Jeffrey McManus has written an awesome post about why the Y! Maps API is better than that of brand X here. It is a fun read, read it even if you don't give a damn about Y! or maps or brand X or web services.

Hope ye all have checked out my featured app. Here are a few more that make use of the Maps API ( from the mailing list )

• http://api.maps.yahoo.com/Maps/V1/AnnotatedMaps?appid=bayview53207&xmlsrc=http://www.gobayview.com/map_yahoo/rss.php


• http://api.maps.yahoo.com/Maps/V1/AnnotatedMaps?appid=vinceeats&xmlsrc=http://lucidit.com/test/sideways.xml


• http://api.maps.yahoo.com/Maps/V1/AnnotatedMaps?appid=artlungmaps&xmlsrc=http://sandiegobloggers.com/newmap/data.xml.php

Its simplicity is making it quite popular, already!

Tags: tech, webservices, yahoo

You can read all about the API here: http://developer.yahoo.net/maps. Being a part of this has been the one of most satisfying moments professionally, so far. The fact that this happened on the same day is no co-incidence. Being a part of this race makes the whole thing more challenging and enthralling. Gopal did submit a story on the Y! Maps API to slashdot. Never mind the slashdot crowd, I read slashdot for the comments :D.

By the way, the Grease monkey script that I wrote is a featured app on http://developer.yahoo.net. You can read instructions on how to use it here. You can download the script here. This is my first Grease monkey script and I am absolutely in love with it. I hope to make more additions so that it would use all the features of the API.

This is the mailing list for the maps web service API.

The API works with all geoRSS compliant feeds. You can get an appid from here and construct a request: http://api.maps.yahoo.com/Maps/V1/AnnotatedMaps?appid=< Your_AppId_Goes_Here >&xmlsrc=< Geo_RSS_Feed_Goes_Here>.

You are welcome to modify my script to make it work for other sites that you think could use the Y! Maps API. If you think there are any such, let me know.

If you have any feedback on the Y! Developer Network or the maps API in general, this is the place to go.

Have fun!

Tags: tech, webservices, yahoo
Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: key strokes and random hallway chatter in office