You may have noticed that user-created "My Maps" are shown on Google Maps when searching or looking at a specific place. Similarly, we think that there are many Google Maps API sites that would be very interesting to users searching on Google Maps. So we've been working on a way to expose relevant Maps API sites on Google Maps. In order to do this well, we need to know the location and content of the markers and/or infowindows that are displayed on these mashups. In a few weeks, we will turn on new functionality that helps Google to log this information from mashups that are using the JavaScript Maps API v2. We'll announce the exact date as we get closer but we wanted to provide an early look into our plans.

We realize that some of your markers or infowindows may contain information that you don't want us to display in search results or on Google Maps. Your content may be personal in nature or perhaps you don't have the necessary rights to allow indexing of the content you are displaying. Maps API Premier customers in particular may not want their content indexed and displayed in Google Maps. To ensure that this new feature doesn't cause any issues, we have put a few controls in place:

1. We only index data from maps that have been viewed by many unique users. For example, maps only viewed by you and a few friends won't be indexed.
2. If your page is protected by robots.txt, we will not index your content.
3. You can opt-out of the logging by specifying "indexing=false" when loading the API For example:

   http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=abcdefg&sensor=true&indexing=false

4. If you are a Maps API Premier customer, we will not index data from your maps, unless you opt into indexing by passing in "indexing=true".

We're excited about letting users easily find the wonderful mashups developers have created. As always, if you have any feedback for us, please use the Maps API Google Group.

Mickey Kataria, Product Manager

So, what does the new Directions interface look like? We've split the GDirections object from v2 into two separate classes that work together to give you routing goodness. DirectionsService passes directions queries to our server and returns the results in JSON format, while DirectionsRenderer displays the results on your map. The 'load' event from v2 has been removed; instead, a callback function containing your rendering code is passed to the DirectionsService when making a new query.

We've also introduced a couple of options for specifing the kind of results that you want returned from our server. If there's more than one way to get from A to B, you can opt to retrieve all of them with provideTripAlternatives, and if the imperial system offends you, just tell the DirectionsService that you always want metric units returned by using unitSystem. Here's a code snippet that adds directions to a map and step-by-step instructions to an accompanying panel, as well as specifying both of the new options:

 
var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), {
  zoom: 7,
  mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP,
  center: new google.maps.LatLng(-33.868011, 151207566)
});
 
var directionsRenderer = new google.maps.DirectionsRenderer();
directionsRenderer.setMap(map);    
directionsRenderer.setPanel(document.getElementById('directionsPanel'));
 
var directionsService = new google.maps.DirectionsService();
var request = {
  origin: "Sydney, NSW", 
  destination: "Chatswood, NSW",
  travelMode: google.maps.DirectionsTravelMode.DRIVING,
  unitSystem: google.maps.DirectionsUnitSystem.METRIC,
  provideTripAlternatives: true
};
directionsService.route(request, function(response, status) {
  if (status == google.maps.DirectionsStatus.OK) {
    directionsRenderer.setDirections(response);
  } else {
    alert('Error: ' + status);
  }
});

You'll get something that looks like this:

To get started, take a look at the reference and an explanation of the concepts involved, as well as the examples. As always, tell us if you have any questions or comments. We may not choose the most interesting route for you to travel on, but you can rest assured that if you ever want to drive from Seattle to Honolulu, we'll...draw a straight polyline and tell you to kayak*.

Bon voyage!

* because we don't know if your car is watertight.

But this is only one of the reasons we are so passionate about translating our products to as many languages as possible. Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Providing our services in the native tongue of our users goes a long way towards achieving the universal accessibility and usefulness aspects of our mission.

Today, we are proud to announce that the Maps API v3 is now available in 40 languages, in addition to US English. You can find the list of languages here. (Right to left languages are notably missing from this list, as we still have some work to do before we can support them.)

Most developers won't need to do anything to take advantage of the new translations, our servers will decide what language to provide based on the browser's preferred languages settings.

