Beginning Google Maps Applications

In the last few weeks we’ve seen an explosion of people complaining about the lack of asinh() on the Windows version of PHP. We use the asinh() function extensively in Chapter 7 for the custom tile overlays. Admittedly, we didn’t test any of the code against windows versions of PHP (we’re LAMP folks), so until […]

One thing every Maps developer notices eventually, is that the API’s imagery doesn’t exactly match that which is on Google Maps itself.
Check out the two maps of uptown Waterloo, below. The image on the left is a shot of the API, while the one on the right is from Google Maps. Not only is the […]

Last week, I demonstrated some tools for importing Shapefile data into an SQL database. It’s time to put that stuff to work.
If you’re in a rush, here’s the final demo: translucent state overlays on a Google Map. It’s not the quickest thing in the world, nor is it entirely quirk-free; it exists as an initial […]

Yesterday Google Maps Mania announced that New Zealand and Australia now had address searching on maps.google.com. Last night I started drafting a post that suggested that geocoding for these two countries couldn’t be too far behind. Well, before I could even press “publish” Google announced exactly that.
The examples in Chapter 4 will work perfectly well […]

Just a quick post to let you know that we’ve added some links to some reverse geocoding services on the geocoders page.
Request for Help: Anyone with a handheld GPS device is encouraged to contact us if they are interested in helping with an experiment requiring worldwide participation. There will probably be a free book or […]