Usage Requirements
1. Introduction
You must follow the usage requirements set forth herein in order to utilize the CityGrid® APIs (each, an “API”), content provided by CityGrid (“Licensed Content”), related documentation, technical support and all other tools, services and information with respect to CityGrid® (collectively, the “CityGrid® Tools”) and to display and distribute Licensed Content through Your owned and operated websites and/or software applications (each, a “Publisher Application”). In addition, Your usage of the CityGrid® Tools are also subject to the Documentation and Terms and Conditions (collectively, the “Terms”). Capitalized terms used herein but not otherwise defined shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Terms and Conditions.
Please visit our Dev Talk Group if You have any questions or comments. And sign up for Platform Announcements from the CityGrid API team.
You must be registered to participate.
2. Publisher Application
2.1 Permitted Purpose
You may only use the CityGrid® Tools for a Publisher Application that enables End Users to find information about local businesses or other local listings. You agree to use the CityGrid® Tools only for purposes that are permitted by the Terms or any applicable third party contract, law or regulation.
2.2 Restricted Content
The Publisher Application must not contain any content, other than user generated content, that: (a) is related to illegal activities (illegal drugs, terrorism, criminal activities, contests, pyramid schemes or chain letters); (b) is pornographic or obscene; (c) is excessively graphic or explicitly violent; (d) is defamatory or profane; or (e) constitutes “hate speech”, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group (collectively, “Restricted Content”).
3. Implementation & Display
3.1 Publisher Code
After completing Your enrollment in the Publisher Program and accepting the Terms, You will be issued one or more Publisher Code(s) uniquely associated with Your account. You will be solely responsible to CityGrid for all activities associated with Your Publisher Code(s). You agree to notify CityGrid immediately if You become aware of any unauthorized use of Your password, Your account or Your Publisher Code(s).
You must implement and use the Publisher Code(s) in the manner described in the Documentation or otherwise instructed by CityGrid. Incorrect usage of the Publisher Code(s) may lead to suspension or termination of Your right to use the CityGrid® Tools and/or Your participation in the Publisher Program. CityGrid shall have no obligation to pay You in instances where You have failed to utilize the designated Publisher Code(s) correctly.
3.2 Query Relevancy
You agree to only query the APIs with search terms that are reasonably relevant to the End User query or activity. Queries which are initiated from End User’s input must be passed to the relevant APIs without editing, modifying, or filtering such queries individually or in the aggregate. All other queries passed to the APIs must not be misleading as to the End User’s intent and/or activity. CityGrid will deliver Licensed Content to You in response to Your query that are within search parameters established by CityGrid (e.g., geography, category or search term), at its discretion and subject to availability. Nationwide searches and statewide searches are prohibited. The relevancy of the Licensed Content shall be determined by CityGrid, and CityGrid shall have sole discretion over what Licensed Content is made available to You through any API at any time.
For all queries, You shall display to End Users the Licensed Content that CityGrid delivers to You in response to Your API query, in full, as is, without modification. The sole exception to the foregoing is that You may choose not to display the CityGrid® ad delivered by CityGrid if You can generate more revenue by displaying another ad from a different source. You may not reorder or otherwise modify the result sets in any way unless You indicate to End Users that this has occurred.
You agree to query the APIs for each and every request and shall not, without CityGrid’s express written authorization, cache any Licensed Content except as set forth in Section 3.3 or alter the text or content of any returned Licensed Content, including ads.
3.3 Caching and Storing of Data
You are permitted to pre-fetch or cache Licensed Content delivered to You in response to Your query solely as necessary for the performance of the Publisher Application. Notwithstanding the foregoing, You may not cache any Licensed Content in any format or manner for longer than fifteen (15) minutes.
You may permit End Users to store Licensed Content in accordance with the Terms.
3.4 Query Limitations
You are allowed to send as many as 10 million queries per month to the APIs. CityGrid may also establish queries per second caps and other caps or quotas; You will abide by such cap or quota in connection with Your usage of the CityGrid® Tools. If You anticipate Your queries to exceed these limits, please contact us at CityGridSupport@CityGridMedia.com to discuss other arrangements. You shall not make excessive queries to the APIs or use the APIs in any manner other than for their intended purposes. CityGrid reserves the right to immediately suspend and/or terminate Your right to use to the CityGrid® Tools and/or Your participation in the Publisher Program for failure to abide by the query limitations set forth herein.
3.5 Display
3.5.1 Search Results Page
You may populate a search results page using Licensed Content delivered to You in response to Your queries to the Places API, Reviews API and Offers API. Each result shall link directly and solely to a Places Page or the applicable URL redirect associated with such business, as provided in the Licensed Content by CityGrid (each, a “Web Link”). You shall display no more than twenty (20) search results at one time on the Publisher Application. You may not display the business phone number or zip code for any business on the search results page.