Developers can override that behavior (and force all of their users to see one language) by specifying a parameter in the script tag. For instance, to force UI controls to always be displayed in Brazilian Portuguese, use:

  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false&language=pt-BR">

Again, you can override the region biasing by specifying a parameter in the script tag. For instance, to bias your application towards British results, use:

  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false®ion=GB">

Posted by Marcelo Camelo, Maps API team

How does this update impact developers? First, you can use the new "Report a Problem" link on maps to communicate directly with Google about any updates or corrections that you think need to be made to our maps. Second, the data that powers API features like geocoding and driving directions has also been updated. If you're using client-side geocoding in the browser, your applications will automatically start using the new data. If you've been using the HTTP geocoder and caching any retrieved data, you should re-geocode with the new data as soon as possible. With the "Report a Problem" feature, we'll be updating the map data regularly, so we recommend that you continue to refresh any cached data in order to take advantage of corrections from our users.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback about how this change affects your use of the API, you should post to the relevant forum:

• JavaScript API v2 and Static Maps API
• JavaScript API v3
• Maps API for Flash
• Mapplets
• Earth API
• AJAX Search API

We're excited about the changes we're making today! For those of you overlaying data and creating Google Maps applications for the United States, we hope that the underlying base map will continue to evolve, just like the amazing mapping tools that you are maintaining.

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, Software Engineer

Here's a perspective map in action. Sit back and watch or dive in and drag the view. Try holding down the zoom plus (+) or minus (-) buttons to see the new smooth continuous zoom.

Play with demos and the possibilities emerge. Shadows stretch out as the land tilts back. Foreground detail blends with background context. Movement through the world becomes first-person in nature and distant features can rapidly be dragged to the fore. On a regular map a cluster of markers might only confuse. Spin a perspective map and their pattern becomes clear as nearer markers pass in front of their more remote partners.

A key strength of Flash is its ubiquitous nature and we've taken care to develop an API that preserves this advantage. While supporting the latest, greatest Flash players, the API requires only Flash 9. Build a single target and API runtime code matches implementation library to player version. Flash 10 users gain the benefits of the native 3-D graphics support--rendering speed and accuracy--but Flash 9 users won't be left out.

So how do you create a 3-D map? If you've not used the Maps API for Flash before here we've got lots of documentation to help you get up and running. For those who've used the API and have an existing map to hand, three quick changes should suffice:

• Replace Map with Map3D
• Turn on perspective:

  Map3D.viewMode = View.VIEWMODE_PERSPECTIVE;

• Replace the old position and zoom controls with the new navigation control:

  addControl(NavigationControl);

While this new functionality is aimed at Flash developers, we also have the Earth plugin and API for those of you working with JavaScript and the JS-based Maps API. For developers using the Maps API for Flash, today's release is just an extension of the existing Flash API; where it makes sense, we have borrowed some learnings from the Earth API (and will continue to do so). From a user's viewpoint, if you've used the Earth plugin or Google Earth, the controls will all be familiar. We've kept the same basic key mappings. Add SHIFT to tilt the map, or CTRL to tilt your view and you're ready to go. More features are hidden just under the surface. Animate a flight from A to B, or apply perspective scaling to your markers. See the new API reference documentation for details.

As always, for those of us working on APIs, the most rewarding aspect is of seeing what developers do with it. Here's what some of our trusted testers have done to date:

UK Weather Tour	ArcGIS Services	PaperVision3D Scene
Ian Watkins	Nianwei Liu	Satoshi Ueyama
Eiffel Tower KMZ	3D Driving Simulator	Weather Radar GroundOverlay
Masashi K	Katsuomi.K	Andrew Trice

Check out some more demos, have a play, make some maps, and let us know what you think!

Posted by Mike Jones, Maps API Team

What if there were a way to know programatically what the maximum zoom level was for any point in the world? Fortunately, now there is.

