Last time when I wanted to stick a map into our blog I didn’t find any tools that were simple, yet flexible enough to do what I wanted, without going through registrations or anything of the kind. So I created a small PHP script which would take several parameters and build me a map based on those. The script is very simple. User can define a center point, select the over size of the map, choose a type, and the would allow to add a list of markers.

Several people, after looking at it, told me that it’s a nice little tool, and they would like to use it for themselves as well. However there was no interface of any kind to create the list of parameters, which made it “not-so-easy” to use. In order to solve that issue I put together another simple script / interface which allows to control the creation of the map to embed with a few clicks.

If any of you wish to use it, feel free to do so. Just remember that there are no guarantees of any kind, meaning that if my server goes down, it goes down. If I decide to change the script, I change the script. If you’re OK with that, enjoy the Google Map Builder.

If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, you can leave them here and I’ll gladly read them.

P.S. Google did a great job with the API for the maps. It was a pretty interesting learning experience working with it.

1

Artem says:
March 28, 2007 @ 12:13

Hey! You did a great job on that! Now I think it’s time to share this link with people and get some traffic

2

Daniel says:
March 28, 2007 @ 13:05

The main question is how do you “share” this with people? How do you get the word out? I really have no idea.

3

Thomas Hansen says:
March 28, 2007 @ 18:12

Do you mean like this:
http://ajaxwidgets.com/AllControlsSamples/LiveMapsMashup.aspx

;)

4

Daniel says:
March 28, 2007 @ 22:01

Not really. First of all MSN maps have problems with FireFox, as pointed out on the site itself. Then with my tool you do not need to install or download anything. You can just create a map with a chosen location and several markers. Then you can blog about it. All you have to do is to copy-paste the given HTML code, right into your blog. That’s it. I can’t seem to find anything like that on the linked site.

5

Alex says:
April 4, 2007 @ 15:31

If you want to spread the word, put it on sourceforge.net

6

Бумажный Кораблик » I Beat Google To It says:
April 5, 2007 @ 12:24

[…] I Beat Google To It It’s ironic that only about a week ago, I couldn’t find a tool I wanted, so I went ahead and made my own. Today Google announces MyMaps - a tool that allows users to create their own maps. I still don’t see a way to embed it easily into the blog, but you can do anything you want now through a nice, Google, interface. by Daniel   at 12:24   categories   No Comments    […]

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