Here is some interesting news that may impact developers using the Google Maps API (our Google Maps API profile). Google has recently made a couple of updates to their terms of service and have posted the the new terms of service here. There was an initial update made in early November, but one that lead to some debate and confusion about a couple of points, which in turn to a subsequent update. The net result is that the terms of service have been streamlined and some previous restrictions have been removed, including a restriction on the use of Google Maps in desktop applications. Here’s a summary of the changes:
In a very generous move, Bjørn Sandvik has open sourced the code for his Thematic Mapping Engine (TME) under a GPLv3 license.
Every once in awhile you see one API provider making use of APIs from another. This is the case with the eBay Developers Program, who have announced the new eBay API Release Calendar. The calendar is itself a mashup, having been developed using the Google Calendar API. The resulting app is simple but works well: it’s color-coded to distinguish the significance of dates that correspond to each event.
The Calling All Innovators Contest from ProgrammableWeb sponsor Nokia is offering app developers $35K in prizes for building creative applications for the Nokia mobile development platform (which reaches the world’s largest audience of mobile device owners). The contest, which ends next week, is organized into three categories:
After much anticipation from the Mac community (both users and developers), Google has released the Mac version of its Google Earth Browser Plugin. As with the Windows-only previous release, the plugin allows users to view Google Earth within their web browser.
Did you ever want to have a quick-and-easy way to test-out an API without having to write code? Now with the YouTube API you can. They now offer developers this web-based interactive form which lets you explore and interact with the YouTube API. You can setup and test API calls directly: choose operations, specify parameters, and see the Atom, RSS or JSON results.
Chicago commuters just got a new resource that may lead to more helpful mashups: the Chicago Transit Authority Bus Tracker API. As recently announced, the API provides capability for developers to get bus routes and schedules, bus stop and arrival predictions, and more. Note that the API is not affiliated with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA); rather, it was developed and is maintained by Harper Reed, who says the CTA has been “amazingly cool with all of this.” In announcing the API, Harper wrote:
Developers looking to add database functionality to their mashups will be interested in a new JavaScript API for real relational database programming from NextDB.net. The NextDB.net hosted database seeks to eliminate the overhead associated with server-side coding, database management and additional hardware installation (see our NextDB.net API Profile).
Amazon has announced that they will no longer be supporting the Alexa Web Search API. This web service has been in operation since December 2005 and offered developers access to Alexa’s underlying search engine. Note, this search API is different than the API to Alexa Web Information Service, which provides access to things like the web site traffic metrics Alexa collects (for more on the APIs, see our Alexa Web Search and Alexa Web Information Service profiles).
Take a look at our API directory and you will quickly note that the Google Maps API continues to reign as the most popular API used for mashups. As the API continues to gain momentum, several new utilities have emerged to improve the user experience (or UX as it has come to be known).
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