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June 13, 2005
Combining Google Maps with other data using open APIs
An Associated Press article last week, Google Maps Make Demographics Come Alive , describes a variety of nice hacks built by developers using Google Maps API with outside data sources.
As it turns out, Google charts each point on its maps by latitude and longitude — that's how Google can produce driving directions to practically anywhere in the nation. Seasoned developers have figured out how to match these points with locations from outside databases that can contain vast amounts of information — anything from police blotters to real estate listings.
The applications include:
Crime locations (Police data): http://www.chicagocrime.org
Sex predators (Police data): http://www.floridasexualpredators.com
Cheap gas (Gasbuddy data): http://www.ahding.com/cheapgas/
Home buying: http://www.cytadia.com
Apartments (Craigslist data): http://www.housingmaps.com
On Housingmaps.com, the listings he wants are represented on a single map, marked by either a red or yellow pushpin symbol. Yellow come with apartment photographs; red have none. A click on a yellow pin sends Tan directly into the Craigslist posting on the street where he hopes to live."It takes two seconds to glance at the map to see if there is anything for me that day," Tan said.
These stories trigger a few broader themes.
First, I expect to see many more applications of maps + data on the internet. It won't be long before anything that has geographical information will be so tagged and will be usable within search and other applications. The Geographical Information System (GIS) revolution is going to be big.
Second, these examples show the value of outside developers building on tools developed by search engine companies. Unfortunately, it is hard to build real businesses around such applications because the search engine companies typically restrict API usage for noncommercial purposes. At some point, I expect them to find appropriate licensing mechanisms. It would be great to build a business around Google's massive index of web pages in which we could offer vertical search services and pay per query we send to the Google database, without restrictions about how we want to use the data.
Posted by barney at June 13, 2005 2:39 PM
This entry was posted in the following categories: Search , Web/Tech
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