Google released the Google Maps API for Flash which lets Flex and Flash developers embed Google Maps in Flash applications.

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The API is smooth and fast. Flash graphics can be used for each tile layer, marker and info window. This opens up possibilities like dynamic shading, shadowing, animation, and video. When the user zooms the map, magnification changes happen smoothly and place names fade in.

Few posts ago, we had mentioned SoundManager (WRD post link), a JavaScript API for controlling Flash sounds.

MooSound is a very similar API for MooTools (thanks to Ruslan for suggesting the resource).

MooSound’s poweful features let you reach almost every aspect of the flash sounds like:

• start, stop, pause
• ID3 information
• Filesize
• Loaded Bytes
• Duration
• Position
• Setting the volume
• Setting the pan
• Jump to feature

API is very well documented and a demo can be found at the homepage.

The title is fun, I know (and I love Lords Of The Rings).

Mapstraction has kind of a similar logic. It provides a common API for the major mapping providers. This means, when you code with Mapstraction API, you can easily switch from Yahoo Maps to Google maps or else.

You can even use this power to create creative solutions like this syncronizing maps example:

Some features of this mapping API:

• Support for 9 major mapping providers
• Point, Line, Polygon support
• Image overlay
• GeoRSS and KML feed import
• Geocoding of addresses
• Driving directions

Google AJAX Translation API is a library for translating words or sentences from one language to another using Google Translate database.

Check this example:

google.language.translate(’Beaucoup’, ‘fr’, ‘en’, function(result) {
  alert(result.translation);
});

This Google AJAX Translation API example simply translates "Beaucoup" from French to English.

A great feature of the API is getting the language of the input and best of all the accuracy ratio of the results.

Languages supported are limited with the ones in the Google Translate service.

gotAPI provides an interface which makes it easy to reach the methods and functions of many JavaScript frameworks, scripting & programming languages, databases & even CMS softwares.

gotAPI gets the information from the original sources or trusted websites which makes the data up-to-date. Once you get used to the web interface, reaching data becomes faster because you browse all data for many APIs the same way.

Some of the supported APIs:

• Google GWT
• Prototype.js
• jQuery
• Yahoo! UI
• MochiKit
• Flickr

Google already has an API for Google Maps service which makes it possible to create interactive, real-data-driven maps.

DrasticMap, an AJAX based component, makes it easier to show data from a MySQL database in Google Maps.

This Google Maps component is offered in a PHP - JavaScript package called DrasticTools which also includes 2 other components, DrasticCloud (for easy tag cloud generation) & DrasticGrid (grid editing).

DrasticMap uses MooTools JavaScript framework for the interaction, which is included in the download package.

Flash toolkit PowerCursor, an amazing idea, helps creating interfaces with the touch feeling. Users can experience touch feelings like roughness, volume, pressure, stickiness or mass in a graphical interface.

The software engine consists of a set of force field objects that can be added to any Flash project: holes, hills, slopes, roughs, walls, whirls, and more. 

How it works?

PowerCursor uses a technique called ‘optically simulated haptic feedback’ to evoke the tactile experience. It simply, using active cursor displacements, guides the user towards preferred positions or communicate properties of the interface to the user. Due to these cursor displacements a hole becomes an easily accessible part of the screen, whereas a bump area is hard to access.

Who can use PowerCursor?

Although skilled programmers might dive deeper into the toolkit’s API to control the PowerCursor objects on a code level, the toolkit can be used by non-programmers with basic Flash skills.

Google Charts API (previously described here) is so easy to use. Just adding parameters to the API URL & that’s it.

If you ever wondered how easier it could be, than ChartMaker, which is an interface that creates the Google Charts API URL with the parameters that you mention, is the answer.

ChartMaker is built with the Ext JS Javascript library and is an open source code which is created by Dion Almaer (also the founder of Ajaxian).

To read the hard & complicated (a funny story) creation process of ChartMaker, click here.

Creating a chart is sometimes complicated with components.

Google has a Google-way to create charts with the simple to use Google Charts API.

The chart below is generated online with the API using the code:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=s:hW&chs=250×100&chl=
Hello|World

Different chart types like line charts, bar charts, pie charts, venn diagrams, or scatter plots are supported. Looks can be configured with lots of style, color, label choices