Google Maps

Posted by Fadzuli

June 28, 2007

This is really an incredible tool created by Google. The amount of effort and technological development is really surprising. Google is moving a few steps ahead from its competitors and surprising with such a simple idea it have made millions happy.

I used to use http://www.streetdirectory.com.sg to look for areas and maps but for people who wish to embed such maps to their own websites may realise that they have to pay about more than 20K for those rights from streetdirectory.com.sg.

Ok what am i talking about. OK let’s say that you require a map to show visitors how to get to your home for a certain event. If you happen to use streetdirectory.com.sg and post the map on your blog or website without prior notice and paying royalties to them, you may just end up sued.

The advantages of using google map is that its free. The map that it generates comes from the satelite images itself and it has three different settings, Map, Satellite and Hybrid.

Map - will show you a roads and name of main buildings.
Satellite - will show you how the buildings will look like, roads will not be highlighted here .
Hybrid - is a combination of both Map and Satellite.

Zooming functions. It zooms without refreshing the page. Really increadible. The pages load on real time when you shift the map to the left or right. Just to do this, as a developer and programmer, i feel that it would taken me hundred of hours just to do the equivalent or may be not achievable at all.

Cons…

In order for you to embed these maps, you will require to understand the Google API
and Javascripts. Not really for the non-techy people stuff but for non tech people i would recommend that you go to http://maps.google.com. To start searching for your areas, make sure especially for singapore, you type as so “Orchard Road, Singapore”. Unlike streetdirectory.com.sg, google map is global program and it cannot just find areas without the specific details.

Other examples are

Masjid Ghufran, Singapore
Safti Military Institute

Something bad about google maps is that they did not block out the military or key installations cos you can see exactly the buildings of these sensitive areas. Kind of scary if you ask me!! The army dont really need to recce these areas anymore, they can all get the details from here.

Other than that, for those who wants to create wedding cards and so on, this will be a plus for you as you dont need to draw out the buildings. OK maybe touch up a bit but most work already done for you and its really updated.

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