Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Evaluating Mapping APIs
Michael P. Peterson
Introduction
The use of multi-scale panable (MSP) maps with user-supplied information is based
on Web 2.0 mashup technology. Web 2.0 represents a variety of innovative
resources, and ways of interacting with, or combining web content that began in
about 2004. It includes wikis, such as Wikipedia, blog pages, podcasts, RSS feeds,
and AJAX. Social networking sites like Facebook and Google+ are also seen as
major Web 2.0 applications.
Mashups combine multiple cloud resources. Central to mashups are Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs). These are function libraries that are integrated with
objects and are usually based on a language called JavaScript. APIs are the tools
that facilitate the melding of data and resources from multiple cloud resources by
providing the means to acquire, manipulate and display information. Many differ-
ent APIs have been written for the user-driven web. The most commonly used is the
Google Maps API.
In a strict sense, a map mashup combines data from one website and displays it
with a mapping API. The term has come to be used for any mapping of data using an
API, including data supplied by the user. The ease of mapping spatial information
has resulted in all kinds of different maps, many showing information that has never
been mapped before.
Map mashups have had a major influence on how spatial information is
presented. One particular advantage of using an API with a major online mapping
site is that the maps represent a standard and immediately recognizable represen-
tation of the world. Available through mobile phones and computers, these maps
represent a standard depiction—in many ways, more standardized than any other
