Google Maps Mashup for Dummies

July 27, 2007 9:20 AM

I'm working for a political campaign who wants to produce a Google Maps application for their website showing the impact of the issue in various neighborhoods. I've played around with the Maps API just a little bit, but not enough to really pull this off on my own.

My question isn't so much how to do this from scratch, but rather if there exist any kind of pre-made framework to quickly build Google Maps apps/mashups. Ideally, this would allow a voter to enter their address and see relevant locations within 10 miles of their home. Any advice on where to get started with this? And if the best answer is "hire a professional," that makes sense (though we're trying to keep this in-house as much as possible).

posted by OverlappingElvis to computers & internet (6 comments total)

When you say impact, how do you envision pictorially representing this on the map? A marker people can click on that links to the candidate's speeches in that location, or different levels of shading over certain areas, or what?
posted by mdonley at 9:36 AM on July 27, 2007

Icons/markers that show relevant "points" on the map. I'm sorry I can't be more specific about the details, but there's not a lot I can say about the client.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:42 AM on July 27, 2007

Google recently added My Maps, which lets you create custom maps like this within Google Maps itself.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:50 AM on July 27, 2007

Assuming you have an Excel/csv file of the locations you want marked, you can import them into MapBuilder and display it on a website. Quik Map has a drag-and-drop interface for markers. Wayfaring is more or less the same idea. So is ZeeMaps.
posted by desjardins at 10:17 AM on July 27, 2007

FMAtlas.com is cool too. Easy to use and allows you to embed them on to your own site.
posted by jkl345 at 2:49 PM on July 27, 2007

fmatlas.com Now with linky goodness!
posted by jkl345 at 2:50 PM on July 27, 2007