Revision as of 16:00, 6 August 2010

Google maps are a wonderful interactive tool. We are using them on dlo quite a lot as well.

Embedding

If you're interesting in embedding google maps on your own web pages (please do!), our own recommendations are as follow.

MediaWiki

There is a wonderful extension called (appropriately) Google Maps by Evan Miller. This is the best I have tried so far, and don't feel like trying something else (it does all that you want painlessly).

WordPress

There are a lot of widgets but you may have to try many of them to find the one that fits your needs/habits.

• MapPress is a popular choice but a bit over-the-top for the actual services it provides. It seems to overload a lot the servers. I found out I had connexions to google maps even when posts (and that's most of them) were not containing any map.

• Xml google maps looks pretty good with a lot of configurable options, but it has an ugly ad to link to the plugin's webpage. Also it's a bit of an overkill if you want simple things (but looks strong for more complex applications). Finally, documentation is exasperating.

• Simple Google Map mistakes simple with simplified. Its main restriction is that it allows only one marker.

Applications

• For the 10 000 IP hit on our web, we displayed a map with locations of visitors. You can read how we did it.
• We have the project to make a map of our trips with a selection of our best photos.