1 iframe

This is a great read! I always hated having to embed that awful Google iframe in my sites. You’d think that with Google’s great development they would be able to clean up their front end and use some more semantic code

Good stuff, thanks Paul.

my2cents

posted at 01:32 pm on April 08, 2008 by Tim Wright

2 Impressive article

It’s good to read forward thinking articles like this on ALA.

Hearing requests for embedded maps in sites we develop is more and more common, and while I’m no Google fanboi it’s difficult to argue with how advanced and useful the maps API is.

The look of the Google map tiles never seems to fit in easily with the look and feel of the sites we try and embed it into, so there’s a lot for us to take away from this article.

This is a great area of web development to publicise, the integration of information between services – it’s where the web can really excel at providing more information, more usefully.

posted at 02:10 pm on April 08, 2008 by Gareth Adams

3 so timely

Thanks very much for this well-written primer on shifting dependence from external services. I’ve used Google and Yahoo! maps for quite some time, and never felt comfortable with that relationship.

I’ve also had non-profit organizations who had qualms with the idea of tying themselves into corporations, but never had a clear idea of how to avoid it.

Now, I have a much better understanding of the architecture involved, and will absolutely try to utilize opensource map-rendering tools in future projects. Thanks much!

posted at 02:25 pm on April 08, 2008 by Alana Post

4 Excellent Article

Thank you – for both pointing the way toward full independence, but also providing links to tools that ease the transition. Mapstraction, in particular, will be worth its weight in gold for two of my clients. Much obliged, good sir.

posted at 02:45 pm on April 08, 2008 by Ruthie BenDor

5 Google Maps & Flash

Great article.

I’m interested in thoughts about Google’s refusal to allow 3rd-party Flash-based toolkits to access their service.

You can read more about this on my blog .

Thanks!

posted at 03:16 pm on April 08, 2008 by Michael Pelz-Sherman

6 Bravo.

Excellent work, Paul. This is an area of great interest to many of our clients, but one we haven’t explored much outside of Google/Yahoo APIs. You’ve offered a nice array of alternatives to the lot.

Cheers!

posted at 04:06 pm on April 08, 2008 by Mark Wyner

7 This is the stack I use

I use this same mapping stack on my site:

posted at 05:53 pm on April 08, 2008 by Beau Gunderson

8 Untitled

Oops, apparently the textile support doesn’t work as advertised. The link is:

http://www.bylandandsea.org/map/

posted at 06:00 pm on April 08, 2008 by Beau Gunderson

9 Well Written

Although I’m anxious to tackle a custom mapping application for a new project, I’m not sure whether or not I’ve crossed the line of actually needing to do it. My intentions would be purely visual, but I don’t think that’s enough reason to toss out Google Maps and go it alone.

EveryBlock’s maps are great. And they’re obviously necessary seeing the different ways you visually represent certain data. I have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to see more custom maps across the Internet, and maybe only 5% will be necessary, or worth the effort.

I think someone, somewhere, sometime soon, is going to provide this Mapping Stack out of the box, with hooks to easily set up scales, colors, layers, sources, etc. It might even come hosted, like Google Maps. Until then, I think I’m going to settle with Google Maps and wait for the day when it is more practical, affordable, and accessible to go the custom route for front-end, designer types like myself.

posted at 06:01 pm on April 08, 2008 by Colin Williams

10 On Second Thought

.. although, now that I’ve played around a bit more, it doesn’t seem too difficult to get going. The open source tools are really quite excellent. I might take it on, if only for the experience.

posted at 06:08 pm on April 08, 2008 by Colin Williams