November 10, 2006 - Google Maps for your Web Site!
Again I am blogging about Google Maps and how amazing of a service it is. In the last couple of weeks we have implemented the Google Maps feature into the Community Information Database at www.lspc.ca/circ. Visitors can now look up a community or government organization by keywords, subject or alphabetically and easily print out a map of the location.

Google does not charge to use their service, all you have to do is sign up for a unique key to use in the source code. They provide detailed instructions on how to set this up but you do have to have some knowledge of JavaScript and possibly a server side language like ASP, ASP.NET or PHP. The system used on the LSPC's web site uses ASP to generate the coordinates and JavaScript to display the Google Map.

• Click here to see an example of how Lakehead University is mapped with Google.

This system will soon be implemented at a few other of our client's web sites including: ThunderBayHouses.com, Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce and Thunder Bay Internet City.

The Google API is very flexible and allows you to mark multiple points, use custom icons, have custom write-ups, and many other features. This is definitely an asset to any database driven web site that contains address information.

• Click here to see an example of integrating Google Maps into your web site.