A Participant in the Web of Platform - Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography - page 38

displaying maps online. The first mapping Websites had
three main disadvantages: due to the high cost of
geographical information, these applications were the
property of a small number of mapping agencies; the skills
required to handle the data were very demanding;
collaborative projects were difficult due to a lack of common
protocols in data communication [HAK 08, p.2018].

On the contrary, Web maps have been, since 2005, user-
friendly tools, bringing a more pleasant experience to the
users. Three factors were, according to the same authors,
behind the creation of contemporary Web maps:
- The opening of global positioning system (GPS) to the
general public;

- Web 2.0 technologies with their programming languages
(such as JavaScript), which have allowed the development of
dynamic applications;

- The spread of APIs from multiple Web services

[HAK 08, p.2018-2020].

These three factors coincided in 2005 to produce the first
mapping mashup which marked the long-term establishment
of maps in the contemporary Web.

3.1.2. APIs and mashups

In February 2005, Google published its online mapping
service, which could only be used to look up a locale or a
direction. Paul Rademacher, who was then working for
Dreamworks, decided to adapt it to simplify the search for
accommodation in San Francisco. The Google base map was
not yet reprogrammable, so he decided to extract the tiles
that constitute the Google Maps base map through a