Google has announced that the Google Maps API for Flash has been deprecated. This means that no new features will be developed, and only critical bugs, regressions, and security issues will be fixed in the API.
Google says that "use of the Maps API for Flash remains a small percentage of overall Maps API traffic, with only a limited number of applications taking advantage of features unique to the Maps API for Flash."
Perhaps the one unique feature available in the The Maps API for Flash and not available in the JavaScript API is the 3DMap object. The 3DMap object allows Flash map developers to create oblique map views and rotate Google Maps. It does seems to be a unique feature that was used very little.
The only map that I can remember that used this feature was a really cool application that let you create your own weather map. However the application no longer seems to exist. Luckily I did manage to video the application when it was released, so you can view the 3DMap object put to good use in the video below.
Sadly for map developers the Yahoo Maps API is also on the way out. From September 13th Yahoo will no longer support:
- ActionScript 2 & 3 (Flash APIs)
- AJAX Maps 3.6, 3.7, 3.8
- REST API (Map Image API)
- Simple API – (No coding)
- GeoRSS - Version 2
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3 comments:
Google Maps for Flash API has a subtle difference with its Javascript counter part : It can be used with the Adobe AIR technology, which enables offline out-of-browser stand alone apps. We have a 50k lines of code B2B app based on this now deprecated API. This announcement is a big hurdle for us, as porting to javascript is not only very costly, but moreover technically impossible as the data security and performance we can expect from browser based apps is far below what we can get from Flash AIR.
Google just forgot that they have "Premier" customer like us, charged thousands of dollars a year, that are making their business on top of this API. With only 10 customers like us they could have easily financed the small team on their side required to maintain their API. An info to add to the article, is that they have deprecated it for a support period of 3 years, meaning that after 3 years, they will probably cut access to the back end side, as it would require to ensure backward compatibility with Flash API in the future, then additional costs for them.
This decision from Google means that we would have to switch to another maps provider in the 3 years to come, anyway. And reading the API Forum, we are far from being alone to think about this. What value Google is loosing there ?
My feeling is that decision is not a matter of team resources to maintain the API, but very likely linked to a future Flash competing technology that Google prepares, or a negotiation blocking issue with Adobe, about moving Flash API to extended ad business Goggle will surely add into maps API. Or both reasons...
Cédric
Thanks Cedric. You obviously know a lot more about the Flash API than I do.
Google do say that they "will continue to provide support to existing Google Maps API Premier customers using the Maps API for Flash".
Are you saying that you suspect this will end after 3 years?
It could be worth looking into a Flash for OpenStreetMaps API - surely someone has built one.
I'm also being hurt by this. We use the 3dmap feature in the flash api. Here's an example: http://imapstlouis.com/
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