The much publicized issues with iOS6 Maps have given Google’s Map service a boost. The U.S. based search giant has capitalized the opportunity to promote its own maps service and recently announced that 800,000 websites and mobile apps are utilizing the Google Maps API to make their products more interactive and useful. Google felt that the milestone needed to be celebrated and the company reported the launch of a site named MoreThanAMap.com to showcase innovative ways developers from around the world are using Google’s service. On October 5 Google made another announcement that should please more customers. The California based technology firm stated that its Enterprise customers could now use the Maps API to access live traffic service and integrate the data into third-party mapping apps and services.
This is very good news for companies that have been restricted from the service since March. At the time Google was criticized for the move. The company also lost several large clients like Foursquare due to the Map API restriction on Live Traffic data. Google got lucky with Apple’s iOS6 Map failure which forced clients to come back to Google’s tried and tested service. Another motivational factor for businesses to choose Google was the fact that the firm dropped its pricing to attract more companies.
The live traffic service from Google is a very interesting feature and makes use of data from live traffic updates and historic traffic data. A Google algorithm then calculates how long it will take travelers to get from one point to the other. The feature can adjust the time based on whether the user wants to walk, bike or drive. The feature can even calculate times for travelers that want to use available public transport.
Google’s team has made including the live traffic data into apps quite easy and only a small JavaScript code is required to do the trick. Interestingly, once a developer has completed the live traffic data integration they can poll the data in Google Maps API requests. The Google Maps ecosystem should expect a lot of new and innovative features in the upcoming weeks as developers start working on new apps.
Source: The Next Web
Photo: Mofonu
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