Mapping APIs

Wired News reported Google opened a set of programming interfaces for its popular Google Maps service, in the hope hackers will overlay the maps with data from outside sources -- such as wireless cafes. ust one day later, Yahoo announced its own set of programming tools for its map service, Yahoo Maps. Both companies are hoping the new mapping APIs, or application programming interfaces, will excite developers, help the companies find new employees and, perhaps most importantly, result in free product prototyping. But the search giants were also reacting in no small part to web hackers who had already started to reverse-engineer the two mapping services in ways neither had expected....

Before Google opened the Maps API, several "mashups" had been created, including Paul Rademacher's housing map, which layers craigslist housing ads onto Google maps, and an anti-gridlock site that marries Yahoo traffic data with Google maps. There's also Adrian Holovaty's ingenious Chicago crime map, which lets users create custom views of crimes from auto theft to bribery on maps as tiny as individual police beats. Other hacks include a small-town walking tour with annotations, a map with clickable London traffic cameras and a map for finding cheap gasoline that's no longer online....

Not surprisingly, the two companies have different rules. Yahoo is a bit more flexible in the kinds of data that can be passed and uses several open data standards, including RSS. The company also hosts the resultant map on its own servers, which could save hackers from having to pay for expensive bandwidth if their application becomes popular. It also allows Yahoo to serve advertising, if it chooses. However, the hosting offer is not negotiable, even for geeks with deep pockets who want the map featured on their own website. Google, on the other hand, expects developers to host their own hacks by running Google's innovative JavaScript to power the map's smooth rendering, but reserves the right to place ads next to the mashup map in the future. Yahoo sees the legitimized hacking as another extension of its effort to turn its customers into participants. Its local service, Yahoo Local, for example, attempts to merge blogging, restaurant reviews, social software and portable electronic devices.

This sounds interesting. Are there any programmers out there interested in trying to do something useful?