Google Maps Platform

Traffic estimates now available for enterprise customers in the Google Maps API

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Time in current traffic has been a feature of Google Maps since March 2012. Today we are excited to announce this great feature for our Enterprise customers. Using both live and historic traffic data, the Google Maps API enables you to see the estimated length of time your journey might take. In areas where the information is available, this feature evaluates current traffic conditions and is constantly being refreshed with the most accurate, up-to-date estimate possible.

If you are using the Directions API or the Directions Service in the Javascript Maps API, just make a simple change to your existing directions requests and the new data will be added to your response.

{ "routes" : [

{ "legs" : [

   {

     ...,

     "duration" : {

       "text" : "35 mins",

       "value" : 2093

     },

     "duration_in_traffic" : {

       "text" : "46 mins",

       "value" : 2767

     },

     ...

   }

]}

]}

Not a Geo Enterprise customer? Contact Sales now to take advantage of this and other awesome features.

Posted by Dilshan Angampitiya, Software Engineer, Google Geo APIs

Map of the Week: University of Washington Campus Map

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Map of the Week:University of Washington Campus MapWhy we like it:Google Directions APIUniversity of Washington500 buildings and over 20 million gross square feet of space

Northeastern UniversityUCSD Bus MapUniversidad de MurciaGoogle Developers ShowcasePosted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Map of Week: TheReelBox

Thursday, March 29, 2012

[As a new feature of the Geo Developers Blog, we’ll be featuring one great Google Maps API site a week as part of our new “Map of the Week” series.]Map of the Week:TheReelBoxWhy we like it:Google Directions API

Peter ReinhardtTheReelBoxTheReelBoxRotten TomatoesFandangoGoogle Maps APITheReelBoxGoogle Directions API

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

A good day for salesmen that travel on bicycles

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Directions in Maps API v3

Avoid highways and tolls. If you prefer to take the road less traveled you can now generate routes that avoid highways. Similarly, if you find yourself a little short of loose change, you can avoid tolls.

Route optimization. Have many places to go but no preference as to the order you visit them in? We can now reorder the waypoints of your route to minimize the distance and time you must travel. Very useful for traveling salesman I hear.

Bicycling directions. Prefer your vehicles of the two wheeled human powered variety? In conjunction with the launch of Bicycling directions in Google Maps you can now also request directions in Maps API v3 that are tailored to your Penny-farthing.

Maps API V3 ServicesPosted by Thor Mitchell, Maps API Product Manager

Directions in the Maps API v3: Where will you go from here?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

One of the primary uses of a map has always been to figure out how to get from point A to point B. Until now the only way users of our Maps API v3 could put directions on their map was to draw a straight polyline and tell people to fly. Well, fret no more: we've just released Directions in v3, and rather than just porting it over from v2, we've given it a complete makeover and hope you'll like the new look.So, what does the new Directions interface look like? We've split the GDirections object from v2 into two separate classes that work together to give you routing goodness. DirectionsService passes directions queries to our server and returns the results in JSON format, while DirectionsRenderer displays the results on your map. The 'load' event from v2 has been removed; instead, a callback function containing your rendering code is passed to the DirectionsService when making a new query.We've also introduced a couple of options for specifing the kind of results that you want returned from our server. If there's more than one way to get from A to B, you can opt to retrieve all of them with provideTripAlternatives, and if the imperial system offends you, just tell the DirectionsService that you always want metric units returned by using unitSystem. Here's a code snippet that adds directions to a map and step-by-step instructions to an accompanying panel, as well as specifying both of the new options:
var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), {
zoom: 7,
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP,
center: new google.maps.LatLng(-33.868011, 151207566)
});

var directionsRenderer = new google.maps.DirectionsRenderer();
directionsRenderer.setMap(map);
directionsRenderer.setPanel(document.getElementById('directionsPanel'));

var directionsService = new google.maps.DirectionsService();
var request = {
origin: "Sydney, NSW",
destination: "Chatswood, NSW",
travelMode: google.maps.DirectionsTravelMode.DRIVING,
unitSystem: google.maps.DirectionsUnitSystem.METRIC,
provideTripAlternatives: true
};
directionsService.route(request, function(response, status) {
if (status == google.maps.DirectionsStatus.OK) {
directionsRenderer.setDirections(response);
} else {
alert('Error: ' + status);
}
});
You'll get something that looks like this:

