Slashgeo

Barbara Barros writes "Comparison of 3 Online Mapping APIs. Today StrataVarious, Inc. announced it has released two new demos of its Boston HyperMap Atlas using APIs for MSN's Virtual Earth and Yahoo Maps. The Google Maps API demo was launched in October. Comparison charts of the three online mapping systems show how to install the APIs, how their GUI systems work, and how each API was adapted to the custom HyperMap client-side software. The patented HyperMap Atlas system uses advanced Javascript and CSS layering in innovative ways to enable a flowing, highly-interactive user experience and smooth access to a depth of geographic information."

All Points Blog links to a Maps and Geography Open APIs wiki. All entries are described by: * Provider - Who is providing the API? * Description - What does the API let you do? * Commercial Use - Can you use this API for commercial use without asking? * Limits - Are there any limitations to amount of usage? * Terms - Link to Terms of Service.

The WLL/Virtual Earth blog links to a CNET article comparing mapping services in terms of Web 2.0 applications. From the article: "The innovative Google Maps, no longer in beta testing, has been surpassed in features by its competitors, as has the venerable Mapquest. Yahoo's and Microsoft's traffic data make their maps more useful for getting around in cities, while the multipoint directions offered by Yahoo and Ask are best for long or complex journeys."

All Points Blog offers an clear and to-the-point entry on the relationship between data and API licenses for webmapping apps, specifically Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! data into other webmapping apps such as OpenLayers. Meanwhile, The Earth is Square wonders if a workaround could revive a NASA World Wind plugin to access Google Maps data. From APB: "I had in my head that somehow OpenLayers was "doing something wrong" since it could pull in data sets from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, MultiMap into its own interface (go play with that!). With quite a bit of patience Frank explained that OpenLayer is doing everything correctly. It has an API key for each of the API providers (if needed) and follows all the rules of the license. So, how is this different from the Gaia team noted above that got shut down? That group was accessing the data directly from Google servers and not, as stipulated in the license, via Google software. (Google Earth has no API like Google Maps does.) Frank even showed me the code where OpenLayers dutifully uses its API key to pull in tiles from Google Maps. Google, he noted, even contacted the MetaCarta team to ask if there was any thing needed to further their implementation!"

The Map Room covers the Garmin announcement of their API and new website for developers, also at Where 2.0 2007, MapQuest announced a new API for Adobe ActionsScript (press release). From the Garmin press release: "“Until recently, third party websites have been unable to communicate easily with Garmin devices,” said Charles Morse, Garmin’s director of mobile and PND marketing. “This announcement is a win-win for developers and Garmin and it paves the way for more innovative applications. By expanding our developer applications and allowing programmers to integrate Garmin’s leading-edge technology into their sites, we are making it easier for third party content providers to leverage the huge community of Garmin devices by providing tools that will allow them to communicate directly with Garmin systems. This will create new markets for the programmer’s content and services, while generating a grassroots movement that will spread Garmin’s name and technology to consumers through third party websites and content distribution channels.”"

In a series that promises to be quite informative, Nate Irwin started comparing web mapping offers, with ArcWeb Services being the first in line. A while ago, Nate detailed what he was looking for in a webmapping API and provided an introduction. From the ArcWeb Services analysis' conclusion: "All in all, ArcWeb Services - as a whole - is a great product. While it may seem to be competing with the other larger online mapping vendors, in reality ESRI (with ArcWeb Services) is striving to meet the needs of its GIS community first and foremost. This becomes clear when you start to look at the number of advanced services available and the quality of each of the APIs. The downside to having so many features integrated into the technology, however, is that organizations are going to have to pay more for the services than they would if they were using services from another vendor. This may be difficult for some to swallow, especially if they've already invested in a full-featured web map product." See also related stories below, this topic has been covered quite regularly.

The High Earth Orbit blog informs us Mapstraction now supports OpenLayers. What's Mapstraction? From this previous story: "Mapstraction is a library which provides a common API for Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's javascript mapping APIs to enable switching from one to another as smoothly as possible." From the HEO entry: "Why wrap one wrapper in another? At conferences and get togethers, the devs and users of Mapstraction and OpenLayers frequently ask the question “What’s the difference between Mapstraction and OpenLayers?” The primary distinction between the libraries is a difference in objective. Mapstraction seeks to provide a simple wrapper to meet the primary needs of a mapping user. The purpose being to make it easy for a user to read a single API and then easily switch to any of the major providers. [...] With this new support, it now brings Mapstraction up to 9 supported map interfaces (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Map24, MultiMap, MapQuest, FreeEarth, OpenLayers, OpenStreetMap)."