Google Static Maps API Wizards

If you don't need a fully interactive slippy map you can use the Google Static Maps API to embed a Google Maps image on your web page without requiring JavaScript or any dynamic page loading.

The API is fairly simple to implement and creates a map based on URL parameters. The URL parameters can be quite long however which can lead to some confusion. I've always found it easiest to use Google's Static Maps API Wizard when I need to create a static map. The wizard allows you to select a location, the base map type you require and define the size of your static map. It then creates the URL for you to embed your static map.

Unfortunately the wizard isn't brilliantly designed. That's why you might want to use Katy Decorah's new Static Map Maker instead. The Static Map Maker also allows you to easily create a static map and generate the URL for a number of different image formats. The wizard is a lot easier to use than Google's own wizard and involves a lot less needless scrolling up and down the page to view the changes that you make to your static map.

Both Google's own wizard and the Static Map Maker both ignore the Styled Map options in the Google Static Maps API. These options allow you to select which map features appear on your static map and even allow you to customize the colors of map features. There is still a little niche there for someone to create a Static Maps Wizard that allows you to play around with map styles.

Street View also has its own Static Street View Image API. A few years back I created this very simple Static Street View Wizard to generate the URL to embed a static Street View.

The Geography of Incarceration

Josh Begley, a graduate student studying Interactive Telecommunications at New York University has created a website showing the satellite images of correctional facilities in the U.S.. The page shows the satellite images of around 700 U.S. prisons (which is about 14% of the total number of prisons).

Prison Map is a great resource for anyone who is interested in the geography of incarceration. For example it would be interesting to analyse the images to see how many of the prison buildings were influenced by Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon designs.

Josh used the Google Static Maps API with a little self-written hack to save each map tile as an image file.

To find the locations of the prisons Josh used Prisoners of the Census' Correctional Facility Locator 2010, which allows you to search for and view on Google Maps all correctional facilities counted in the 2010 Census.

Capture a Google Maps Screenshot

Map2Pic allows you to grab a screenshot of a Google Map and save it in "png" or "jpg" format. For example, the screenshot above was captured with Map2Pic.

Mpa2Pic allows you to choose the map view you wish to capture (map, satellite or terrain), the size of the screenshot and even allows you to set a compression rate for the the saved image.

It is also possible to add a marker to the map. The marker comes in a choice of colours and with the option of a shadow or no shadow.

Map2Pic is in many ways similar to the Static Maps API Wizard. The Static Maps API Wizard can generate static maps using the Google Maps Static Image API. Now you can use Map2Pic when you want to host a static map image on your own servers rather than using Google's Static Maps API.

Save the Pacific with this Google Map Game

Crazy Boat: The Curse of the Trash Vortex

The Pacific Trash Vortex has reached critical mass, flooding nearby seas with strange and valuable debris. A new age of sea entrepreneurship has arisen. Can you man your rusty old boat and save the Pacific Ocean from the floating debris of the Trash Vortex ...?

I've been waiting a while for someone to come up with an interesting use of the Google Static Maps API Styled Maps feature. It was definitely worth the wait. This Facebook game makes great use of the Google Static Maps Styled Maps feature and HTML overlays with real latitudes/longitudes to create a realistic backdrop for your challenge to clear the Pacific Ocean of the Trash Vortex.

Echo Team has called upon some of the greatest mid-century American action serials to make a game that both harkens back to the adventures of yore and puts a new face on the idea of exploration, with an emphasis on the environmental impact of what reckless exploration means to the planet at large.

Crazy Boat uses your Facebook profile data to give you in-game bonuses for your real-world skills and strengths. If you you post messages about the game to your Facebook wall, you might earn the Forest Ranger skill, and if you post about current events, you might score points as a Politician.

5% of the in-game revenues go to benefit Project Kaisei, a non-profit organisation dedicated to cleaning up the real Pacific Trash Vortex.

So, are you up for the challenge?

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Using Styled Maps with the Static Maps API

Ugly Map

My first play with the new Styled Maps feature in the Static Maps API is this ugly map.

This map uses eight static maps with different styles applied to each map. I think you'll agree this is one ugly map.

We Fade to Grey

This one is a little more attractive (but no more useful).

Again the map contains eight static maps with different styles applied to each. This time the colour is gradually taken away in each map to end up with the last map tile being entirely grey-scale.

Flashing Map

In this one I've used the same map styles as in the previous example, only this time I've animated through the images to create a flashing map.

It's a strange effect that I can't really seeing having much practical application.

Zoom in Static Map

I've long admired the use of static maps on Flickr. On Flickr geo-tagged photos are accompanied with a small static map that when you mouseover zooms in on the location.

