You know, it's amazing the things one misses.
For those that don't know, there's a new version of Yahoo! Maps out, and it's very, very cool. In fact, it was launched last night at 9:00PM PST.
"But wait!" i hear you cry, "Don't you work in the Local group, the group that does Y!Maps?" Or for those that work here, "Don't you freaking sit on the other side of the cube wall of the guys that freaking work on Y!Maps!?"
Well, yes, i do. Thing is, they've been itching to launch this for a while, and in fact, i've been using it for about a month now. Still, and lest you forget, i'm an idiot and had my own launch to worry about. (That's another story for another time)
So, why is the new map thing cool?
Well, for one, look at it. Yes, it's flash, rather than fancy javascript DHTML. And the problem would be…? Flash is available for free on Linux, FreeBSD, Mac, Windows, Palm and any number of other sources thanks to the format being open. Flash also gives Yahoo a fair amount more power in how it presents things. It's a standard scripting language, unlike javascript. Yahoo! doesn't have to worry about whether feature X will work on Safari running on Mac OSX vs. i.E. 5 on Win 95, provided they both have a copy of flash, they'll work just as well. That means the folks creating the map are free to, well, add new cool stuff to it.
See, this is what happens when you read ALL of the documentation, JR.
It's also using the Y!Maps API, which means you can specify mapable elements using something simple, like XML. Heck, you can use Excel to create the data if you like. No need to pre-calculate lat/long for locations, no need to insert your code into javascript downloads. No worries that if Yahoo ever decides to upgrade their map your data breaks. (Won't happen.)
Also, you can now embed it on pages (Note: This is really hard to do inside of an article post with the current version of WordPress because WordPress insists on goofing with content. i'll post a work around later when i figure it out.) That doesn't mean that folks can't do some amazingly slick stuff with it. (Yeah, Ravi had access to it a week before you did. Big deal. All the stuff that went into that browser is all open APIs, you could build something even more powerful.
Geez, i didn't even talk about the fact that you can now plot multiple locations, automatically plot driving directions with turn by turn maps, email the map to friends or link to it directly, show live traffic reports for your metro, scroll around using either the mini-browser (up in the corner) just drag the map, pop up restaurants and other businesses (with reviews), or even using the free, full geocoder that comes with it.
It.
Kicks.
Ass.
So HUGE congrats to the folks on the other side of the wall. Hopefully, they might be able to actually sleep for a night or two.
