Yahoo released a new maps API beta yesterday. We already had a Google maps integration, but wanted to see if Yahoo had anything better. Yahoo’s previous map api was problematic since it required you to put their map in an iframe and didn’t give much control over the image.
The new Y! api is much better. It offers integrated geocoding and the ability to request a map image only. This worked perfect for our needs. What took 30+ lines to do in Google Maps we were able to do in less than 10. It also meant only one webservice call vs. two for Goggle(geocode + display map). To top it off the Y! api requires a static app id rather than the domain locked api keys that the Google api uses. This makes a huge difference for Zimbra since our server will be deployed with many different domains. Quick screen shot below.
on November 3rd, 2005 at 11:59 pm
I’m all for hating microsoft…but their maps implementation seemed nice, and included geocoding. I didn’t try IE, only Firefox, and it worked fine. Also, I live in Denver, and their satellite imagery was much higher resolution than google. I could resolve the cars in my driveway. They seem to have nicer zooming than Google also (similar to the yahoo flash app)
I was not impressed with Yahoo though…flash? no thank you, plus I did not see any satellite imagery options
I agree with your sentiments regarding google’s api though - although there are several meta map api’s now - some of which allow you to abstract whether you use Google or MS, letting the end user swap the map view, plus allowing context dependant markers - this would be my preference for Zimbra
just my two cents
on November 4th, 2005 at 1:35 am
> I was not impressed with Yahoo though…flash? no > thank you
This is a common misconception. While Yahoo uses flash on their website the API is offered in pure AJAX, and also a very nice REST interface which let’s you geocode and get an image in one call.