Google

Placebase/Pushpin
Free REST-based API for US place data, including some interesting demographic info
http://www.pushpin.com/api/docs/rest/
This could be the basis of some really interesting mashups;  a Twitter Caste Map, anyone??

Skyhook/Loki
Announced locationaware.org, an initiative to try to get a Javascript-based standard for location-detection capability in the browser.  This is an important part of the location puzzle and the personal project of Ryan Sarver at Skyhook.

Google is employing the GeoHash algorithm I’ve been pushing to do spatial searching using BigTable.  Since database schemes like BigTable don’t support traditional GIS extensions/spatial indexes, GeoHash allows for a simple bounding box search using truncated GeoHash substrings.  I will post separately about this shortly, as I am working on some GeoHash tools to expand this functionality.  This is of particular interest to AppEngine developers.

Shaoib Burq and I are working on a YILP (Yahoo Internet Location Platform) gem for Ruby which should be available in the next couple of days.  This is a nice geocoding platform from Yahoo that expands on their “Where On Earth” platform.  Every location on earth has a unique WOEID, which is a nice, hierarchical way of dealing with locations and neighbor relationships.  We’ll announce this gem soon but in the meantime you can check out the api.

Location technology is driving the current wave of innovation on the web.  With location capability in converged platforms like iPhone, Blackberry, and Android, location will become a vital part of how we find and use information.

Until now, location-based services have focused on vertically-integrated platforms like GPS devices, phones, map-based search platforms, or carrier-specific friend finders. As location becomes increasingly important, we also see a new need: the need for openness.  Users are demanding a unified, open approach and are becoming frustrated with the need to participate in multiple closed platforms.

Openlocation.org exists:

• To seek solutions to address the unique problem of personal location
• To promote open location-based applications, platforms, and data-sharing
• To promote dialog between the geo, web development and design communities
• To insure that location information is included in discussions about data portability and leveraging social graphs
• To promote standards, tools, and microformats that will help promote better exchange of data
• To encourage practical implementations of location-data in ways that enhance the everyday lives of people

Openlocation.org hosts a wiki, a participatory blog, a discussion group, and is working towards developing APIs that unify multiple available location-based resources in an open and participatory manner.

If you are interested in becoming involved in the Openlocation.org initiative (which we highly encourage), please join the discussion group and share your thoughts.

To learn more about Openlocation.org, read the Openlocation.org Manifesto and check out the list of founding participants.

However, it seems that this API can only be accessed using their Javascript browser-based API, which renders this API less than useful for most server-side applications. Without any insight into how their search result rankings really work (other than the notion that they generally work much the same as Page Rank), it also seems to me that the results will likely be the kind of irrelevant stuff we’ve come to expect from GeoSearch.

Also this morning Google introduced a partnership with ESRI to make available a large quantity of government-collected GIS data.  This could enable all kind of interesting combinations…  This information is supposed to be available in about 4 weeks and I think we’ll see a big explosion of new projects when that is available.

Last night Google introduced their Friend Connect API at an event called Campfire One (not here). This combined with their GeoSearch could produce some interesting results.  There will be a lot of things to play with at WhereCamp this weekend!

Goes to show you that these ideas can be created and implemented in a lightweight, fun, playful way and that it doesn’t require a venture investment to try to become the next closed-garden friend finder service.  If you think that market is heating up now, just wait.

Playing with Dopplr some more, I see that their most recent enhancements get a lot closer to solving the “Chicago Problem.”  It is by no means perfect, as at best an incomplete solution and yet another walled garden, but they are putting in several gateways to other gardens and at least have an API.

In a session about Google’s current Geo features, the following things stood out to me:

Google is doing a lot to advance the geoweb, but not surprisingly they seem primarily motivated to get data into their indexers and not so worried about ways to share data with the rest of the world.  Understandable, but it speaks at what the realistic limitations still really are.