcrunch.

Basically, a Yahoo! engineer used Yahoo Boss! and the Google App engine to make a “who,what,where,when” answering service. Since I want one I took a look at the code, but since its on the GAE the code is in Python for the GAE.

Anyway, since its like 50 lines of code I decided to take a look at BOSS and port it over to PHP. The quick and dirty PHP clocks in at 200 lines and is available for testing. The PHP returns JSON code with an optional callback specified with c=

Feel free to use it for whatever – just play nice

It might even make it into a super secret Wikia framework!

Code is available here.

Vik does a really good job of explaining how the process works. Unfortunately, its not particularly consistent or accurate. But it is pretty neat and considering its only 200 lines a good demonstration of thinking outside the box.