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.
jr, is this the maps Beta thing in the upper right link, or has the standard Y!Maps been updated?
D'oh.
At work, they route everybody to the new beta. I've corrected the links in the article, but yes, it's the "Beta thing in the upper right corner".
Yep, I'm a goof.
I detest flash.
There's NO way to tell it to stop the bloody animations already.
And as long as that's the case, I won't install it.
Cos there's always idiots who'll use flash in their evermoving ads.
Don't forget the ingenius use of the mouse scroll-wheel for zooming in and out. That's my favorite feature.
Hetta: Fair enough. There are some plug-ins that let you control flash, but there's equal argument that folks use it for far too much evil. That said, it can also be used for great good. A little like anything, really.
Not to turn this into the Flash-Bash 2005, but there should be an option with Flash when it's installed to .hosts all of the ad banner servers into oblivion. Then you can have your Flash and tolerate it too.
But the numero uno thing I hate about Flash? When I can't right-click and open a link in a new tab. Makes me livid.
This is pretty cool. I had no idea Mexico didn't have any roads at all. Wow, the things you learn.
Great, all we need now is for it to work IN THE REST OF THE WORLD. *grumble*
It will, the problem is getting the damn data. Turns out that the US is fairly open about providing that sort of thing, but everywhere else isn't. London maps, for instance, are held in copyright by a private company that charges big bucks for rights to them. Other locations are equally bad.
Yahoo! purchased a company called WhereOnEarth that provides some of that information, but it's going to take time to get that data into something acutally useable.
Trust me, the folks there want nothing more than to get that sort of data and make it available and are working like hell to make that happen, but it's going to take time to get it all working right.
Interesting. For the first time, Y!Maps now thinks (or at least shows me that it thinks) that a business that was at my house two years ago is still here. Fair enough, there are websites out there that probably still have the old adress for the people I bought my house from.
But nowhere on the page is there a "This is Wrong" button so I can help Y! get the correct information.
It's even more frustrating than the "recent history" which still shows two meat markets that I went to the pages of to try and tell Y! "Hey, they've been out of business for over a year, maybe you want to quit listing them."
Oh, and the biggest flash-based annoyance is that scroll-bars in flash don't work with the scroll wheel of my mouse and don't have arrows on the ends like they should. Took conscious thought to remember that a guy can click in the thumb to scroll something.
DaveP, bad business listings are a known issue and we're working on that. (blame our providers)
As far as the scroll wheel, it's a valid complaint. I'll pass it along to them. Thanks!
There are several applications that use it for zooming on images rather than panning (World Wind, Photoshop, etc.) In fact, that's pretty much the model for manipulating the maps. You drag the image around to move it.
I wanted to scroll the list of directions in a "go from a to b to c to d" kind of map. I'm used to dragging the map, but the directions have a (Flash-provided) scroll-bar and I'd like to be able to scroll that.
Actually, scrolling alone isn't good enough. What if I want to print the maps? I guess I should use the feedback button, eh?
Well, i've bugged the folks about the scrolling problem. As for printing, you should be able to use the "Printable Version" link at the top of the thing. (Click on the little down triangle/arrow thing next to it and you can choose to get a map or just the text version.)
And, of course, you can always just copy the URL for the page your viewing to get a copy of that page. It updates whenever you change anything.
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