Googlified

The Google Maps team today released a new API today that doesn’t require scripting. Basically you just have to create a parameterized URL according to the documentation, (or simply copy & paste the URL you created using the wizard), then copy & paste the URL in a HTML <img> tag and off you go. :)

There’s a query limit of “1000 unique image requests per user per day” and a size limit of 512×512 pixels. I created something similar like over a year ago that doesn’t have the query limit (I think) and the size limit is 2000*2000 pixels - about 15x of the official one, but the downside is it doesn’t offer all those fancy markers.

I don’t think it will be that hard to overcome the official limits, by either using CSS or server-side (or whatever you think is a better approach) to combine several images together.