Yahoo! Maps opens its APIs to commercial publishers

On Monday, Yahoo! Developer Network announced via its blog that it was lifting most restrictions on the use of Yahoo! Maps APIs for commercial purposes.

“Until today, the APIs were available only for non-commercial use unless you applied for an exception,” writes Product Manager Vince Maniago. “The concept of commercial and non-commercial has gone away and exceptions are no longer necessary in most cases. We have given you explicit Usage Policies help guide you.”

According to the Yahoo! Maps blog, publishers are now free to:

• Build mashups and use our Maps for personal or business use as long as the applications are free of charge and under the rate limit.
• Link to Yahoo! Maps or Driving Directions to your heart’s content.
• Include advertising on the same page or site where you display Yahoo! Maps.

So go forth, ye publishers and budding cartographers, Yahoo! Maps will get your users where they want to go.

And congrats to the Yahoo! Developer Network and the Yahoo! Maps teams for this “one small step for publisher-kind.”

—The Team