A Little Insight in to Google Map APIs

To the left you’ll see we have inserted an image of a map.  When you think of a map itself, something like this probably comes into your mind.  However, when you really think about it, you probably don’t use a whole lot of paper-crafted, hand-held maps anymore.  Sure, maybe if you’re in for a long car ride across a couple of state borders, you’ll grab a road map; but really, these days we are all turning to tools like Google Maps and MapQuest to lead us forward to new places.  And, hey, it’s easy to use — a “to” location and a “from” location can pull up a number of routes on a frequently updated road map.  You can now even do this on your smartphone, so it’s easy to pull up a map wherever you are!  Being a an online marketing company, we can sure relate to the convenience factor.

Now on the subject of maps, there’s a particular topic we’re going to give a little insight into today: Google Map APIs.  API stands for application programming interface.  APIs are used as tools for interactions between two different kinds of software.  So, the Google Map API family tools are a set of ways to embed various user-generated maps with Javascript, Flash, or other programs.  Each tool in the Google Map API family comes with a “developer’s guide” and “tutorial” on the Google Map API website.  It certainly takes some trial and error when you are working with these tools, but all the same, they are free for non-commercial use and certainly have a wide range of possible uses.

Let’s talk a little bit about what you can do with Google Map APIs.

With the Google Maps Javascript API, you can create map overlays of everything from shapes to icons to animations.  You can see how this would obviously be helpful if you’re working in the realms of internet marketing.  Maybe you could demonstrate some sort of strategy plan for your target market location with corresponding animations and icons.  Google Maps API also has a tutorial for setting up the API in Flash with action script.  Google Maps APIs in Flash can be used to create 3D maps and do overlays as well.

Anyway, now that you’ve got the basic idea down, we will give you a week to brew some ideas, then we will discuss specifics of one of the Google Map APIs: the Google Earth API.  Because, seriously, Google Earth is really cool, and there’s no reason why you wouldn’t want your own Google Earth API on your website!

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Image courtesy of foto.bulle, under a CC by 2.0 license