Tuesday, June 14, 2022

URL Map

Map URL is an impressive interactive map which you can control by using a number of query string parameters within the map's URL address. Using the available query string parameters you can center your map at any location in the world, set the zoom level of the map and even add a marker at a specified location.

For example the map in the screenshot above was created using the URL address:

https://map.simonwillison.net/?center=51.49,0&zoom=13&marker=51.49,0

As you can tell from the URL address the map has a zoom level of 13, is centered on the location 51.49,0.0 and has a marker placed at 51.49,0.0.

Impressively URL Map can even geo-code real-world addresses. For example if you use the URL address:

https://map.simonwillison.net/?q=chicago

URL map will center on the city of Chicago. 

URL Map was created by Simon Willison. You can read more about the map and the query string parameters that the map accepts on his blog post A tiny web app to create images from OpenStreetMap maps. Simon initially created the map so that he could automatically generate images of maps. In his blog post Simon explains how you can use URL Map with his own shot-scaper tool to programmatically generate a map image for any location in the world.

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