3.5.2 Places Page
You may create one or more web pages dedicated to displaying information relating to a business (a “Places Page”) on the Publisher Application and populate such page with Licensed Content delivered to You in response to Your queries to the Places API. If You choose to display Licensed Content You must do so in accordance with the Documentation.
3.6 Places That Pay
3.6.1 Web
To be eligible to earn revenue in partnership with CityGrid, each Places Page displayed on the Web (a “Primary Web Page”) must display the following information, where provided:
business name
phone number
merchant video
address and/or map
website URL
merchant offers and/or coupons (or links thereto)
merchant email link
merchant reservation link
merchant message
This required Web content must be displayed above the 600px fold.
To be eligible to earn revenue in partnership with CityGrid, each sub page of a Web Places Page (“Secondary Web Page”) must display at a minimum:
business name
phone number
To be eligible to earn revenue in partnership with CityGrid, You shall display no less than two (2) text and/or image-based advertisements for an Advertiser (each, an “Ad”) on each Places Page on the Web other than a Places Page with available budget.
You shall also display no less than three (3) Ads on each Web page other than a Places Page (e.g. search results page) on the Publisher Application in which Licenesed Content is displayed.
3.6.2 Mobile
To be eligible to earn revenue in partnership with CityGrid, each Places Page displayed on a mobile device (a “Primary Mobile Page”) must display the following information, where provided:
business name
address and/or map
phone number
merchant message
website URL
merchant offers and/or coupons (or links thereto)
This required mobile content must be displayed within two screen lengths of the mobile device displaying the content and no fewer than 300 characters of the merchant message be displayed with functionality to read the full text unless otherwise approved in writing by CityGrid.
To be eligible to earn revenue in partnership with CityGrid, each sub page of a Mobile Places Page (“Secondary Mobile Page”) must display at a minimum:
business name
phone number
To be eligible to earn revenue in partnership with CityGrid, You shall display no less than one (1) text and/or image-based advertisements for an Advertiser (each, an “Ad”) on each Mobile Places Page other than a Places Page with available budget.
You shall also display no less than two (2) Ads on each Mobile page other than a Places Page (e.g. search results page) on the Publisher Application in which Licenesed Content is displayed.
3.6.3 Content
Other optional content that may be displayed includes: reviews, images, menus, social media, driving directions, send to friend link, send to phone link, print map link, print offer link and other third party content provided by CityGrid. You acknowledge that Your quality score (which may be used to calculate Your revenue payment) is based in part on secondary clicks; as such, display of optional content on primary Places Pages and any secondary Places Pages will likely result in a higher quality score.
3.6.4 Ads
You may choose to create and/or display on the Publisher Application Ads provided by CityGrid via the applicable APIs or other method as CityGrid may designate from time to time. Each Ad displayed on the Publisher Application must contain the business name and must be categorically and geographically relevant to the End User query or activity. You shall not alter the content or Web Link of any Ad, and each Ad displayed shall link directly and solely to the Web Link or a Places Page. No Ads shall display the phone number of the business, nor shall it contain any deceptive, fraudulent or other content unrelated to the business. The format, presentation, display and placement of all Ads on the Publisher Application shall be in accordance with the Documentation.
3.7 Impression and Click Tracking
In order for CityGrid to know that Licensed Content was displayed on the Publisher Application, You must call the appropriate CityGrid tracker with respect to activities involving Licensed Content on the Publisher Application. With respect to each Places Page hosted on the Publisher Application, You will implement impression tracking as set forth in the tracking guide once per page view on the Publisher Application for Advertisers and non-Advertisers alike. For every click on a Web Link, You must use the click tracking method as set forth in the tracking guide. For mobile application, specific tracking will need to be implemented. The exact form of the script and tracking pixel code in the tracking guide may be updated from time to time.
3.8 Attribution
The Publisher Application must properly display any and all attribution and source links associated with any Licensed Content (including without limitation Ads) as returned by the APIs. Every web page on a Publisher Application which displays any Licensed Content must also clearly attribute the source of such content to CityGrid using the Marks provided by CityGrid and include the phrase “powered by CityGrid; data from Infogroup ©[YEAR]” on such page. For more details please review the attribution guidelines. The content, placement, size and format of the attribution, and any subsequent modification thereto, shall be subject to CityGrid approval. (You may download the logos here.)
In addition, Licensed Content may contain Marks of CityGrid, its partners or other third party providers. You may not delete or in any manner alter these Marks, or otherwise remove, distort or alter any element of these Marks (including squeezing, stretching, inverting, discoloring etc.). You will not display any Mark (i) in any manner that implies a relationship or affiliation with, sponsorship, or endorsement by CityGrid, other than Your use of the CityGrid® Tools, or that can be reasonably interpreted to suggest editorial content has been authorized by, or represents the views or opinions of CityGrid or CityGrid personnel, (ii) in a manner that is misleading, defamatory, infringing, libelous, disparaging, obscene or otherwise objectionable to CityGrid, or (iii) on the Publisher Application or any site that violates any law or regulation.
