Thursday, April 05, 2007

Google My Maps Mania!

After the launch of "My Maps" on Google Maps (A Google tool which lets ANYONE create a Google Maps mashup in minutes) the web and blogosphere is abuzz with video, news, posts, and best of all new maps created by people using My Maps! :)

First, My Maps.. (Not mine - Yours!) ;)

Here is a list of My Maps created by Googlers (Google employees) from all over the world when the new feature was released internally before the public launch. Google Maps product manager Jess Lee cites these examples in her post announcing My Maps on the Official Google Blog:
  • The Googleplex: A photo essay on life at the Google headquarters in Mountain View



Singapore Future Marina Bay:

..I'll post more interesting My Maps as they appear but in the meantime if you think you have a killer My Map you'd like to share with others reading Google Maps Mania - POST A COMMENT with a link and details about your map!

Google My Maps are easy (DEAD EASY) to use allowing you to make Google Maps mashups of your own. C|Net's Elinor Mills takes you on a tour of My Maps in way a detailed blog post just can't do.. My advice - If you want to see what all the fuss is about, BEFORE trying My Maps, watch this video. After you're done, you will have the mapping itch. :)

For more of C|Net's coverage check out their story here:
Google makes mashups easy, even for me (with an image gallery)

For more assistance, check out the The Google My Maps User Guide

More News and Blog coverage:

Google Earth Blog: My Maps and Google Earth (plus some very insightful commentary on the addition of My Maps)

Washington Post: Google Turns to Users for Online Maps

GigaOm Blog: Google MyMaps Smashes Mash-ups

21 comments:

DR2ooo said...

Now only if there was a way to take the end result and EMBED it into a blog. Not link to it, but embed it.

Any ideas on how to do it? Google went all the way there, but they are 1 step short of a finishing line, I think.

Anonymous said...

I'm not real thrilled with Google's My Maps, sorry to say. It's just about useless for anyone who has more than 50 markers, because only 50 markers are shown at a time . What's worse, if you search for a town on the map (say, if you're looking for nearby campgrounds on your 200-campground list), the marker of a nearby site won't show up UNLESS it's among the first 50 markers. That limits the utility of My Maps, sorry to say.

chris said...

Hi guys, I tried embedding a Meebo badge, it worked well UNTIL I clicked "Save" (when saving the map). I hope it's a bug and is not by design. You can check my attempt here

sas said...

Embed into blog would be a nice feature, it's badly needed. When creating route (line) we should be careful enough not to pull mouse over the line (for panning) otherwise line also gets pulled up resulting in a mess, and there is no 'undo' to revert.

Danny Sanchez said...

It's a neat tool for quick jobs (hey, here's where my house is buddy) and the polygon functions are great. Hate to be a whiner, but the lack of ability to iframe the map onto another page is frustrating. Hopefully Google will add that soon!

Singeo said...

As a follow up to Chris's comment regarding the Meebo badge, it seems Google are imposing some pretty strict restrictions on what html can be included in My Maps and are stripping the code when a map gets saved.

I've put an example map here.

Also posted a description of the issues to the Google Maps Help Group here.

Regards

Singeo

GISuser said...

I'm having a hard time thinking it will replace all the mashups out there (see news from zdnet and others screaming about how developers will be put out of work from this)... it serves a purpose for the layman and other users but its hardly replacing platial and other appss... see mymap (from Googleplex) at http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106597582325204962349.00000111c4158b97439c8&om=1&z=17&ll=37.426019,-122.086204&spn=0.005853,0.007392&t=k

is there a way to grab a shorter hyperlink?? Cheers - Glenn (www.gisuser.com)

Van Wilder said...

Please someone find out how to embed a Google My Map into a web page/blog! This would be SOOOO useful!

Lochi Yu said...

This is a map of some of the main tourist attractions of Costa Rica:here

Main National Parks are already there, but still only some of the main beaches are there. I will be updating it everyday.

RobMaps said...

I've made a site to create code which embeds maps created with My Maps onto web pages. If anyone is interested in testing it out, I'd be grateful if people could share some maps.

The url is www.mymapsplus.com
(for the moment :)
There are still alot of improvements to do, does anyone know a way to get an info window when you click on a polyline or polygon ?

It would be really nice too if the API had a way to create a 'Save to My Maps' link, as a convenient way to bookmark interesting places you find in different mashups.

Anonymous said...

All the samples I looked at with polygons load REALLY slow. Is this true for everyone or just me? If that is the case until Google speeds up the load time I don't think the polygon feature is worth using.

DR2ooo said...

Actually embedding MyMaps turns out to be fairly easy with the right tools. I modified something I created a while ago: http://www.dr2ooo.com/tools/maps/

evden eve nakliyat said...

thankkss

Brian said...

I would also love to know if anyone has figured out a way to make polygons clickable and able to show the info window. I noticed this is available in myMaps but not when you use the kml file as an overlay.

Anonymous said...

I know how to grab a link that zooms in and isolates ONE in a collection of markers on My Maps but when I use such a link the information window/bubble does not show up automatically and requires the user needing to click on the marker to get it.

Anyone know how to force the information window on a specific marker to come up. The whole list of markers in My Maps are obviously not independant URLs so this would seem not possible to accomplish without going the API route.

It would be nice if the list of markers were all independant URLs which you could link to and display with marker and with or without the information bubble.

Oh, while we are at it... for display purposes...let me sort or group that list any which way I please.

Thanks to whom ever might be listening/helping.

Nick Lewis said...

I think this is a great idea but there is oodles of room for improvement. I am going to try an utilize it for an idea I am working on for my own blog. I spotted a comment earlier about being able to embed, thats what I'd like to see too. Just a mini version of the map embedded in a post etc.

bronder said...

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=6&om=1&msid=117588902719929832956.00000111f6a65b86fc411&msa=0

All the BIG TEN Football Stadiums (plus Notre Dame)

---
nik bronder
http://www.blackhandproductions.com

Will said...

Is there a way to upload multiple placement markers to MyMaps at one time?

Thanks!

jay said...

Will-- did anyone get back to you about a way to load multiple placement markers (either using lat/long or address) to My Maps? I tried loading a KML file using the Import feature, but it did not work (said couldn't finish downloading).

jay said...

did you find a way to load multiple markers at one time?

maswey said...

thank you nice sharing

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