The open data service Factual has just updated some of its datasets and has also released a new iPhone SDK. The Los Angeles-based startup describes the move as another step towards its goal of “comprehensive, accurate, and accessible local data.”
Factual is an open platform for developers and publishers to build apps with its datasets, accessible through its APIs or via a “>download. The downloads, in CSV format, are free for smaller developers as part of this release.
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The data Factual offers has been improved: 15 million business listings and points of interest in the U.S., now with better coverage, categorization, and geocoding. Factual’s international data is much improved as well, with 19 addition countries, bringing the grand total of its global data to over 30 million local entities across 27 countries.
That global local data hasn’t simply expanded in quantity. Factual has worked with this release to standardize some of the naming conventions for the fields, employing an hCard-like naming scheme. This means that data from multiple countries can be more easily managed, particularly useful for apps that pull international data.
In addition, as part of the update, Factual has also launched a new dataset with records from just under 1 million U.S. doctors. And it’s also provided an iPhone SDK, with a mobile SDK for Android in the works.
Factual, which secured a $25 million round of funding in December from investors that included Andreessen Horowitz says it has more updates on the horizon, including new products and services that “will hopefully make data engineering our problem, not yours.”
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