The past few days have seen a flurry of activity in the online mapping world - and Flash technology is at the center of all of it. First, Google added 360 street side views into their online maps, using Flash to display the image. TechCrunch has the story, and Ted Patrick has some more information as well. I love the way that Google is integrating Flash and HTML / Ajax together. This application, along with Google Finance and Google Analytics, are really great examples of how to use Flash in HTML applications.

Then, Mapquest announces that they have support for an ActionScript 3 API for their mapping application. This allows Flex developers to easily build applications that incorporate Mapquest data into their applications, like this golf course finder application. The API itsellf is documented here. This screencast shows the possibilities that come when you can integrate video directly into a mapping application.

Not to be outdone, Zach Graves from Yahoo, created an AS 3 library for Yahoo Maps, and according to Ted Patrick , he completed this in about 24 hours! You can see the result of his work here.

Is online mapping the next area that Flash will take over? Flash currently dominates online video, and is taking over online audio as well. Online mapping is one of the most popular applications on the web, and the possibilities of integrating video and mapping data together is intriguing, as the Mapquest screencast shows. At the very least, Flex developers need to be really happy that they've got an official solution (from Mapquest) to integrate mapping info in their applications, and an unofficial solution (from Yahoo) that's being developed.