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Google Maps to Mash-up Companies

Andy Beal — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:11:55 +0000

Man, talk about a kick in the groin. Over the past few months, Google has been happily providing a Google Maps API to any developer that asked, and encouraging them to create mash-ups (ie. add their own useful content) of the mapping search technology.

Little did these poor unsuspecting fools realize, Google was sitting back and watching to see whether the mash-ups would be popular or not, effectively using the external developers as free labor. The proof comes with Google’s announced launch of My Maps, which allows any regular Joe to create custom maps for sharing tips or annotating Google Maps.

My Maps users can:

Mark locations on a map from a library of icons

Draw lines and shapes to highlight paths and areas

Add text, photos, or YouTube/Google Videos to a map

Add HTML for further personalization

View their maps in Google Earth

This is the second time in four months that Google has effectively pulled the rug from under API developers. While these developers had no right to expect a free lunch from Google forever, you can bet that they’ll think twice about building a business around any Google service in the future.

* All that said, for us non-developers, this is a pretty cool new feature!

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Google Maps API Supports GeoRSS, KML

Philipp Lenssen — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:57:06 +0000

Google Maps now supports the GeoRSS file format, and the Google Maps API now allows you to add geographic data in the form of KML files to your mashups, the official Google Maps API blog reports. Frank Taylor of the unofficial Google Earth blog throws in some caveats:

The KML Google Maps can handle is still limited. It can handle image overlays, polygons, lines, and placemarks. But, only of limited size. Hundreds of placemarks will throw it off. Or large size KML files. Also, network links are not supported. But, Google has been gradually releasing more support, so hopefully these limitations will get fixed in the future.

[Thanks Frank!]

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Google Gadget Stats

Nathan Weinberg — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:49:09 +0000

Niall Kennedy did earlier this month an exhaustive analysis of Google Gadgets, coming out with a lot of graphs, facts and figures that would make your head spin. If you’re a geek for infoporn, you’ll love his post on it.

A taste:

The average Gadget is 181 pixels

20 or so Gadgets require you to be using Firefox

Google’s 48 Gadgets account for 44% of all Gadget page views

On November 1 Google Maps API version 1 Shut Down

Glenn Letham — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:19:03 +0000

This update comes recently from the Google maps API blog…

(http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/2006/10/revision-266-of-maps-api-v2.html)…

API version 1 planned to be shut down as of November 1. What this means is that there may exist some incompatibilities between v1 and v2 so developers of gmap mashups should take note –

See: http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/upgrade.html#Incompatibilities.
According to Google Maps API Product Manager Brandon Badger, improved performance will be realized by ceasing to support and sut down v1… “the benefits will outweighthe transition costs”. So, if you happen to notice a mashup after November 1 that isn’t performing correctly you might want to contact the developer

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Anything Geospatial: Tracking developments affecting GIS, geospatial technologies, location-based services, mapping, google earth and google maps. Published by the creator and editor of GISuser.com & LBSzone.com

ZoomIn Takes Aim at Google Maps Down Under

Glenn Letham — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:16:30 +0000

Exploring Australia or finding places just got alot easier… ZoomIn lets you add your own places to the community map, create groups of places, upload photos and leave comments.

Developers can work with ZoomIn technology in several different ways. ProjectX offers a mapping API, as well as an API to the ZoomIn site – quite cool! see http://zoomin.com.au

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Google Maps API Geocoding Tutorial

Glenn Letham — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:39:20 +0000

I’m glad to say that we have another gmaps tutorial to share with you. When the Google Maps API was released in early 2005, one of the most notable omissions was the ability to geocode addresses.

This posed more of an inconvenience that anything else as there are many geocoding API’s available from various sources, some of which are free to use. Earlier this month that all changed as Google added geocoding functionality to it’s Maps API… read on about it in this fine article by Eric Pimpler – see tutorial here

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Intro to Google Maps & The Google Maps API V2

Glenn Letham — Mon, 01 May 2006 18:06:36 +0000

We’ve recently released the second of three articles that serve to introcude you to the google maps API (in detail).

In this second article we cover the Google Maps API Version 2 in greater detail including the most commonly used classes such as GMap2, GMarker, GLatLng and many others. We’ll also explore the various map controls that can be placed on a Google Map including panning, zooming, and overview controls. The article can now be found here. Thanks to Eric Pimpler for the contribution.

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Intro to Google Maps & The Google Maps API

Glenn Letham — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 20:40:58 +0000

Those of you looking for a fast, simple introduction to working with the Google maps API will welcome this online tutorial.

In this first article of a three part series on the Google Maps API, readers will discover the fundamental programming constructs for developing web mapping applications using the web mapping application development tools made available from Google. Note… this tutorial looks at using version 2 of the Google Maps API.

Once we walk you through this tutorial you will feel comfortable with Google maps, you’ll know how to get your own maps key, and be up and running with your own Google map with basic controls. This tutorial is Part 1 of 3 to be published over the coming weeks. See the Tutorial Here

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Google Maps API Version 2 Officially Released

Glenn Letham — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 19:35:16 +0000

Today via the Google Maps weblog (Bret Taylor, Product Manager) word of Veresion 2 of the API was announced. From the Blog…

Version 2 Features

Version 2 cleans up much of the API and improves performance and stability in fundamental ways based on the feedback of many API sites. It also includes a number of frequently-requested features, including:

Much smaller JavaScript download. The new Maps API JavaScript file is about half the size of the old JavaScript file, which should improve user experience on your web site.

Two additional satellite zoom levels. Increased imagery resolution and coverage in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Japan, Europe, and almost every major city in the world.

Overview map. Our new GOverviewMapControl control displays an attractive and collapsible map in the corner of the screen.

Extensibility and a new GMap2 class. The GMap2 interface has been redesigned to allow API users to extend it. We now have documented ways of creating custom map controls, custom overlays, and even custom map types.

Fewer memory leaks. The API now includes a GUnload method that you can call in the unload event of your page to destroy most circular references, including those formed implicitly during event registration. On Google Maps, this has virtually eliminated memory leaks in IE.

Debugging log. A simple, floating debug window used internally by the Google Maps engineering team allows you to print debug information easily without blocking program execution or interfering with the UI. Just replace your alert() calls with GLog.write().

Last but not least, a GLatLng class that is distinct from GPoint. You no longer need to reverse your latitude and longitude to construct a geographic point!

Check out the Version 2 documentation for a detailed usage guide.

See Also Version 2 Documentation & Get the API here – http://www.google.com/apis/maps/

Google Maps API 2 Releases

Nathan Weinberg — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:33:09 +0000

Google yesterday released version two of the API for Google Maps, which lets site owners include Google Maps in their sites and mash them up to do cool things.

The main changes in the new version, according to the Google Maps API blog:

Backwards compatible with Maps API 1, at least until any upgrade issues are resolved. Just change a v=1 reference to v=2, and see if it works. In a little while, all sites will automatically move to V2, so testing now is a real good idea.
No page view limits. However, if you expect over 500,000 page views a day, you should contact Google so they can help you out.
No advertising, and at least 90 days notice before ads appear.
The JavaScript is now half the size, making everything faster.
Two new zoom levels.
A collapsible overview map, so you can have a zoomed out view next to the regular map, to quickly scan through a large area, while remaining zoomed into the smaller area.
Less memory leaks, including a reference dump, and a debugging log.

(via Google Blogoscoped)

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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