Mashalist

Mapping Farm Aid

Washingtonpost.com is running a great map comparing agricultural funding levels in counties across the U.S. (Via Derek). In each county the map lists the top recipients in 2005 as well as the amount they received. That means you can find all sorts of outrageous gems like Dublin Farms in Corcoran, CA, which got paid $1,828,994 by the federal government last year.

The Post map is not built on one of the big mapping APIs. I imagine that’s because the APIs from Google, Yahoo! and MSN are designed for mapping points, not areas. It is possible to use the APIs to map areas (here’s one example), but for most it’s not practical.

Since the GYM troika is developing their APIs with a singular focus on local advertising, and area mapping doesn't seem useful for local businesses, I doubt we’ll we see area mapping added to any of the APIs any time soon.

Of course, it would be great if I was wrong. As much as I like the Post map, it seems a little clunky. I want to zoom in and see exactly what this Dublin Farms outfit is doing with all its cash …

Mapstraction

From www.mapstraction.com:

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. The aim of Mapstraction is mainly to protect companies building commercial products on top of Google Maps from changes to terms and conditions, the introduction of ads, or the emergence of a competing library with better maps, different imagery or preferable licensing terms. (Via Gabor)

Seems like a good thing ...

Google Sorts Out Its Terms

Looks like Google has sorted out the confusion between its enterprise mapping documentation and its mapping API terms. (I wrote about this on Monday.)

Today they posted:

... the Google Maps API continues to be totally open for free, publicly accessible sites, both non-profit & commercial.

So, open news sites can keep on mappin'.

UPDATE: Interesting that the story is very different  for Google Earth.

Terms of Confusion

Wow. Big day in the world of mapping APIs. 

First this from Google, then this from Yahoo. 

Most of the news is good (the fact that Google is releasing a geocoder is great).

Google's new enterprise mapping product seems cool, but I’m confused about the terms. 

On one hand, the Mapping API terms do not include a “commercial” restriction.  The only related restriction is that “the Service may be used only for services that are generally accessible to consumers without charge.”

On the other hand, the Enterprise Q&A states that “The Google Maps API license does not permit using the API for commercial applications.”

“Commercial” is a much broader restriction than only “services that are generally accessible to consumers without charge.” A lot of commercial sites -- including most news sites -- offer free access to consumers.

So which is it? Does the new Q&A mean news sites have to shell out $10,000 to use Google Maps, or does the $10K only apply if they put the maps behind a paid wall?

Ibiseye

The folks at HeraldTribune.com in Southwest Florida have put together a very cool hurricane tracking page (via Cyberjournalist.net).  Remember it the next time a storm comes rolling through ...

Wikimapia

I agree with Mike Pegg: Wikimapia is fun.

If you play with it you'll find there are a lot more entries than you can see from the fully zoomed out view (they certainly have Moscow covered).

Pushpins

From National Geographic's web site:

"It is as if we shipped a map to someone and they stuck pushpins in it," said Bret Taylor, product manager for Google. "We provide the map, and other people put in the pushpins."

Yeah, that is what it's like.

New Google Maps Terms

As part of the new version of their maps API released today, Google is making the following updates to their terms:

• No page view limits. Your site can get as many page views as you can muster. If, however, your site gets more than 500,000 page views per day, we ask that you talk to us before you launch so that we can prepare in advance to handle your traffic.

• 90-day notice before any advertising-related change. The Maps API does not include advertising. If we ever decide to change this policy, we will give all developers at least 90 days' notice via this blog.

This is good news. The old 50K page view limit wasn’t a major constraint, but it’s helpful for that to be clear. The 90-day notice is also a nice gesture. Seems they’re aware of concerns like Adrian's.

Right now the Google Maps API seems to be used mostly for widget-of-the-month-type projects. It’s been hard to develop robust applications with opaque, restrictive terms. I think Google will be much better off when it provides the clarity and flexibility that businesses need to develop on their platform. Hopefully these changes mean they agree.

Maps of Turin

What's a major news event without map mashups?

Here and here are Google mashups of Turin venues (via Google Maps Mania). Pretty amazing how natural this has become. If there's big news, it will be mashed up.

I wonder when these kinds of maps will become standard parts of packages on major news sites.

... also wonder if the folks in Mt. View will get Germany mapped before the World Cup this summer. That would make for more good mashing.