Yahoo! Maps Punks Google

Via Silicon Valley Sleuth - the new Flex Yahoo! maps gets a dig to Google. The Yahoo! maps entry for 1600 Amphiteatre Parkway in Mountain View, CA - Google's headquarters - briefly came up as "The Dude's Fish Store." On The Dude's Fish Store Web site, they claim "Our Fish Never Die" and "We Offer Better Fish Than Our Competitors." Compelling stuff, indeed.

Yahoo! maps was a sponsor of the recent Macromedia MAX conference, and handed out t-shirts that said "hAPI hAPI Joy Joy." I was wondering why Yahoo! maps would be sponsoring a Macromedia coference, but with the new Yahoo! maps beta being Flex, it makes sense. There is a complete Flex API for the new Yahoo! maps, and some interesting mashup apps have already started to surface.

I was beginning to think that while Google has pioineered the use of AJAX to implement RIAs, Yahoo! would be coming down in the Flex/Flash camp (which I think happens to offer a much richer user experience). However, from what I understand, the new Yahoo! mail application uses AJAX for RIA functionality. Maybe they're preferring to stay agnostic.

Still, as new as Flex is, it's encouraging to see such a professional, high-profile implementation. And the new Yahoo! maps site is absolutely slick, especially the embedded mini-map and ability to use the mouse scroll wheel. Smooth.