June 23, 2010
Internet, June 23, 2010. Yandex and VKontakte agreement gives web users and developers the opportunity to use the maps provided by Russia’s largest internet resource on the country’s leading social networking website.
Now, using all features the Yandex maps have to offer, developers can design and create absolutely unique applications for VKontakte, such as quest-like or strategy games based on real maps and satellite images. Or build some practical applications like, for instance, those that can keep networkers updated on their friends’ current locations. The first Yandex.Maps-based application, Friends Map, is already available for users to see in what cities their VKontakte friends live.
To enable its maps to be embedded in VKontakte, Yandex has created a special Yandex.Maps API module fully compatible with the social network’s platform. A map based on this module has already appeared in the website’s ‘My meetups’ section, where users can now see locations of their upcoming events. Yandex.Maps API for VKontakte documentation is available at http://api.yandex.ru/maps/jsapi/doc/mod/vkontakte/concepts/About.xml.
“The great outcome of our partnership with VKontakte is that web developers now have a wonderful opportunity to build all sorts of applications based on the two popular platforms, a social networking resource and a geographic service,” says Roman Ivanov, head of communication services at Yandex. “We are positive that developers will come up with a lot of interesting and innovative applications including those based on the currently popular geosocial networking”.
“Geosocial services will very soon become an integral part of the web users’ life. Integrating Yandex.Maps with VKontakte has made it so much easier for the users to coordinate their events in the network. We are hoping that the new API will trigger a surge in new geosocial applications for our networking website,” says Andrey Rogozov, head of development at VKontakte.
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Yandex.Maps is one of the most popular Yandex’s services with the monthly audience of over 9.2 million, according to TNS. Currently, Yandex.Maps offers more than 170 detailed maps for cities in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
VKontakte is the most visited social network in Russia (TNS Gallup). To date, the number of registered users exceeds 70 million.
