Yahoo! Maps Mashups
Chapter One
Your Map, Your World
"When I have the map, I will be free, and the world will be different,
because I have understanding." - Time Bandits, 1981
This chapter discusses
* What map APIs are
* What map applications can do
* The core principles of map technology, including map projection and scaling
* Why Yahoo! offers three types of map APIs
What Is a Map API?
As an avid web user, you probably use map applications all the time, even daily. Map applications,
like the Yahoo! Maps beta, enable millions of users to find locations by address, get driving
directions and search for businesses based on location. These useful applications have become
some of the most popular and dependable sets of functionality on the web.
As a web developer, you have probably worked with APIs. API stands for application programming
interface. It is an interface for programming an application, a collection of functions to program
against. An API, like the Yahoo! Maps API, is des ... read full excerpt from Yahoo! Maps Mashups ebook