ProgrammableWeb: Mapping APIs and Mashups

The EveryScape API Can Show You The Way

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:36:43 -0800

There is a restaurant near my house that I go to often, it’s hard to find and I have trouble explaining to my friends how to get there. I can’t help but wonder how much business this restaurant is losing because of its poor location. Indoor mapping company EveryScape might have the solution. It's like Google Maps street view that doesn’t stop at the front door, it goes right inside. The Everyscape API can seamlessly be integrated into a website, allowing a developer to place the company’s immersive viewer in a relevant section of their site. Once inside the company’s platform allows you to view the interior of a building from multiple angles. This would give potential clientele the chance to easily find an establishment and experience what it has to offer from their home computer or web enabled smart phone. The EveryScape API, which is currently in private beta, allows developers to access and integrate the video-tour capabilities that they provide into other applications and websites. Now, instead of explaining how to get to a restaurant, the website could just show the way. How simple is that? EveryScape is one of 206 Mapping APIs in our directory.

cairoDot

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:35:01 -0800

Interactive map of Cairo.

Date Updated: 2012-02-09
Tags: cairo, egypt, mapping, services
APIs: Google Maps

nowCOAST LayerInfo

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:23:11 -0800

Coastal mapping information retrieval tool

Date Updated: 2012-02-07
Tags: mapping, ocean

DC Master Address Registry

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:23:16 -0800

District of Columbia GIS/mapping service

Date Updated: 2012-02-01
Tags: gis, mapping, washingtondc

Golf Guide

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:35:05 -0800

A Mashup of global golf course data. Thousands of markers displayed on Google Maps. Integrated with the Google Earth Web Plugin and Golf Course date from GolfFrontier.com. Many courses have a 3D course tour.

Date Updated: 2012-02-01
Tags: golf, mapping, sports
APIs: Google Earth, Google Fusion Tables, Google Maps

New York Metro Card Usage

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:35:05 -0800

Wall Street Journal mashup uses Google styled maps to show what areas of New York City have the most Metro Card usage.

Date Updated: 2012-01-31
Tags: mapping, nyc, transit
APIs: Google Maps

Rome 2 Rio

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:35:03 -0800

Fun little mashup that shows many types of transportation to get you anywhere in the world. Uses HotelsCombined to show potential hotels and Google Maps to display routes.

Date Updated: 2012-01-30
Tags: hotels, mapping, transportation, travel
APIs: Google Maps, HotelsCombined

AllTrails Drops Google Maps in Favor of NatGeo's TOPO

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:13 -0800

Google Maps API has become so entrenched in developer minds, that if you are looking for a mapping feature in your application, you did not look beyond them. But ever since Google announced its pricing last year, websites that have a large number of visitors have been disappointed with the potential fees that they will have to shell out for the services. These websites have responded in typical fashion and they are looking for alternate solutions. This definitely means good news to developers since having competitive choices is a positive thing. Earlier this year, we covered how Google’s Map Pricing led to StreetEasy choosing from various Open Source alternative to build their own Mapping solution. We know now of one more case, AllTrails, an online network for outdoor enthusiasts. The ReadWriteWeb report details how AllTrails decided to look for alternative solutions after Google announced its pricing. What is interesting to note is that it is not just pricing alone that has influenced the decision. The quality of terrain data, especially in the wilderness was an area that AllTrails felt Google Maps came up a bit short. The Alternative? National Geographic’s TOPO, which is now integrated into AllTrails' site for overlaying detailed topographic maps of the terrain. Under the new pricing of Google Maps, web applications still get 25,000 free map views per day. This might suffice for most websites for now but we are seeing an increasing number of heavily trafficked map sites beginning their exodus away from Google. We believe that various Open Source Map initiatives will receive the momentum due to this. If you run a website that is likely to cross the free usage limits of Google Maps, we would love to hear from you on your strategy ahead. We list 25 Javascript Mapping APIs in our directory.

Income Tax Rate, Air Quality, Obesity Rate, Average Temperature Heat Maps

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:35:01 -0800

Income Tax Rate, Air Quality, Obesity Rate, Average Temperature Heat Maps using Mapfluence Javascript API from urban Mapping

Date Updated: 2012-01-27
Tags: mapping, visualization
APIs: Mapfluence, Urban Mapping Mapfluence

IPGEO

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:43:54 -0800

IP Address Geolocation Service

Date Updated: 2012-01-26
Tags: geolocation, IP, mapping, security

ProxyFraud

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:41:03 -0800

Proxy detection service

Date Updated: 2012-01-26
Tags: internet, IP, mapping, security

Sightsmap

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:35:03 -0800

Sightseeing popularity heatmaps for the whole world, based on Panoramio photos and FourSquare places.

Date Updated: 2012-01-25
Tags: heatmap, mapping, photo, popular, travel
APIs: foursquare, Google Maps, Panoramio

Developer note updated for mashup: Income Tax Rate, Air Quality, Obesity Rate, Average Temperature Heat Maps

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:49:41 -0800

Mapfluence API from Urban Mapping is a very powerful tool to create heat maps of various information as shown on my web site http://www.elixiraddons.com/urban/zip.php.
All the available data are documented at http://developer.urbanmapping.com/docs/data-home

There are mainly two pieces. 1) Data determines the info you can display 2) Geometry table determines what level you can show the detail (county, state, zip code, neighborhood etc.).

