Basically, we'll only return a result if we have a caller ID in our cache. So, if you get a 404 (no output), then try again a few seconds later after we've had time to do the lookup via our backend.
Sorry about that! Realtime lookups are currently restricted to API key users only.
And you should have made this MUCH more visible on your website. I initially tried your service, got zero results and dismissed it as a failure.
Only after reading here did I realize your service actually does work, I just have to try each query twice.
Sorry for the confusion, but thanks again for the feedback. I greatly appreciate it.
It took me five minutes on the website ... and I had to come back to HN and read the comments to get this working. Don't want to be discouraging, but maybe you should provide this information in the blog/website otherwise you have failed (for me atleast).
Appreciate the feedback.
HTTP code 202 Accepted seems appropriate for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes)
But I think that sort of performance would make the free tier essentially worthless. “All you have to do is hit our API endpoint, and BAM, you get results back.” Except you really don't. Analogy: a caching DNS resolver that returned an instant SERVFAIL if the results weren't already in memory wouldn't be considered acceptable even for demo purposes anywhere that I've seen.
Thanks for taking the time to check us out!
Not at all. It lets you try out the API, figure out if it works for you, and get back "best effort" results. That seems perfect for a free tier.
After all the feedback here, I realize how crazy it is to be returning a 404.
Thanks for checking us out, and thanks for the feedback!
Not sure if this is the better way.