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Google Releases API for Google Maps

Posted by timothy on from the google-google-google-google dept.

Elyscape writes "The Google Blog announced today the release of an API for Google Maps. While the use of the API requires a key that limits the owner to 50K pageviews a day, which is similar to but far more generous than Google's Web Search API, Google notes that they are willing to work something out with website owners who expect to breach that large barrier. This release definitely opens the door for (or, at least, eases the creation of) more advanced Google-Maps-based applications. On the negative side, it broke several current Google-Maps-based sites, such as ChicagoCrime.org. So get started! Go to the Google Maps API home, sign up for a key, and go wild! (Note: going wild may entail fixing broken sites. It does not necessarily entail actually visiting the wild.)

4 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. 50K Pageviews by Mr.Sharpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I suppose the question is, do they consider each tile you load from their map server a page view? If they do, it wouldn't take many users scrolling around on the maps to get their.

  2. Technical Question from a non-programmer by RabidMonkey · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm reading about the API (which I know nothing about, because I don't know anything more than an API is an interface to a program) and thought while reading about including their code in yours, 'how do you know that their code is safe?'

    They obviously don't release the code for the api .. how you know that when you call a function? from the api, it's not doing something malicious? how do you know they aren't using it to track users, send malicious code, etc? granted - it's Google, but still?

    Is there built-in protection? Is it safe to blindly use someone elses api? If you call GBrowserIsCompatible() and it calls GDeleteEverythingOnHarddrive, is there something to stop that?

    Just curious. I'd like to learn how to do play with these things, but it seems like a pretty steep learning curve.

    Thanks!

    --
    We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us. - Douglas Coupland
  3. no geocoding ... yet by enrico_suave · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm a little dissapointed the geocoding functions didn't make the first release of the API (and hope they are added/included soon).

    e.

    --
    Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
  4. Well done, Documentation by Free_Trial_Thinking · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That is well done, that's how documentation should be, just tell me how to do all the common things I might want to do:

    move the map
    goto a location
    blah blah

    Try finding useful information like that in under 10 minutes on almost any existing "API".