Right now street maps on websites are very simple things, usually just a static map with an X marking the spot of head office. We’re not quite there yet, but I think we’re going to see a lot more imaginative applications on commercial websites before too long. In June this year both Google and Yahoo opened their mapping systems to outside users, for free.

You can see some examples of the interesting applications people are building on top of Google Maps at the Google Maps Mania website. Most of the work so far seems to be on personal interest type projects, but there’s no reason it has to stay that way - at least Google’s terms of use allow use of the free mapping for commercial purposes.

Using the available APIs (Application Programming Interface, the way that Google and Yahoo open up their systems to outside developers) it is possible to create some useful combinations of existing data and maps. For example the Seattle Bus Monster site overlays a Google map of Seattle with bus routes, individual bus stops are clickable to show the time of the next bus due at that stop.

The Yahoo and Google APIs probably aren’t quite ready for a prime time yet, as they are still in testing and development and changes are likely. There are already tools to help you create maps for your site, Map Builder for example will generate the code for a simple google map with your information overlayed, Map Builder and tools like it will help open up this new area of the web. Maybe now’s a good time to be thinking how your organization could benefit from this new mapping power.