You can also create queries and process the result using Json. The data are returned in the GeoJson? format. The query format is documented on their aite at http://developer.urbanmapping.com/docs

The data is not updated real time and that seems to be the only limitation I can think of.

Daymet

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:09:41 -0800

Daily weather and climatological summary service

Date Updated: 2012-01-23
Tags: mapping, weather

Foursquare API Billionaire: "Thousands per Second"

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:28:37 -0800

Every day Foursquare users create millions of check-ins using the location-sharing platform. Those may be only a small fraction of the traffic seen by its API, which we've estimated receives at least 5 billion requests per month. The company continues to expand the local data made available via its API, so developers of all sorts are finding it a rich resource for building their apps. "We get thousands of API requests per second," a Foursquare spokesperson told us. Do that math and you're at billions per month, enough to put it somewhere in the middle of the API billionaires club. Although Foursquare is tight-lipped about actual API requests, you can make a pretty solid bet that its official apps make the majority of the calls to the service. We have seen this with other services, most notably Twitter, whose Twitter homepage uses the API and its mobile site is API-driven. Foursquare's apps have entirely used the API since day one. Foursquare's website is not entirely built on the API, but it's starting to use it more, according to Foursquare's Kushal Dave. Dave joined the location company in mid-2010 and immediately began redesigning the Foursquare API. Based on the types of Foursquare apps we see, building atop the company's user-grown venue database is the most popular. What does the company think of others taking just the places? "Totally fine with us," Dave said. "We're happy to be your venue database even if you don't do check ins." If an app accepts new venues from users, Foursquare likes to see those added to its databases, as well. This is sentiment we've heard from those behind the Factual Places API, as well. A check in within a non-Foursquare app, such as in Instagram and others, is "the ultimate attribution," Dave said. Foursquare continues to expand the data available via its API. As the apps launch features, the API also launches them. That was the case with photos and comments a year ago. Most recently the company added menus to venues, something made available via the API before the official apps (it's currently also live on the website and mobile site).

Best New Mashups: Mapping Revisited

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:59 -0800

As we sit here in Seattle fighting the snow and ice this week, I find myself looking at a lot of maps. Weather maps that show that the snow will, in fact continue to fall, neighborhood maps to see what others stuck at home are tweeting about, and even maps of warmer places because one can always dream. We took a look at some of our favorite mapping mashups over a year ago so today is a good time to see what is new. WETTERWOLKE - A small Google Maps Mashup displays the weather forecast and weather-tweets in a nice, simple style. APIs used include: Twitter, GoogleMaps. More at our WETTERWOLKE profile. Twitter Trends - A Website that you can view the most discussed topics on twitter(trends), searching by location through Google Maps. APIs used include: Twitter, GoogleMaps. More at our Twitter Trends profile. FIND Free Maps - FIND Free Maps allows you to create, customize, annotate and PDF your own maps. With no need to register or download any software, FIND Free Maps is designed for you to simply use. You can customize the map styling to suit your own needs using the 'Your Google Map' feature. APIs used include: GoogleMapsFlash. More at our FIND Free Maps profile. Moonshadow Mobile, Inc. - CensusViewer shows all census information from the 2000 and 2010 census inside of Bing Maps. The data can be colored by race, ethnicity, age, county, city, etc. CensusViewer allows you to filter by any attribute and generate heat maps. The data can be downloaded in easy spreadsheets per census block, zip code, city, county or any other distict. APIs used include: MoonshadowMobile, BingMaps. More at our Moonshadow Mobile, Inc. profile. Zoos of the World - Browse through zoos of the world, categorized by country. When you click a zoo link, photos are retrieved from Flickr and displayed, the coordinates of the zoo location is displayed in Google maps and Wikipedia content of the article is also displayed. APIs used include: Wikipedia, GoogleMaps, Flickr. More at our Zoos of the World profile.

Developer note updated for mashup: Real estate mashup

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:09:52 -0800

I have built this mashup to show home value estimates, mortgage rates and comparable sales data for a given residential property. Zillow provides APIs for these and much more as shown at my web site www.elixiraddons.com. The details are presented using Google maps API.

Recently, I have enhanced this using Urban Mapping API to overlay the neighborhood info which is very useful for a home buyer. To spice it up, I have added Walkscore and Yelp review to make this a true one stop shopping experience!

Enjoy this for free and spread the word! As always, drop me a note if you have any suggestion for me.

GeoGratis

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:09:41 -0800

Geographic data and mapping service

Date Updated: 2012-01-19
Tags: government, mapping

Custom Neighborhood Maps using Mapfluence Javascript API

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:35:03 -0800

Custom Neighborhood Maps using Mapfluence Javascript API from urban Mapping and Google Maps API. This is a much easier solution compared to usual approach using shape files.

Date Updated: 2012-01-19
Tags: local, mapping
APIs: Google Maps, Mapfluence, Urban Mapping Mapfluence, Urban Mapping Neighborhoods

Developer note updated for mashup: Custom Neighborhood Maps using Mapfluence Javascript API

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:58:20 -0800

Neighborhood information typically comes in the form of shape files which are proprietary format and requires special skills to interpret. Major player is ESRI. Zillow also started providing this info recently which is not updated frequently. Urban Mapping is relatively new kid on the block. It provides an alternative in the form of geo cordinates which can be plotted using Google charts API. This is a much simpler solution even though Urban mapping requires commercial license which is not free. Urban Mapping also has a very good frameworks and have good reference documents and some sample code. If you are willing to spend time, you will be rewarded with stunning results!