Comparing Google Maps API and Yahoo! Maps API

Hari Gottipati's article for O'Reillys xml.com offers up a brief comparison of the two mapping APIs, as part of a tutorial on Google Maps that really doesn't add much to what google offers. I have to say that I prefer the Google approach, simply because you aren't putting in an iframe to a yahoo site. (Then again, what is that JavaScript doing to the DOM of my page? I haven't looked into it.) The JavaScript GMap class is nice container, and provides a nice black box to handle server communications and click events. I'd really rather rely on the JavaScript expertise of Lars' team over my own...somewhat dubious skill level with the language.

Over time I have been moving much further that I ever thought I would away from a purist OO mentality. The difficulty of programmatically generating code to run in web browsers has been a big source of that. I think it really has a lot to do with the heterogenous programming toolset need to do anything remotely interesting in a web application. Generating DHMTL from XSLT or JSP, as referenced by Java code is just a messy endeavor. Scripty hacks are a necessity.