I've tried to create something similar with this example. If you roll over the map with your mouse the map will zoom in. To achieve this I've just used two static maps with the same map style. One map however has been set to a higher zoom. When you rollover the first map a bit of javascript replaces the zoomed out static map with the zoomed in static map.

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Styled Static Maps Launches

Google has released Styled Static Maps. This means that developers can now use Styled Maps not only with the Google Maps V3 API and the Maps API for Flash but with the Static Maps API as well. The Static Maps API is useful for those who want to display a map in a browser where Javascript or Flash isn’t supported or to create a lightweight thumbnail map.



The Static Maps API Wizard is a great tool for creating static maps. Currently it doesn't include options to create a styled map, so there could be a good opportunity here for a developer to create a Static Styled Map Wizard app.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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Restaurant Bookmarking with Google Maps

The Chow Down

The Chow Down is a restaurant finding, bookmarking and sharing website.

You can use The Chow Down to find restaurants by type of food and by location, for example you can search for 'sushi' in 'San Francisco'. The results of a search are then shown in list form and their locations are shown on a static Google Map.

The name and address of each restaurant is displayed alongside its user rating. If you like the look of a restaurant you can bookmark it and the restaurant is added to your saved results. You can share your saved results via Twitter and you can even invite your friends to meet you at the restaurant.

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Snapshot Your Google Maps

Snapshot Control

Masashi Katsumata, a Japanese Maps API expert and creator of the Japanese language website Googlermania, has created an excellent utility for the Google Maps API called SnapshotControl.

The utility allows map developers to add a 'snapshot' control to their maps. The control is a button that can be added to a map that will create an image of the current map using the Google Static Maps API v2.

If you are not a developer you can still use some of the example maps that Masashi has created to demo his utility. In particular the Driving Directions demo could be very useful. With the driving directions map you can enter your starting and finishing locations, get your driving directions and then get a 'snapshot' of the route (great for printing out and using off-line).


Via: Google Geo Developers Blogs

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Static Maps API v2

The Google Maps team have rewritten the API for Google Static Maps. The main new features are:

• Paths can be specified as encoded polylines.
• Paths can be filled and rendered as polygons.
• Locations (in center, markers, or path parameters) can now be specified as addresses instead of latitude/longitude coordinates.
• Colors can now be specified as any 24-bit or 32-bit color.

If you want to use the new Static Maps API the developer guide is essential reading. Or if you want to cheat, you can just use the new Static Maps v2 Wizard.

If you are a Danish speaker Søren Johannessen has created a Danish language version of the wizard called the Dansk Google Static Maps v2 Generator.

For the more technically minded, Mapperz has a really good review of the new Static Maps API. The review includes tips on creating polygons and creating a static map from a Google My Map.


Via: Google Geo Developers Blog: Static Maps API v2: Encoded Paths, Polygons & Geocoding

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StaticMap - Wrapper for the Google Maps API

StaticMap

StaticMap screenshot - for a demo use link below

Taylan Pince has created a very cool layer around the Google Maps API that lets you create a static map with a button that when pressed will load an interactive map. The advantage of this method is that a static map will load far more quickly than an interactive map. However with the 'Launch Interactive Map' button users can load the interactive map if they want these features.

StaticMap Demo

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More Types of Static Maps

Until now the Google Static Maps API only let you post a static image of a 'map' view of a Google Map. Now 'satellite', 'hybrid' and terrain' views have been added to the API.

Here is a hybrid static map view of New York:



Via: Google Geo Developers Blog: You wanted other map types in the Static Maps API? You got it!

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Using the Google Static Maps API

Update: The maps listed in this post no longer exist. If you wish to use the Google Maps Static Maps API in your won website you can find out more on the Static Maps API website,

we♥places (Dead Link Removed)

we♥places is a social sharing site for bookmarking addresses and locations. Registered users can add photos and comments about locations and anyone can explore areas they are going to visit for other users' bookmarks.

The site uses the Static Map API to enable really fast load times and then utilises the Google Maps API for displaying multiple markers at once. The Google Geocoder API is also used to geo-code locations.

To search for bookmarks you just enter the location name in a search box and the location is shown on a Google Map with the bookmarked places tagged on the map. The tag then contains a link to the page of the bookmarked location.

Maps on Paper (Dead Link Removed)
Maps on Paper is a simple but very useful application to convert Google Maps and Google My Maps into something more printer friendly.

The site is very easy to use. All you do is enter the map link of your Google Map or Google My Map into a search box and the application creates a printer friendly static map of your map.

On the first page (for your printer) is a map overview showing a map containing all of your tags. A list of the tags on the map is presented under the map.


On the following pages individual maps for all of your tags are shown. After that comes a page of your tag descriptions.


There are options to include or exclude the descriptions and the overview map. Most importantly everything prints beautifully.

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