This is a change made with Java 1.5. What you list first is the old way, the second is the new way.
By using HashMap you can do things like:
HashMap<String, Doohickey> ourMap = new HashMap<String, Doohickey>();
....
Doohickey result = ourMap.get("bob");
If you didn't have the types on the map, you'd have to do this:
Doohickey result = (Doohickey) ourMap.get("bob");
It's really very useful. It helps you catch bugs and avoid writing all sorts of extra casts. It was one of my favorite features of 1.5 (and newer).
You can still put multiple things in the map, just specify it as Map, then you can put any object in (a String, another Map, and Integer, and three MyObjects if you are so inclined).