It's not easy to solve this problem naively; the world is a big place. At zoom level 22, there are 4 to the power of 22 potential satellite tiles -that's over 17.5 trillion. The zoom level for satellite imagery that exists varies wildly all over the world. Sydney's Bondi Beach has imagery right up to zoom level 22, whereas the centre of the Pacific Ocean only goes up to zoom level 9. (I make no accusations about whether this means the Google Maps team prefers to look at tanned, sunbathing Aussies).

But with a good search algorithm, and data based on the most frequently viewed areas of the earth, we've been able to make a search for the existence of imagery very efficient, and we are now exposing this functionality to our API developers.

The new solution is an asynchronous function which is part of the GMapType class: getMaxZoomAtLatLng. The function takes a GLatLng and returns the maximum zoom level at which imagery exists. Because the function requires a call to Google's servers (much like GClientGeocoder.getLocations()), you must also provide a callback parameter, which is a function which will deal with the response.

As an example, here's a function which will set the center of the given GMap2 object to the maximum zoom level at the given GLatLng:

 
function setMaxZoomCenter(map, latlng) {
  map.getCurrentMapType().getMaxZoomAtLatLng(latlng, function(response) {
    if (response && response['status'] == G_GEO_SUCCESS) {
      map.setCenter(latlng, response['zoom']);
    }
  });
}

As you can see, the response object contains a status code, and, if the response was successful, a zoom field containing the maximum zoom at that point.

Click on the map below, and it will zoom to the highest zoom level available at the point at which you clicked.

Note that this function is only implemented for satellite imagery, and not roadmaps, whose zoom levels don't vary nearly as much. It works for both the G_SATELLITE_MAP and G_HYBRID_MAP map types. The full reference is available here.

We hope this function makes developing with satellite imagery a simpler, easier and fuller experience. Please provide any feedback in the Maps API Google Group.

Posted by Jez Fletcher, Maps API team

The primary motivation behind this new version was speed, especially for rendering maps on mobile browsers. Last year, several of us starting thinking about the possibility of getting the JavaScript Maps API to work on mobile devices. With the advent of powerful, fully functional browsers on devices such as the iPhone and the Android-based G1, why couldn't we bring the flexibility and reach of modern web development to people who wanted to write maps mashups for mobile phones? While we've been able to get the existing v2 API working on mobile browsers, we found we were constrained when trying to reduce latency and we needed a new approach. And thus was born the idea for the next revision of the Maps API.

We wanted to get this in your hands as soon as possible, so we've intentionally released it early, and with a basic set of features. We're releasing it in Labs because it's not fully baked yet; we want to get your feedback on the new design and what you'd like to see in future revisions now that we have a chance for a fresh start. Yes, this does mean that you'll have to rewrite your existing mashup code if you want to take advantage of v3, but we think that speed is very important to a great user experience.

What's changed in v3? Besides the substantial improvements in speed, a few other things that you'll notice in the initial release:

• iPhone Safari mobile and Chrome added to our supported browsers. Your mashups will also work on Android-based phones with the recent update, but you may notice some issues, like the "View/Save Image" dialog showing unexpectedly. We're working with the Android team to fix this and improve the end user's experience in interacting with the map. We could've waited until it's perfect, but we really wanted to get an early release in your hands and start getting feedback while we fix up a few remaining issues.
• No keys required. You can now copy 'n paste code easily or embed in RSS readers, for example, without getting key errors.
• MVC-based architecture. This allowed us to significantly reduce the size of our initial JavaScript download. We found it to be simple and powerful.
• Default UI is enabled automatically. We'll provide default UI controls and behavior (and we'll update them) so your mashup can keep up with the latest and greatest changes we make to Google Maps. Of course, if you've got customized controls you're happy with, you can disable the default UI updates.
• Namespaces. Everything is always in the google.maps.* namespace and there is no "G" prefixed variables in the global scope.
• Geocoding API has been overhauled based on the feedback we've received with the existing implementation over the past three years.

