Featuring step-by-step examples, this practical resource gets you started programming the Google Maps API with JavaScript in no time. Learn how to embed maps on web pages, annotate the embedded maps with your data, generate KML files to store and reuse your map data, and enable client applications to request spatial data through web services.

Google Maps: Power Tools for Maximizing the API explains techniques for visualizing masses of data and animating multiple items on the map. You'll also find out how to embed Google maps in desktop applications to combine the richness of the Windows interface with the unique features of the API. You can use the numerous samples included throughout this hands-on guide as your starting point for building customized applications.

• Create map-enabled web pages with a custom look
• Learn the JavaScript skills required to exploit the Google Maps API
• Create highly interactive interfaces for mapping applications
• Embed maps in desktop applications written in .NET
• Annotate maps with labels, markers, and shapes
• Understand geodesic paths and shapes and perform geodesic calculations
• Store geographical data in KML format
• Add GIS features to mapping applications
• Store large sets of geography data in databases and perform advanced spatial queries
• Use web services to request spatial data from within your script on demand
• Automate the generation of standalone web pages with annotated maps
• Use the Geocoding and Directions APIs
• Visualize large data sets using symbols and heatmaps
• Animate items on a map

Bonus online content includes:

• A tutorial on The SQL Spatial application
• A bonus chapter on animating multiple airplanes
• Three appendices: debugging scripts in the browser; scalable vector graphics; and applying custom styles