RESTful Mapping Service

We all know that online maps are useful – very useful sometimes. The other day, I came across a Swiss Map Search that intrigued me with its technical approach. [http://map.search.ch][] uses a RESTful approach to mapping, composed of the base URL and as location, the city slash street and, if needed, the street number.

If you want to see a map of the famous “Paradeplatz” in Zrich, you simply type the following URL:

[http://map.search.ch/zrich/paradeplatz/][]

And if you wanted Bahnhofstrasse No 1, you’d simply enter the following URL:

[http://map.search.ch/zrich/bahnhofstrasse-1/][]

If you add a template to [Quicksilver Searches][], you have map search at your fingertips. Cool. Instant information about the places you’re going to spend all your money at when you visit Switzerland ;)

So, let’s see. [Norman Walsh][]’s been in Basel some time ago. He made some beautiful shots of the [Mnster Statuary][]. Wanna know where the “Mnsterplatz” is? Easy:

[http://map.search.ch/basel/mnsterplatz/][]

I’d love to see more services like this one. I think you could even expand it to international map searches, maybe even route planning, if you carefully choose the URL layout. Any Maporama guys out there?

As a side-note for [Photomatt][]: They’re using [WordPress][] 1.2 on their [about][http://about.search.ch] page. It’s in German, though.[http://map.search.ch]: http://map.search.ch/ “Map Search”[http://map.search.ch/zrich/paradeplatz/]: http://map.search.ch/zrich/paradeplatz/ “Paradeplatz, Zrich”[http://map.search.ch/zrich/bahnhofstrasse-1/]: http://map.search.ch/zrich/bahnhofstrasse-1/ “Bahnhofstrasse 1, Zrich”[http://about.search.ch]: http://about.search.ch “Uber Search.ch”[Mnster Statuary]: http://norman.walsh.name/2004/10/08/statuary “Mnster Statuary”[Norman Walsh]: http://norman.walsh.name/ [http://map.search.ch/basel/mnsterplatz/]: http://map.search.ch/basel/mnsterplatz/ “Mnsterplatz, Basel”[Quicksilver Searches]: /2004/10/11/from-launchbar-to-quicksilver-search-channels/ “Quicksilver Searches”[Photomatt]: http://photomatt.net “Photomatt”[WordPress]: http://wordpress.org “WordPress”