Today the Google Maps API celebrates its 5 year anniversary! Happy Birthday Google Maps API!!!
Five years ago the world was amazed when Paul Rademacher's released his Craigslist and Google Maps mashup. Google themselves were so impressed with Paul's hack that they decided to let everyone have a go at creating their own Google Maps mashup by releasing the Google Maps API.
It is a testament to the support that Google has provided to the API and to map developers over the years that Google Maps mashups still regularly become front page news. In the UK alone, and in just the last few days, Google Maps mashups have featured in national newspaper The Telegraph and London newspaper The Metro (Historypin and CASA's New Urban Landscapes respectively).
When Google asked me at the end of last week if I would help to produce a map of some of the Google Maps that have been created over the years with the Google Maps API I was delighted to say 'yes'! Mappybirthday.appspot is the result of my efforts (with quite a lot of help from Google).
The map shows the locations of over 300 Google Maps mashups. If I had another week available I would be able to add at least another 300 mashups to the map. I don't have another week so I apologise to all those wonderful maps that have been missed off.
But don't worry! You can add a map to mappybirthday.appspot yourself. Just click on the "Join in the celebration ... pin your mashup to the map!" link underneath the map and enter the details of your map.
When you have done that - take a deep breathe because the next five years starts today! Go check out the Google Maps API v3 (if you haven't done so already) ... start creating your next mashup ... and keep submitting your maps to Google Maps Mania.
Happy Birthday Google Maps API! Let's hope the next five years are just as exciting.
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