Tuesday, March 7. 2006

Free MapQuest API Announced

MapQuest announced the availibility of a free API for use in non-commercial applications at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference beginning today in San Diego. The company also announced a contest for the "best mashup" using the API; the winner gets $1000 and a free pass to another conference.

Realistically one must ask:

Why'd it take so long? MapQuest is far, far behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in opening its API.

Why's it better? The press release says very little about what's available but does note it includes "a core set of mapping, geocoding and routing tools."

Why announce at the Emerging Tech Conference? My immediate response is that this is NOT emerging technology; rather its "old hat." My second thought is that announcing that at Emerging Tech and not a geo-focussed conference suggests how "mainstream" it is. And, of course, you can't give a free pass to a geo conference as a contest prize if you announce the technology to be used in the contest at the geo event...

via Spatially Adjusted

Posted by Adena Schutzberg at 09:49 | Comments (2) | Trackback (1) |

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Hi Adena,

very good questions. Lemme see if I can provide some realistic answers for you

all the "press release" speak aside, the API includes integrated geocoding & routing as part of the API (not separate services) - its a rounded out package of functionality, which we feel moves the bar higher on that key word - functionality. Given O'Reilly's audience, we felt that Etech was the right place to kickstart a dialogue with developers about where we take this thing.

Why it took so long is a much bigger answer than I should put here, but I'll be at Location Intelligence and would love the chance to buy you a drink and tell you all the sordid details of love, betrayal, vengeance, and coffee that culminated in being able to release OpenAPI

Thanks
Ant

#1 Ant (Link) on 2006-03-07 15:06 (Reply)

Yeah, geocoding and routing - or, speaking end-user language, driving directions - was the main reason I picked Mapquest out of three. And it works like a charm for me here so far http://www.funandsafdriving.com/ddirections.html

#2 Misha (Link) on 2008-02-04 12:15 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Ant on 2006-03-07 15:06   #1.1: Misha on 2008-02-04 12:15
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?   Subscribe to this entry