Make many points on Google Maps

June 21, 2005 10:27 AM

How do people create Google Maps with a lot of different points selected, like this? Is there an easy way to do this from the main Google Maps site or do you have to have some extra programming done? I'd really like to enter two or three addresses and mark all their points on the same map (without having to do directions, and thus the route between them).
posted by clgregor to Technology (10 answers total)

There are two services for this that I know of, MIT's PiggyBank (which works in conjunction with a screen scraper to transfer data from a website to GoogleMaps) and MyGmaps, where you upload your own data to their site and display it using GoogleMaps. It sounds like the second option would be best for your purposes, otherwise if you can code Javascript you can follow the links on the MyGmaps site for build-your-own options.
posted by cali at 10:40 AM on June 21, 2005

2nd hit on "google maps application" here
posted by phearlez at 10:53 AM on June 21, 2005

Usually they do it with AJAX, which is a way of programming using XMLHTTP and JavaScript.
posted by matildaben at 11:06 AM on June 21, 2005

Is there an app out there that will let you type in a coordinate and then aggregate multiple maps to create a largish map, as one big jpg?
posted by mecran01 at 11:20 AM on June 21, 2005

Kablammo, mecran.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 11:40 AM on June 21, 2005

I asked a similar question a few weeks back and the answers were pretty similar.
posted by jessamyn at 12:27 PM on June 21, 2005

There is a FAQ on the website you got that screengrab from, cjgregor. It explains the rudiments of the technologies used:

Google maps using Javascript, XML, XSLT, and CSS to create a web application that behaves more like a desktop application. With normal web programming, the user is presented with a form, the user inputs data, the user submits the form, and finally the entire web page reloads with new content. AJAX, as this type of programming has been coined, does not require the reloading of the entire interface. The Javascript is able to make calls back to the server to get the required information and update only those parts of the interface that needs to change.

In the case of gCensus, every time the map is panned or zoomed the Javascript contacts the gCensus server and requests information for the viewable map region. At the same time, the Google code contacts the Google servers and requests the required images needed to display the map. The page is only reloaded when the user clicks the refresh button.

Learning how to do things with the combination of technologies now known as AJAX seems like it would be super useful. But it's probably not easy if you don't already have programming knowledge, I would guess.
posted by bcwinters at 12:48 PM on June 21, 2005

The best resource for doing anything you can dream of with GoogleMaps: Google Maps Standalone Mode
posted by vjz at 1:16 PM on June 21, 2005

just type in "pizza"
posted by xammerboy at 1:36 PM on June 21, 2005

Response by poster: So there's no trick like separating multiple addresses with "|" or anything to get them all to display, huh?
posted by clgregor at 2:18 PM on June 21, 2005