TileCache and Google Maps

Found the following excellent entry from Christopher Schmidt blog. I'll give it a whirl and post my results.

Mapping API's

I'll admit to being somewhat locked into the Modest Maps Flex API. As recent blog entries suggest, I've started looking at combining WMS and WFS data - served from MapeServer or Geoserver - with basemaps. I've had a number of people approach me about this combination, plus I've wanted the excuse the exlpore further.

Another area which I have started investigating are other Flex/Flash mapping API's. The main four are ESRI ArcMap, Google maps, Yahoo and Mapquest. I came across the following article written by Kevin Hoyt of Adobe. He compared the Google, Yahoo and Mapquest last year. Finding Mapquest the richest and best supported. He did a presentation which included Modest maps and ESRI's API. Its worth a read.

For me, after chatting with Mapquest at Where 2.0 this year, and based on what I have read, I'll turn my attention here first.

Google Maps and GIS

I've been busy writing articles for a number of online and offline geospatial publications. In doing the research for a GIS article, I came across the following interesting debate:

Andrew Turner - Is GoogleMaps GIS?

Sean Gorman - Comment

A good discussion. For those of us who remember the pre-Google 90's. A world dominated by desktop GIS. Things have dramatically changed. Its refreshing. The landscape is so different and, as these articles discuss, the boundaries have blurred between gis mapping and consumer mapping (GeoWeb). At the end of the day, I have always regarded myself as an interactive map developer, regardless of labels.