Mark your mark on Google Maps
Posted 11 April 2007 at 9:14AM by Simon Dickson in Website development
Google Maps has just added a new 'My Maps' feature, which makes it a doddle to create your own interactive map, with your own points of interest marked.
Since the groundbreaking mapping service's earliest days, it's been possible to build your own annotated maps - but realistically it's been a tricky task, requiring quite a bit of coding knowledge. Now, it's as easy as point and click.
If you go to the Google Maps homepage, you'll see the 'My Maps' option. Sign in with your Google ID, and you'll see the familiar map interface, with some self-explanatory new buttons. To add a point on the map, simply locate the right area, press the 'pushpin' button, then click on the map. You'll see the usual popup 'speech bubble', with a simple form to add a title and supporting text (including pictures too). Press 'OK', and it's done.
Each map has its own URL, allowing you to link to your annotated map from your own website, or send the map to friends or contacts. Maps can be public or unlisted, but there's no password protection as such... so in theory, if someone guesses the right URL, your map will be visible. In practice, the URLs are so complicated as to be unguessable, but I'd probably still avoid adding anything too confidential.
There's also the ability to export the data as a KML file, allowing you to view your marks in the stand-alone Google Earth program; and in due course, 'public maps will be included in the search results on Google Maps and Earth.'
Naturally, this doesn't come close to the kind of interactivity you can get from the Google Maps API if you know what you're doing, but for most people it'll be more than adequate. It's a quick and easy way to add a 'branch locator' to your company website, or perhaps the boundary for your delivery area.
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