Baidu to Provide API Access to Baidu Maps
Sohu IT, 4/01/10
Chinese internet search and services company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) will release an API for its Baidu Maps service, allowing developers to embed Baidu Maps within their own webpages using Javascript calls to the API, and providing tools for developers to display the maps and add data overlays. A spokesperson for Baidu Maps said that developers will be able to use API functions to add "content modules" to the service. An online housing broker, for instance, could use the Baidu map API to allow people to input an address to see nearby rental properties; a hotel chain could use the API to display all of its locations - and photographs of its hotels - throughout the country.
At present, search, public transport, driving routes, pedestrian routes, and traffic data queries are free. Baidu plans to add more functionality to the API later this year.
The Baidu Maps API is already in use in the company's Baidu Maps, Baidu Post Bar, Baidu Space, Baidu Knows, and other product lines. Baidu currently has more than a dozen partners for the Baidu Maps service.
Keywords: Internet Baidu API BIDU Baidu Maps online mapping
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