3.9 Search Engine Coding Requirement
If Licensed Content is accessible by search engine spiders, then You will ensure that (a) all sections of a Places Page that contain Licensed Content include any provided attribution that links directly and solely to the provided Web Link without redirects such as a <a href = “”></a> and the link does not contain “no-follow tags” and is not within JavaScript; or (b) the pages on the Publisher Application where such Licensed Content resides contain the script <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>. If You desire to append tracking to any links that directs the End User back to CityGrid, an onclick event may be added to append the appropriate tracking (e.g., PublisherID=) to the link. For more details please review the Documentation. At no time is the tracking parameter to be added to the href within the source anchor element.
4. Third Party Content
Certain Licensed Content is provided under license from third parties, and is subject to such third party’s copyright and other intellectual property rights. You shall abide by all usage requirements set forth herein if You choose to display any third party content provided by CityGrid through the APIs. In addition, Your use of any such third party content may be subject to additional terms specific to such content.
5. Prohibited Actions
Except with express prior written consent of CityGrid, You shall not, nor shall You authorize or encourage any third party to:
- directly or indirectly generate invalid or fraudulent queries or clicks or artificially inflate or increase the number of queries or clicks by any means, including without limitation through repeated manual clicks, the use of robots or automated programs or similar device, and the solicitation by payment of money or rewards, false representation or request for end users to click on search results, reviews, profile pages, or any parts thereof;
- minimize, remove or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any Licensed Content;
- redirect an end user away from or intersperse any content between a link and its associated content;
- falsify or delete any attributions of Licensed Content or other material;
- “crawl”, “spider”, index or in any non-transitory manner store or cache information obtained from any Search Result, Places Page, reviews, offers or any other Licensed Content;
- use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to scrape or search Licensed Content from anyone for any reason, including without limitation for competitive or commercial purposes;
- merge, compile, cleanse, validate, de-dupe, combine, integrate or otherwise incorporate any Licensed Content with data obtained from a third party;
- disassemble, reverse engineer, decompile, modify or otherwise alter the Licensed Content or any part thereof;
- pre-fetch, cache or store any Licensed Content in a manner not permitted herein;
- display any Licensed Content on any web page or web site that contains Restricted Content;
- display more than twenty (20) search results at one time on the Publisher Application;
- provide as part of Your service functionalities which enables End Users to (i) print, download or electronically capture any web page that displays more than one search result except with respect to editorial content or “favorite” listings (ii) to create mailing or marketing lists, (iii) to save more than ten (10) Places Page at a time, or (iv) to save more than one hundred (100) Places Pages in the aggregate;
- redistribute or resell the Licensed Content, or any part thereof, on a standalone basis not in conjunction with Your products and service;
- use the Licensed Content, or any part thereof, for direct marketing purposes;
- hide or mask from CityGrid Your identity, including by failing to follow the identification conventions as set forth in the Documentation;
- impersonate another person or entity;
- use the Publication Application and/or any CityGrid® Tools to defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others;
- upload, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Publisher Application any inappropriate, defamatory, obscene or unlawful content or which infringes on any Intellectual Property Rights of any party;
- transmit any viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses or any items of a destructive nature; or
- engage in any action or practice that reflect poorly on or otherwise disparages or devalues CityGrid’s reputation or goodwill; or
- interfere, disrupt or otherwise negatively impact CityGrid’s services in any way, including without limitation the APIs, servers and networks connected to the services, or fail to comply with any applicable requirements, procedures or policies;
each as determined by CityGrid in its sole discretion.
6. Miscellaneous
6.1 Required Use of Version 2 APIs
As of March 31, 2011, Version 1 APIs are no longer supported.
6.2 Protection of Licensed Content
You shall use commercially reasonable efforts to protect against any unauthorized access to, and use or distribution of, the Licensed Content, such precautions not to be less than the precautions generally taken in the industry with respect to valuable intellectual properties and the precautions You take to protect the confidentiality of Your own proprietary information. You agree to notify CityGrid immediately if You become aware of any unauthorized use of the Licensed Content.
6.3 Monitoring Compliance
CityGrid reserves the right to review and evaluate all uses of the CityGrid® Tools to determine whether Your use of the CityGrid® Tools is in compliance with the Terms. CityGrid may choose to investigate and monitor Your compliance with the Terms by any reasonable means, including scraping the Publisher Application. You will provide to CityGrid all necessary access to Your Publisher Application, without cost to CityGrid, for such purposes.
CityGrid shall also have the right to perform statistical analysis of, and to create or disclose metrics about, the APIs or the Licensed Content with certain of its third party budget providers, content providers and other Advertisers.