To get started, take a look at the reference and an explanation of the concepts involved, as well as the examples. As always, tell us if you have any questions or comments. We may not choose the most interesting route for you to travel on, but you can rest assured that if you ever want to drive from Seattle to Honolulu, we'll...draw a straight polyline and tell you to kayak*.Bon voyage!* because we don't know if your car is watertight.Posted by Jennifer Chye, Maps API team

Simulating Driving Directions with the Earth API and Maps' Directions API

Monday, August 4, 2008

Posted by Roman Nurik, Earth API Team
Howdy, y'all. My name is Roman Nurik and I'm a newly minted member of the Google Geo APIs team. Some of you may already know me from the Earth Browser Plug-in Google Group. I recently started at Google's headquarters after 4 years at Boston University studying Computer Science and Marketing. My task here at Google is to help you all become experts with the Earth API and KML. In about 5 minutes, you'll realize how psyched I am about it, too.
First Impressions of the Earth API
Back in May before I joined the team, I remember reading one day that Google had released an Earth browser plugin. It really felt like a great moment; finally, immersive and lifelike exploration of geographic content was available to end users on the web, for free. Web developers were also given a cutting-edge tool to marry their existing geo-aware web apps with Google Earth, in all its spherical 3D glory (Maps/Earth integration mode ala G_SATELLITE_3D_MAP).

A few days after I started at Google on the Earth API team, I found a video of Paul Rademacher's Google I/O talk introducing the plugin. It got me thinking—if we can do fun stuff like drive a milk truck around a city crowded with 3D models of real buildings, and fly said milk truck off of our favorite local mountains, can we take this first-person-driver (FPD) concept and apply it to a more real-world problem? The problem of, say, familiarizing yourself with a new driving route before embarking on it in real life? The answer was clear: of course we can! And in that moment, the idea of an Earth plugin driving directions simulator was born!
The Google Earth Plug-in Driving Simulator
After a surprisingly short time fiddling with the Earth and Maps APIs, the first version of the simulator was up and running. Pamela Fox and Mano Marks contributed some ideas and suggestions and the app grew rapidly! Today, I'd like to share the final result with all of you: the Google Earth Plug-in Driving Simulator. Please give the app a spin! Since the plugin currently only supports Windows, users who prefer Mac and Linux will need to borrow a Windows machine. Also, special thanks to the talented artist who contributed the Smart car model used in the app to 3D Warehouse.

Some screenshots (because 3 pictures are worth three thousand words):

The driving directions backend is powered by the GDirections API, which IMHO is a rock star. I also used jQuery, one of my favorite JavaScript libraries, to take the brunt of the work out of Firefox and IE compatible DOM manipulation.

If you have questions on how everything comes together, definitely post them to the previously mentioned Earth plug-in group and I'll be sure to clear things up.
Thanks for reading!
I've had a great experience writing this small app and I'm really psyched to help you all get pumped up and ready to code with the awesome new Earth API. For those of you who haven't tried it out yet—what are you waiting for? As with all of our APIs, the developer community is growing and providing free support at the Earth Browser Plug-in Google Group if you run into trouble. We'd also love to see the cool stuff you're working on!

Thanks for reading; have fun with the driving simulator app! Even more so, have fun with the Earth API! And as always, stay tuned to the Geo Developers blog for more Earthy goodness.

Maps Platform

Traffic estimates now available for enterprise customers in the Google Maps API

Map of the Week: University of Washington Campus Map

Map of Week: TheReelBox

A good day for salesmen that travel on bicycles

Directions in the Maps API v3: Where will you go from here?

Simulating Driving Directions with the Earth API and Maps' Directions API

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