Even before Google gave its blessing, Paul Rademacher was hacking
away at the code behind its mapping application so he could mix it with outside real estate data and see exactly where homes listed for sale were located in the San Francisco area.Little did the computer graphics expert know that his HousingMaps.com, which combines a Google map with house listings from the popular Craigslist community, would be the start of an Internet phenomenon. Although Rademacher created his site about two months before Google publicly released its application programming interface — the secret sauce that allows developers to create their own recipes with its maps — the company wasn't angry.
In fact, Google hired him shortly thereafter.
"Now we see that all along there has been a huge amount of interesting information tied around location," Rademacher said. "Before, they had no way of expressing that and doing anything useful with it."
With such "mashups" — hybrid software that combines content from more than one source — digital maps are quickly becoming a centralised tool for countless uses ranging from local shopping and traffic reports to online dating and community organising, all in real time and right down to specific addresses.
Online mapping is evolving into a historic nexus of disparate technologies and communities that is changing the fundamental use of the Internet, as well as redefining the concept of maps in our culture. Along the way, map mashups are providing perhaps the clearest idea yet of commercial applications for the generation of so-called social technologies they represent.
They are, in a very real sense, bridging the gap between the virtual and physical worlds.
"This information has been on the Web for years," said Mike Pegg, a Canadian programmer who runs a site called Google Maps Mania. "The map is all of a sudden bringing this information to life for us. I think it has inspired a lot of people."
So prolific has the mapping movement become that Pegg has dedicated his site to documenting the staggering growth of mashups. He estimates that at least 10 mashups are created every day, each providing data that pop up in info balloons from the digital pushpins dotting various online maps.
Not surprisingly, this unprecedented interest is forcing change at old-world cartography institutions. Just last week, Rand McNally announced a new online mapping service of its own called MapEngine, which will allow businesses to integrate maps, directions and location search functionality into their Web sites. But such established companies will increasingly compete with free applications that have sprung up organically on the Web.
A monster mashup
Already, hundreds of mashups overlay maps with everything from such practical information as gas station prices, hurricane movements, hot springs sites and crime statistics to the more entertaining...
For more, click here...
