MapQuest have just released beta versions of two new web services. The first web service is a Geocoding web service. This is a RESTful web service that can take a simple address as a parameter, and returns the longitude,latitude coordinate of the address. The service is also capable of reverse geocoding - ie. return an address for a given longitude, latitude coordinate.

The second web service is a RESTful Static Map web service. This provides a simple static bitmap image for a specified map areas, instead of the more usual interactive zoom/pan/drag maps. Often a basic static map is all that is needed, and it requires far fewer resources than a full "slippy map" implementation. Point-of-Interest (POI) icons, traffic data, and shapes can also be added to static image bitmaps.

The full announcement and links to further information can be found here.