About Yahoo! Maps

In 2007 Yahoo! launched a new version of Yahoo! Maps which added street maps and driving directions for the United States and Canada to their previous offering. Other features added include address book, live traffic and point of interest finder. This all helped to improve Yahoo Local Maps by offering users significantly more interactivity.

Written using AJAX, Yahoo Maps leverage Rich Internet Application techniques. The navigation includes draggable maps, multi-point driving directions, local business search, widgets, satellite imagery, overview map and improved international coverage (outside the US and Canada).

Website developers could also embed Yahoo Maps into their own web pages (to create a mashup) through the Yahoo! Maps Developer APIs. The Yahoo Maps APIs come in three types:

• The Flash APIs (using Adobe Flash platform) allowing the developer to write in JavaScript, ActionScript, or Adobe Flex 1.5
• The Ajax API for interactive maps that use web browsers without a Flash plug-in
• The "Simple" API (an XML data format) for displaying point of interest data on top of Yahoo!'s main map site

Earthware and Yahoo Maps

In our view Yahoo! Maps have never really taken off especially in Europe. In our mind this is because if you want freely licensed but commercially available mapping, you would almost always opt for Google Maps (especially outside the US) due to the community support, user experience and better imagery. However, should you wish to discuss integrating Yahoo! Maps into your website/technology solution, please feel free to contact us for a no obligation discussion.