LAGIC Map Services: JavaScript API - Testing REST & GeoRSS Feeds

The trick is Yahoo Pipes! Watch the video, and you will see how you can 'fetch' a news feed, extract the location using Yahoo! and filter out only those feeds that have valid X-Y locations (Figure 1). The only significant issue I've encountered are:

1. Slow load times.
2. Overlapping Locations.
3. Geocoding errors.

When this page loads, you may have noticed that it takes a few seconds for the feed to load. That's because you're waiting for Yahoo Pipes to load the data. Additionally, you may see fewer icons than indicated. That's because some locations are overlapping. Finally, there are plenty of geocoding errors in this workflow -- mostly involving the geocoder native to the Yahoo Pipes interface. However, there are alternative methods posted on the Pipes Web site, which may enahnace output. Many of these focus on the geonames.org services.

Despite these issues, the Yahoo Pipes approach is pretty neat -- offering lots of potential!

Figure 1: Yahoo! Pipes