Maps Galore !

Yes, I’m a self-confessed Google fan and Google Maps is a killer. Yesterday, Yahoo! released the latest beta version of their Yahoo! Maps service and all I can say is that I am blown away.Yahoo! Maps has done away with the previous AJAX interface which all other similar services use and opted for a Flash interface (so you’ll need the Flash plugin on your browser), but the interface is extremely fast and intuitive. Two new features to the service include tight integration with Yahoo! Local so you can find information on businesses and venues in your area, as well as the inclusion of mapping software which lets you find directions to and from a location. Yahoo! will also be releasing APIs for the new mapping service so you can do some pretty
cool things like outputting the information to an Excel spreadsheet, and more. Now, as a Javaphile, I was impressed with Google's work with AJAX, but Yahoo has really given me a reason for a second thought. If you forget the initial load time of Yahoo Maps, the performace is decent enough for a Flash based app. Wont you say so ?