The online mapping arena is changing very quickly, and I obviously am not able to cover the details of all these changes. Nonetheless, here’s what I believe will be the long-term trends in this area:
You’ll see a migration of many features found in typical full-fledged GIS system—for example, shading of layers—into programmable web applications.
Not surprisingly, you’ll see the platform players (such as Google Maps) incorporate functionality that started off as extensions to the platform into the platform itself. For example, sites such as Mapbuilder.net provided a user interface for building a Google (or Yahoo!) map before Google made it easier to build a Google map via its My Maps functionality. Google’s My Maps doesn’t exactly duplicate Mapbuilder.net, but it’s bound to win a major audience by virtue of its tight integration with Google Maps.
You will see increased merging in 2D and 3D representations of the globe. As you’ve already seen in this chapter, Microsoft’s Live Search Maps has both 3D and 2D views. You can use KML as a way of moving data between Google Earth and Google Maps. KML is finding support from competitors to Google such Yahoo!’s Flickr and Yahoo! Pipes.
We’re going to see more native support of GPS devices as they become ubiquitous.
Here are some references where you can find more information:
Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional (Apress, 2006)
Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional (Apress, 2006)
Google Maps Hacks: Tips & Tools for Geographic Searching and Remixing (O’Reilly, 2006)
Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth (Wiley, 2006)
Web Mapping Illustrated: Using Open Source GIS Toolkits (O’Reilly, 2005)
Mapping Hacks:Tips & Tools for Electronic Cartography (O’Reilly, 2005)
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