Zmarties

Google Maps has finally gained an official API, (though being beta, it's almost as likely to change as the unofficial API everyone has been using up to now).

Use of the API requires a key, which is causing no end of problems, since keys are tied to partial URLs:

• you cant get a single key that works across more than one of example.com, www.example.com, example.co.uk
• you cant get a single key that works when your page is migrated from example.com/news.htm to example.com/archive/june.htm
• if your site uses URLs of the form example.com/tag/page.htm where tag varies, then you need a separate key per tag.

Lets hope they fix that ASAP, since thats a huge flaw in the implementation.

There's a very lively discussion group for the API, with lots of good questions, answers, and examples being posted already. A few that caught my eye are:

• discussion on how to add a scale bar to the maps
• calculating the distance between two points
• scaling items with the zoom level
• adding a side panel to the maps

Example uses of the API include

• MapMaker which allows you to interactively add a path overlay to a map
• Paris Star Forts which illustrates adding a side panel

Other interesting items to come out of the discussions:

• geocoder.us which can translate addresses to latitude/longitude