Google Releases Maps API

If you didn’t know it already, go check out the Google Maps API. It is the first official API for Google Maps. Also note that Google has both an API for its desktop search as well as an API for its Adwords campaign.

This is a huge Web 2.0 move. Provide the tools for remixing and lets folks do it themselves. APIs become the “services” of the Semantic Web by way of their openness. When developers can latch onto parts of the maps service via code, they’re doing so because the API has provided the necessary semantics. If the API didn’t provide the semantics (if the API didn’t explain what everything was), then the developers would have to hack the thing. The problem with hacking, of course, is that the company may change the API at any minute. With an “official” API, changing is less likely.