New Geo APIs - 2/22/12

Bing Traffic API: The Bing Traffic API provides information about traffic incidents and issues, such as construction sites and traffic congestion. Traffic incident information is currently available for the United States and Canada. Users can also get information about traffic issues that met the criteria specified in the URL request, such as map area, incident type and severity. The API uses RESTful calls and responses are formatted in XML and JSON.

deCarta MapSearch Engine API: deCarta is a location based services provider. The Map Search Engine API gives developers the ability to implement local search on their web sites and applications. The API can search address and point of interest data sourced from content partners. Developers can also overlay their own searchable content onto the map. MapSearch Engine is “white label”, allowing customers to unitize their own UI, branding and content. The API uses RESTful calls and responses are formatted in XML, JSON, JSONP and XHTML.

- Programmable Web

Bonus: 40 real estate APIs

- +skipcody

Finding Naturist Areas and other LBS News

MapMuse today announced the 2012 release of its Nude Beach and Naturist Maps, a series of web maps and an accompanying iPhone app that plot the locations of nude beaches, nude resorts, nudist clubs, nudist colonies, and nude runs around the world.

- press release

Glassmap, an app (Android/iOS, Facebook log-in) to passively share your location with friends, has lauched. It started at Standord, where 10% of students use it and has launched at 10 other schools. The big improvement ovr other apps like this (Google Latitiude, Loopt)? It uses an order of magnitude less battery.

- ReadWriteWeb

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday proposed voluntary guidelines for [auto] manufacturers, including a recommendation that they design dashboards so that distracting devices are automatically disabled unless the vehicle is stopped and the transmission is in park.

Thankfully, backers understand that sometimes a passenger keys in an address to the in-car GPS or of course driver could use a phone not integrated into the dashboard for navigation. Maybe that's why this is voluntary.

- AP

Groupon has acquired Hyperpublic, a small company that develops location-based technology that can be integrated into other applications.

- PC World

Google has added "leaderboards" to Google Latititude, something many suggest means its going after Foursquare in a big way. You earn points for checking in and data is shared on Google +. So far the feature is only on the latest Google Maps for Android.

- PC Mag

How Geography Helped Bring Down Plancast

The founder and CEO of Plancast  Mark Hendrickson decided to stop working on the effort full time and wrote a detailed post mortem in January. The service was about sharing your plans with others. Here's what he said about how geography mattered. This reads like the post mortem of many other social network startups that didn't make it.

Geographic Limitations

Geographic specificity is another inherent limitation to a plan’s value. Unlike virtually all other content types (with the exception of check-ins), plans provide most of their value to others when those users live or can travel near enough to join.

I may share plans for a ton of great events in San Francisco, but few to none of my friends who live outside of the Bay Area are going to care. In fact, they’ll find it annoying to witness something they’ll miss out on. Sure, they might appreciate simply knowing what I’m up to, but the value to that kind of surveillance is rather modest all by itself.

This is especially problematic when trying to expand the service into new locations. New users will have a hard time finding enough local friends who are either on the service and sharing their plans already, or those who are willing to join them on a new service upon invitation. People who encounter the service from non-urban locations have the hardest time, since there aren’t many events going on in their area in general, let alone posted to Plancast. Trying to view all events simply listed within their location or categories of interest yields little for them to enjoy.

- TechCrunch

Find Salaries of Nearby Pols and other LBS News

For The Good of Illinois, an open-government group founded by former gubernatorial hopeful Adam Andrzejewski, has a free iPhone and iPad app that, with the touch of a button, will show you the salaries of government employees in your area.

Using your device's GPS coordinates, the app will list, from highest to lowest, the pay of state and local government employees within a radius of five, 10, 25 or 50 miles. Or you can input a ZIP code, rather than using your current location. Employees also can be searched by name.

New Geo APIs - 2/14/12

Read all the way to the end - there's a bonus!

nowCOAST LayerInfo API: nowCOAST is a GIS-based online mapping tool that provides access to real-time coastal environmental observations and NOAA forecasts for any region in the coastal United States. nowCOAST's LayerInfo API provides access to additional useful information on mapping layers, including Legends, Timestamps, Icons, and Layer Descriptions. The API uses HTTP calls and responses are formatted in XML, HTML and TXT.

Aviresto API: Aviresto is a guide to restaurants in France. The site lets users read and submit customer reviews. Searches can be conducted by city or by location on a map. An API is available that allows users to conduct these searches programmatically and pull the results into their own application or web site. Public documentation of the API is not available; developers should contact the provider for access.

NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising API: NAVTEQ is a provider for digital maps and map content used in navigation and location-based services. The NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) program provides developers with a variety of API's for mapping, road traffic data, and advertising.

The NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising (LPA) service is an in-application mobile advertising service that provides location-based, targeted advertising to users of location aware applications and mobile websites. This API will gather location data and identify users, and then request relevant adds to return to the device. The LPA web service also exposes functions for handling the end-user experience after they have interacted with a LPA-powered add; for example, providing the user with maps and routes to physical stores related to an add they clicked through.

NAVTEQ Map Reporter API: NAVTEQ is a provider for digital maps and map content used in navigation and location-based services. The NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) program provides developers with a variety of API's for mapping, road traffic data, and advertising.

NAVTEQ's Map Reporter allows individuals to suggest updates or corrections to NAVTEQ maps. Users can give feedback about addresses, roads or road features, points of interest, or traffic restrictions. Attachments, such as images or supporting evidence, can also be added to the submission. In addition to submitting feedback on existing map elements, users can suggest new map content such as other points of interest or cartography details. The Map Reporter web service is composed of two primary parts: a submission service that allows users to provide their feedback to NAVTEQ, and a query service for searching map reports for the status and details of previously submitted requests.

- Programmable Web

Bonus: StreetFight offers Comparing the Pros and Cons of 5 Top Location APIs which looks at contenders to fill in for recently closed SimpleGeo. Warning: written by an intern.