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Since Sean announced our first public release of the GeoIQ javascript APIs last week, we’ve had a very good response so far, and it would appear that interest is still growing.  So first and foremost, thank you to everyone who has given us feedback and checked out GeoIQ and our example mashups.

But of course, we now have to formalize our plans on what, exactly we’re going to do next.  We have a few things in the works, Sean mentioned our up-and-coming geodata warehouse initiative (a catchier name is also in the works), but there are several other things that are also on the list.

One of the things that we feel very strongly that the ultimate strength of our technologies isn’t in doing things for people, it’s in enabling them to do it themselves.  We’ve come up with some pretty cool stuff, in my own (admittedly biased) opinion, however, the best stuff is still out there floating around in the brains of some very smart, creative people on the fringes of the internet.  And it’s the potential for those ideas that really excites us (that, and non-newtonian fluids).

Read on for the short list of potential projects we’re thinking about in the short term, and an opportunity to give your feedback.

Technorati Tags: API, mashup, yahoo, GeoIQ, google, maps, virtualearth

Here’s the short list we have off the top of my head (and in no particular order):

A Ruby on Rails plugin

There’s a lot of very neat stuff going on in the Ruby, and especially Ruby on Rails community.  We use Ruby on Rails ourselves to power a lot of the middle layer of our architecture, and, frankly, we think it rocks.  We’ve actually previously released our simple “acts_as_rateable” plugin in the hopes that others might find it useful.

Our thinking is that there’s a wider community out there beyond the admittedly “hot” Web 2.0/mashup crowd that could make some very cool applications using this sort of plugin, and opening it up to the Ruby on Rails crowd is a logical first step in that direction for us.

Yahoo! Maps support

Obviously, our first external mapping integration was Google Maps, as you can see from our traffic and NY vs. SF example mashups.  However, they’re not the only web mapping API in the world, and their competitors each have their own unique benefits and user communities, and we certainly don’t want to close any doors to them.

Microsoft Virtual Earth (maybe even 3D)

In the same vein as the potential Yahoo! Maps support, Microsoft also has their own offering, and with the recent announcement of Virtual Earth 3D, things got a little more interesting.

Google Earth integration (one or both of a plugin or simply KML export)

I guess I saved the 800lb gorilla in the room for last.  There’s a lot to be said for the globe exploring/3D map approach as opposed to your typical web mapping application.  Each has their place, but I’d be hard pressed to find a reason why having some of our geoanalytic raster imagery integrated into such a platform wouldn’t be cool.  This also happens to be probably the #1 request we’ve gotten based on the feedback we’ve been getting over the past few months.

That being said, now that Virtual Earth 3D and ArcGIS explorer are on the radar, Google Earth isn’t the only game in town when it comes to 3D/globe exploring mapping applications, which we also need to keep in mind.

So that’s our list, but I’d like to invite everyone to add to it, subtract from it, or comment on it.  At the end of the day, it’s the people that read these sorts of blog posts whose opinion counts the most, and we want to make sure we take it into account.

So please, leave comments here, email me directly, or make use of the GeoIQ bulletin board.  We look forward to hearing from you.

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