Rails and Maps
Posted by admin, Tue Dec 20 17:26:15 UTC 2005
So, here I am coding like mad on a new Rails application. Since we have location (lat/long) data, it’s a no-brainer that we want a "locate" feature, that shows information on a map.
Starting out of the gates with the Google Maps API is reasonably quick, especially with the help of examples like Cartographer and ListSomething blazing the way. In fairly short order, I managed to get a cool location feature up and running. Then the walls came crashing down.
You see, the Google Maps terms of use don’t allow for the commercial usage of Google’s maps. For that matter, Yahoo! Maps terms of use are just as restrictive. Argh! Our application is going to be commercial!
Now, when I started out with this mapping stuff, I didn’t just pick Google because it was easy to use. The detailed satellite imagery of Google Maps is impressive. I was considerably less impressed with, for example, MSN’s Virtual Earth. The imagery (especially in Canada) just sucked.
Enter local.live.com. Just introduced, Microsoft is doing a damn fine job of catching up to Google Maps with this new beta. The satellite imagery has been expanded and improved almost beyond belief. And the best part… Far less restrictive terms of use.
In about a day I managed to extract all the Googly stuff out of our application, and replace it with local.live.com API calls. In some ways, the new VirtualEarth API is even easier to use than the Google Maps API, especially with the MapView. I still have some of the finer details to work out (like my map pins just suck at the moment), but I am now a happy mapping camper.
I guess for once I’ll just have to bite the bullet and say - Good work, Microsoft!