What does the API look like? Here's a quick, complete example that you can grab to render a map. It's even set up to render a full-screen interactive map on the iPhone and Android browsers.

<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no">
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  function initialize() {
    var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644);
    var myOptions = {
      zoom: 8,
      center: latlng,
      mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    };
    var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions);
  }
</script>
</head>
<body onload="initialize()">
 <div id="map_canvas" style="width:100%; height:100%">
</body>
</html>

We've set up a new group for you to provide feedback. Also, the terms have been updated to remind you that versions we release as "experimental" or in Labs may not have the same level of support as ones that are already out of Labs. This means that we'll continue to support the current v2 API well after v3 matures and graduates from Labs. In the meantime, we're looking forward to adding a lot more functionality to this new release so please send us your feedback!

Posted by Mickey Kataria, Product Manager

With the recent announcement of Google Code Labs, we wanted to update you on what's happening with the Maps and Earth APIs. We're excited to tell you that none of the Maps APIs (JavaScript, Flash, Static, Mapplets) or the Earth API are in labs. Furthermore, we've taken the opportunity to remove the 'beta' label from the Maps and Earth APIs. The original Maps API has been around for more than three years. Thanks to the hard work of dozens of people, the APIs have been very stable and become mature products that are used by sites and applications of all sizes. Our stability and commitment to supporting the APIs shouldn't be a big surprise for most of you, but now you've got it in writing too. :)

While the overall APIs are not in labs, there is one recent feature that is still experimental: AIR support in the Maps API for Flash. From time to time, as we release new features that are more of an experimental nature, we may let them bake in labs for some time. As with Google Labs and Google Code Labs, we'd like to get early feedback and see how you use these experimental features before making a long term commitment to them.

As always, please continue sending your feedback in the appropriate forum:

• JavaScript and Static Maps APIs
• Maps API for Flash
• Mapplets
• Earth API

We've also set up "notify" groups that you can sign up for if you just want to see the important updates, e.g. new releases. You can sign up from the home page of each API or use the links below:

• JavaScript and Static Maps APIs announcements
• Maps API for Flash announcements
• Mapplets announcements
• Earth API announcements

From time to time we release updates to the terms of service governing our products. We recently released an updated version of the Google Maps API Terms of Service. Based on feedback from that update, we are releasing a revised version today. The Google Maps API TOS is intended to satisfy several goals: it gives Google the rights needed to operate a service which overlays content on the map, gives us the ability to showcase popular mashup sites, and allows us to index and provide search over Maps API sites so that Google users can find them.

What changed and why? A key goal for the November 12th revision was to eliminate a number of unpopular restrictions, including the prohibition on friend finder applications and non-"site" mashups. We also eliminated ambiguity about whether it's OK to use the API w/ password-protected free sites (it is). Additionally, we streamlined the format of the terms, eliminating the need for developers to reference multiple sets of incorporated terms of service, including the Google Terms of Service and the Google Maps Terms of Service to figure out what rights and obligations applied to their use of the Maps API.

That format change appears to have called attention to the "License From You to Google" - section 11 in the November 12th update. That content license has always been part of the Google Maps API Terms of Service, because it is contained in the Google Terms of Service. Both the original and the November 12th updated Terms of Service relied on that provision to ensure Google received a sufficient content license to provide the Maps API service and to promote the service, including by highlighting excellent mashups as we did here. That section does not provide Google a license to all of the content on your Maps API site to use for any purpose, nor is that how we have treated the content from existing Maps API sites that were developed under the terms that existed prior to the November 12th update. Section 11(b), which we initially included in the November 12th update, created a lot of confusion among our API developers who are publishing licensed content. In 11(b) we were trying to be clear that we wanted a broader license from Maps API developers for use of business listings information. However, given the confusion that resulted, we removed that language from today's revision of the terms.

Thank you for using the Google Maps API. We look forward to continuing to create great products together with you.