BigHugeMap.com: For when you need instant access to an anonymous, no-authentication needed, web accessible global hashmap

I give you my latest creation: BugHugeMap.com.

The Inspiration

This past weekend I was mulling over how I could implement a prototype of a location aware messaging app. It occurred to me that if I had a globally accessible hashmap, I could do this almost trivially using a tool like Tasker. There are various hacks for storing content on the web without setting up a server side database. For example, you can accomplish this using twitter, Pastebin, or Google Docs. But I wanted something even easier to access, and I wanted not just publish ability, but quick retrieval. I wanted a globally accessible hashtable that didn't enforce any sort of authentication or API requirements.

But what fool would offer such a free-for-all space on the web?

Well, I suppose I'm that fool. As that's exactly what bighugemap.com offers.

How it Works

There's only two things you can do with BigHugeMap.com: put data and get data.

The "API" looks like so:

  // Get some data
  http://bighugemap.com/get?key=SOMEKEY

  // Put some data
  http://bighugemap.com/put?key=SOMEKEY&value=SOMEVALUE

That's it.

Key's can be up to 128 characters in length, values up to 255. Feel free to make GET or POST requests, both work. Other than that, there are no rules.

Naturally, the above URL structure is CURL friendly. Here's a silly example:

 $ curl -d key=epoch -d value="`date`" 'http://bighugemap.com/put'
 OK

 $ curl 'http://bighugemap.com/get?key=epoch' ; echo
 Wed, Mar 11, 2015  8:10:30 AM

Is this Secure?

BigHugeMap.com offers the same security guarantees as Mailinator, which is to say none. Every key is globally accessible and settable by any user. If you set epoch, like I did in the example above, then I can come along and both read and overwrite that value. Yeah, it's the Wild West.

Is this Useful?

For a hacker, I think so. For a regular user, probably not. But just think about it, you can store and retrieve data from any device that can make an HTTP request. If you want to experiment with having your watch post data that your toaster then reads, and you want do this without any server side infrastructure, BigHugeMap.com will get the job done.

In Summary

Be careful. Be creative. Enjoy.