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What's next? This isn't a rhetorical question: after today's release of the Yahoo! ActionScript 3 Maps API , it's a question we feel we can ask. With a native ActionScript 3 mapping engine, map control widgets, geocoding, local search APIs, and custom markers and overlays, what can possibly be next? And the answer is simple: whatever you build with it!

The new component is very lightweight (base size is 30Kb), yet incredibly functional, easy to use and opens up a number of the other geo-centric web-services we have at Yahoo!, making it easy to develop overlays and components that build on top of the API in any of your Flash, Flex, AIR or Ajax applications.

To give you an idea of its functionality, during the development of the new API, Jonathan New and Benjamin Halsted of the Yahoo! Messenger team hacked up a really cool flick-able and rotatable map interface for our internal Q2/07 Hack Day, and won for the most fun hack! You can check out their flickable maps hack right here. Try to toss the map around, and shift-drag to rotate around the center. Special thanks go out to them for making such an awesome app.

If you have some Flex or ActionScript development chops, definitely jump in on the fray and grab a copy of the AS3 Maps API for yourself. We've prepared a few screencasts, examples and complete documentation to get you started, and we look forward to feedback.

I would also like to thank a number of people that made this release possible. First, everyone on the Yahoo! Maps and Flash Platform teams, past and present, including Mark Law, Rodney Fernandez and Allen Rabinovich. Huge thanks also go out to Lawrence Morrisroe, Buck DeFore, Ted Patrick, Eddie Babcock, Randy Troppmann, Chuck Freedman, Aaron King, and JR Conlin. Whew.

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