[CUWiN-Dev] [Fwd: Google Maps: TAKE II]

[Sascha Meinrath]

meta-FYI:  Sean created an earlier version of CUWiN's nodes -- now it 
looks like we can create a permanent one.

--Sascha

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Google Maps:  TAKE II
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 13:24:55 -0500
From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
To: Sean Fioritto <sean.fioritto at gmail.com>

FYI:  Looks like we were just a wee bit ahead of the curve...  Could you
   get on this ASAP?

--Sascha

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/06/30/google_points_way_to_maps_code/

Google points way to Maps' code
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff  |  June 30, 2005

Move OK's sites' use of feature to create their own services

When the online information search giant launched a feature in February
letting Web surfers pull up maps and satellite images of virtually any
neighborhood in America, hackers quickly found the Google service made
it possible to present data in cartographic format. Unlike existing
services from Time Warner Inc.'s MapQuest.com and Yahoo Inc. that are
limited to presenting information authorized by the portal -- like
locations of pizza shops or bank machines -- Google Maps let people plug
in their own data. Computer-savvy info-lovers quickly rolled out what
became dubbed ''Google mash-ups," using lists of apartments for rent and
gas prices to create services that let Web users instantly generate maps
of the closest cheap gas or pricey apartments. Other examples produced
tools for mapping the locations of Florida registered sex offenders or
types of crimes in Chicago neighborhoods.

As of early yesterday morning, Google went from more or less tolerating
these services to actively promoting them. Hoping to unleash a wave of
digital mapmaking creativity -- and down the road, some lucrative new
advertising opportunities as well -- Google last night began publicizing
the full version of the so-called application program interface for
Google Maps that hackers had already begun sussing out to build their
own services. It's a move roughly equivalent to opening up a car hood so
tinkerers can see how the engine works, or handing out the recipe for a
popular dish.