Google has launched a Directions API at its Developer Day, allowing third-party sites to offer directions directly on their site.
The API features include the ability to request directions between a pair of points or a longer sequence of points, and multiple language support like English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese. Support for the API is available in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia. More countries to come in the future. Responses for a developer's application can be fine-tuned by choosing to request only the text version of the directions, or the route's polyline. Requests are currently limited to 10,000 per day, per API. Now Microsoft and Google both offer directions APIs, and Yahoo and Mapquest are likely to follow, especially with Mapquest's recent appeal to developers.
In related news, Wild Sanctuary, the collection of natural soundscapes from around the world, has added layers for Google Earth and Google Maps, incorporating audio enhancement to your mapping experience. The geo-tagged KML files that can be consumed via Google Maps and Google Earth were revealed at the recent Where 2.0 Conference, and will offer additional information regarding the location and the particular situation of that soundscape, as well as an image to give a more complete look at what's going on in the world.