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The State of Mapping APIs, 5 Years On
macslocum writes "Map APIs took off in 2005, and during the ensuing years the whole notion of maps has changed. Where once they were slick add-ons, map functionality is now a necessary — and expected — tool. In this piece, Adam DuVander looks at the current state of mapping and he explains how mobile devices, third-party services and ease of use are shaping the map development world."
"Google had the first mapping API and continues to keep its lead by adding useful new features. "
I suspect the government and the various contractors and outside programmers who worked with them or with their data had the first mapping API. It was used for the TigerLINE data that all the rest of this data is originally based off of. It wasnt some internal govt only project, but something anyone could either download (free) or purchase and use. There are a variety of such tools (various with their own APIs), numerous ancient (Win95/98 era) which far predates Google's tools and APIs.
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
I've always been fascinated by maps and the curious space they occupy in the construction of personal and societal identities. What we map, how we illustrate it, how it's presented, where it's placed, each reveals an aspect of something culturally significant. I wonder if the shifting nature of mapping, as influenced by the demands of mobile devices and almost limitless storage capacity, will have as profound a cultural effect as other mapping technological shifts.
For those interested in mapping - Strange Maps has some awesome examples.
I did a post grad degree in GIS finishing 2003 haveing done IS degree before then. We used professional map tools for analytical work and presentation.
Two things stood out in the culture of GIS:
- A non importance of solid data handling and storage. Flat files were the order of the day.
- Antialiasing was not prevalent. While not required for anayltical work, in presentation it was, but many big name tools did not make the jump. 8 bit was common.
- Presentation was done by govt depts and were fairly snazzy for the day, in 8bit alisaed glory
Now we see were we are today, and its all to do with the fact non mapping companies have got involved without the hangups of the old GIS attitudes from govt depts, universities, and the big name tool vendors influencing them. Companies like MS, Google, have presented maps and GIS so superior to the traditional industry, that even Depts Lands, Mapping and Survey(or whatever called in your country) are resorting to Google maps.
We now have depts of GIS professionals along with proprietry vendor tools being trounced by private enterprise.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
What I want is a blog post that actually explains all the various mapping licenses. Preferably in a simple table format. I don't like to read.
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
I think the thing that was most impressive, at the time, was how they got JavaScript to do all that in a browser. Now, that was impressive.
Is it my impression or did AJAX really take off after people saw Google Maps?
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
why cant they take all this map data and have racing or GTA type games where you can drive in places you're familiar with?
Who cares about real, geographical maps?
No mention of the University of Minnesota Mapserver program. It can render GIS data with antialiasing, auto-placing labels, etc. With some work on a configuration file, you can have it produce images that are nearly identical to Google Maps, but can be arbitrarily scaled (ie, not based on tilesets). Support for WMS makes images from Mapserver available to external programs via a simple HTTP-based RPC. You can also query for features using WFS. I use it to generate maps for use with a weather radar display.
Two things stood out in the culture of GIS:
- A non importance of solid data handling and storage. Flat files were the order of the day.
- Antialiasing was not prevalent. While not required for anayltical work, in presentation it was, but many big name tools did not make the jump. 8 bit was common.
- Presentation was done by govt depts and were fairly snazzy for the day, in 8bit alisaed glory
If that is how you count to 2, I hope to the spaghetti monster that I never have to use one of your maps.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Closely related to maps are satellite images, and they are in serious need of a cleanup as well. I was recently asked to find some images for a specific area in Antarctica and do specific processing on them. I'll pass on how hard it was to find images (for free or fee), the USGS was the best source but with other commercial satellites it was simply impossible to get samples. Not, the problem was in the format: basically every generation of satellite has its own data format and/or associated geolocation description file, and even 'standard' formats such as GeoTIFF (a TIFF file with embedded geolocation information) were hardly ever read by GIS softwares. I must have tried 10 packages and it's a nightmare, particularly if you want to do processing in addition to visualisation.
Photoshop/Gimp can open and enhance GeoTIFF files. Google Earth Pro can overlay them on the globe. But call one after the other and the geoloc info is lost. It's all like this. Last time I had to do this I ended up writing my own image processor in C, that was almost a decade ago. Nothing has changed. Of course big vendors tell you that their 10k$ software can do it, except that from my trials I have no faith in that, that's too expensive for processing 10 files, and it takes 3 months to get a handle on the software.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Why is there no way to add/update POI on apps like Google Maps?
So many of the existing POI are out of date, and many are missing... why can't I just edit the information myself directly from my Android phone or Maps on the PC? Of course, the changes would need to be approved before they're actually integrated into Maps, but I feel like they're leaving a lot of potential untapped here.
OSM supports this, of course, but the Android apps are absolute crap... not to mention the maps of Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe. :(
The 'map' API will remain fairly useless until they also develop the 'reduce' API. Then developers will get the full power of a map-reduce API.
Evil people are out to get you.
Yeah, remember when people used to print maps from MapQuest to each other because in-car GPS modules were expensive and a bit "beta?"
Now, Garmin's newest GPS doubles as an Android phone, the iPad (still waiting for an Android tablet) is the biggest GPS module available and one can find their way from practically anywhere with internet access just by knowing the destination.
Paper maps aren't dead, but they are needed much less nowadays.
Okay some people are really missing the point (surprise surprise /.)
There are two huge components to mapping, data creation and data delivery. Google, M$, Mapquest, etc.. all blow ESRI out of the water with their front end for data delivery. They all SUCK at data creation/maintenance etc. Googles Enterprise client for data maintenance is a disaster. ESRI is the de-facto tool for this. They simply serve different purposes.
disclaimer, I am an SDE admin for county government. I develop apps using the ESRI Javascript API. My app will never be as good or as slick as google. However, my data is WAY better.
Let's not forget GeoServer.
Hey Everybody,
I work at PixelActive and we've seen tremendous interest in 3D GIS modeling from all of our clients. Whether it's mapping companies or video game developers who want to make games based in known cities, they are using CityScape to model cities quickly.
When we look at established GIS companies, it appears there is a lot of legacy support that they need to handle, which slows them down. We've been able to move much faster, supporting other commenters' posts about how private companies are finding success here. Our problems is supporting many of the legacy formats that are not well documented or designed for real-time rendering (which CityScape is designed for).
Joseph
www.pixelactive3d.com
I recently became interested in hiking/orientiering, and i tried to find maps geographical maps online that could be used for this purpose. Couldn't find any apart from the government (Sweden). I will have to pay for the maps.
I was quite surprise to tell the truth. I have no involvment with the mapping industry, but I would have thought by now after Google came out with Google Earth and satellite images became so prevalent that it was simply a matter of time before all mapping was free? I can go onto the local yellow pages equivalent and see photos of my car in the driveway! And there are overlays for sat images to show POIs.
Isn't it just a matter of time before there are mapping solutions for everything, free, online, and won't this basically kill the current mapping industry (from he who knows nothing about this)?
"Everyone knows that vi vi vi is the number of the beast" -- Richard Stallman