Embedding maps – google v yahoo

October 17, 2006

I’ve been a fan of a lot of the Yahoo developments over the past few months – specifically all the openness which has characterized their Yahoo Developer center, the Yahoo UI toolkit, and things of that nature.  I’m looking to build a service which requires an embedded, scrollable map.  As much as I like Yahoo, I won’t be able to use their service, at least to start with (until the project is making tons of money!) because they specifically forbid commercial use.  From their terms of service page:

Personal Use Only. You agree to use the Data together with Yahoo! Maps solely for personal, non-commercial purposes for which you were licensed, and not for service bureau, time-sharing or other similar purposes.

Google’s map terms of use, however, allow for use on any site which is free for the public to use.  Given that they still charge for usage ‘behind the firewall’, they’re probably still making money off this, and flooding the market with mashup apps based on Google’s tech.  This seems like a long term strategic misstep for Yahoo, given that they’re, in my view, far ahead of the game in many other aspects when it comes to reaching out to developers.

Your thoughts?

Posted in Business, Development, Google, PHP, Software, Web, Yahoo