Yahoo! Maps Web Services - Simple API Getting Started Guide

Using the Yahoo! Maps Simple API

The Yahoo! Maps Simple API offers a very easy way to display geographical content, build a store locator, plan a pub crawl, or create custom routes. To make things even easier, the API takes your actual address information and handles the geocoding for you - no more messing with preprocessing to generate XML already encoded with latitude/longitude!

Custom Maps Without Programming

Developers can use the Simple API to put custom information on a Yahoo! Map without programming. Your map is displayed on the Yahoo! Maps webpage, with links to relevant resources from Yahoo! Maps and Yahoo! Local.

Using data formatted in Web-standard RSS format combined with either latitude/longitude or address information, you can plot up to 100 points on a map, including custom description, URLs, labels, groups, icons, and more. See our Application Gallery for more ideas.

To help you get started, check out the documentation and the to-do list below, and join the Yahoo! Maps developer mailing list.

How do I get started?

1. Get an Application ID

   To access the Simple Maps API, you will need to get an application ID. It's easy and free.

2. Read the online documentation to learn how to use the API

   Read the online Reference Manual to see how you can take advantage of the Yahoo! Maps Simple API with no programming required. See also our Yahoo! Web Services FAQ to help you get started with key concepts.

3. Collect your data and structure your query

   You can access the API as simply as passing an XML file for display on maps.yahoo.com. We have sample code to help you construct your XML input file. You can invoke the API with either "get" or "post" requests.

Rate Limit

The Yahoo! Maps Simple API has no rate limit.

Terms of Use

Use of the Yahoo! Maps APIs is governed by the Yahoo! Maps APIs Terms of Use and the Yahoo! Maps Terms of Use. These Terms of Use supplant the general Yahoo! Developer Network Terms of Use. See also the Usage Policy for more information about acceptable usage of these APIs or to request additional queries.

Support & Community

All Yahoo! Maps Web Services are discussed on the yws-maps mailing list.