What does it do?
Interchange is a greasemonkey script for Firefox that adds links to the Yahoo! Maps user interface, allowing you to view the current content of a Yahoo Map using Google Maps instead. Interchange works both for single locations and for routes.
Download version 0.3 of December 17, 2005.
Updates
- Decemer 17, 2005 - Version 0.3 - Thanks to Brendan Rankin for submitting the fixes necessary to get this to work on Firefox 1.5 + Greasemonkey 0.5+
- July 2, 2005 - Version 0.2 - Fixes compatability problems with the new Yahoo Maps site layout.
- April 5, 2005 - Version 0.1 - Initial release.
Screenshots
Why Interchange?
Much as I am enamored with the Google Maps user interface, one feature that is sorely lacking is the ability to save locations. Although Google clearly mentions in the Google Maps FAQ that they are working on such a feature, who is really to say what "as quickly as possible" means in this day and age. Yahoo Maps on the other hand, though their UI may harken from 1996, does have a saved locations feature to wit I've accumulated a few handfuls of addresses over the past year.
Having been inspired by Butler and other greasemonkey projects, my answer to this is Interchange.
How do I install it?
You must be using Firefox. You must have the greasemonkey extension installed (this takes five clicks).
Step 1
After you have these, using Firefox, download the latest version of Interchange, from the link above. The Interchange script will be displayed in your browser.
Step 2
With the Interchange script displayed in Firefox, select Tools > Install User Script.
Step 3
Click OK to accept the default configuration and install.
That's it. You can try viewing an address in Yahoo Maps to ensure that it installed properly.
How do I uninstall it?
In Firefox, select Tools > Manage User Scripts. Select Interchange from the left-hand column, and click Uninstall.
The future
My ultimate intention with Interchange is to create a two-way link between Yahoo Maps and Google Maps, allowing one to easily switch back and forth between the two to view locations already saved in Yahoo using Google and to be able to save locations originally found with Google back to Yahoo.
As it happens, only the Yahoo Maps -> Google Maps link has been completed thus far. The Google Maps -> Yahoo Maps link is a bit more difficult, given the sophisticated nature of the Google Maps UI.
MapQuest integration is also in the works.
I'll get around to these things eventually, but the script is already useful in its current state, so I'm publishing it now, rather than risk letting it fester on my hard drive as so many of my unfinished projects do.