I get asked all the time (no really I do!) ‘when is Yahoo! maps going to have the rest of the world?’ and I have to tell them ‘I have no idea, I couldn’t possibly comment’ unless they buy me a beer in which case I happily spill the beans and give away all the inside gossip. If you’re from Yahoo! that’s a joke, if you’re not from Yahoo! then really, buy me a beer.
But the answer is now, well just back a few hours ago.
Here’s Stuttgart and here’s the updated AJAX documentation, it’s all updated for Flash and what-not too just check out the main maps page.
If you have a mashup you’re already working on, then you just need to change the magic version number to…
http://api.maps.yahoo.com/ajaxymap?v=3.0&appid=
…and you’re good to go.
Sure the rest of the world isn’t super high resolution yet, but at least we can see where Australia is! With my geobloggers hat on, this means the rest of us who geotag our photos outside of the US aren’t going to be left totally in the dark, or grey ‘here-be-dragons’ tiles anyway (when displaying on Yahoo! maps).
With my Flickr hat on, this makes me very happy, for reasons I couldn’t possibly go into…
…unless there’s beer involved.
[...] About time! I actually use Yahoo! maps more than probably all the rest because I like the interface. Now I can at least take a look at imagery from areas I’m traveling to. The imagery isn’t as detailed as Google’s or ESRI’s in urban areas, but it does seem better in rural Texas where my in-laws live. As with Microsoft, Yahoo! focuses on the continental USA so if you live somewhere else, you usually don’t get as good imagery. That said you can finally use Yahoo! Maps outside the USA for basic mapping (the imagery isn’t good by any means) and it does sound like they are working to improve it. [...]
Nice city to choose for an example. Looking forward to seeing what’s under wraps at Flickr now you’ve got aerial photography and at least basic maps of the rest of the world. Just out of curiosity, is the mapping layer for the rest of the world just based on the public domain GNIS dataset from the US gov’t?
Hav you noticed that Google Maps has now expanded to provide more detail for European countries?
They apparently just released the improvement in the last few days. You can zoom in on satellite views of areas, too.
Sorry, but what in the world does this post have to do with Flickr? You bloggers think that just because something else is cool that you have to mention Flickr just for the hell of it?
Come on, Flickr is ok, but it’s not worth foaming at the mouth over.
[...] Why it’s taking so long for a killer mashup that integrates geotagged Flickr photos with Yahoo! Maps Beta is a mystery to me, although I can guess who is working on it. To stay up to date on the latest development news, join the Yahoo! Maps Developer Community. [...]
Now only is when Yahoo Maps is going to have the rest of the world, but also when is Yahoo Publishing Network going to offer ad publishing for people in the rest of the world.
do you think yahoo maps will ever gain the same popularity and accessibility of google maps though? it’s a major david-and-goliath issue, and people’s attentions seem pretty focused on all things google. even with all of the API and whatnot (i.e., these folks that are tracking traffic heat patterns w/ google http://blog.fortiusone.com/2006/10/11/heat-maps-for-google-maps-aka-geoiq-mashup) , i see far more mods and programs for google than i’ve seen for yahoo. is the goal to catch up w/ google, or to reveal new technologies to eclipse goliath?