We have just made our Mapquest Driving Directions Web Service available, the first in several map-related Web services that will be available from StrikeIron. This is interesting not only in the types of mapping and route planning functionality that can now be intergrated into desktop applications on a per-use basis, but also because it is the first service where we are delivering images via the Web services API.
Of course, anybody can go to a browser these days to look up driving directions, but having them integrated into an application and automatically generated as part of a business process is useful. For example, driving directions can now be automatically generated as part of a CRM system, utilized to improve shipping and route planning efficiency, within mobile devices, and even automatically generated and printed with each order as a pizza comes out of the oven. Finally the giant city street map can be taken off the wall, and late/cold pizza can be a thing of the past.
As we make additional mapping functionality available, more advanced applications such as pinpointing network intrusions on a map, integrating with business intelligence applications, or even combining with our 24-hour accurate reverse telephone number lookup service could help plot a database of phone numbers on a map. In other words, it's great stuff and we are just at the beginning of combining mapping with other data sources that are callable from within desktop or Web applications.
Here is the WSDL: http://ws.strikeiron.com/MapQuest?WSDL
And a sample HTML application that utilizes it: http://www.strikeiron.com/sample/MapQuestRoutingSample/MapQuestRoutingSample.aspx
If you build anything creative that you would like us to promote and showcase, let us know!
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