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By on August 15, 2007

Google Maps Already Available for Blogs!

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It seems a few bloggers are getting excited about the upcoming launch of Google Maps for web sites. The new feature–launching next week–will allow you to embed a Google Map into any web site or blog. It will work in a similar way as embedding a YouTube video.

“To embed a Google Map, users will simply pull up the map they want to embed–it can be a location, a business, series of driving directions, or a My Map they have created–and then click ‘Link to this page’ and copy and paste the HTML into their Web site or blog,” the spokeswoman said.

hawaii-mapIf you can’t wait until next week, and use WordPress, there’s a great plugin that does all of this and more for you. The Geo Mashup plugin is easy to install and allows you to link your blog posts to a Google Map and let your readers actually “see” the corresponding location.

It’s hard to explain, but easier if you see it in action. Take a look at the interactive Hawaii map we placed on GoVisitHawaii.com.

The new feature from Google will allow you to add a map to a specific post page, but the WordPress plugin allows your readers to explore all tagged locations, from a single map.

Hat-tip to Scott, who originally told me about the plugin.


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8 comments on “Google Maps Already Available for Blogs!”

  1. Jaan Kanellis Says:

    August 15th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

    Cant you already do this with Google Map’s API?

  2. Andy Beal Says:

    August 15th, 2007 at 8:26 pm

    Probably – I think the key will be that if you can cut and paste a YouTube video, you’re just about smart enough to use the new embeddable maps. ;-)

  3. ödev sitesi Says:

    August 16th, 2007 at 6:32 am

    i know that we can do it with google map’s api. is that right? anyway thats good news.

  4. Perde Says:

    August 17th, 2007 at 5:28 am

    I’ve seen Google Maps integrated on some site before and it was sort of useful. I think this was by use of Google API. Now things are becoming much easier.

  5. Perde Says:

    August 17th, 2007 at 5:31 am

    http://www.wikimapia.org is for example a very decent application of Google Maps. For those who don’t know it, WikiMapia is an online map and satellite imaging resource that combines Google Maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information (in the form of a note) to any location on Earth.

  6. stor perde Says:

    November 18th, 2007 at 7:22 am

    nice! i apply my blog immediate

  7. Scott Says:

    February 20th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    I highly recomend this plugin. If you have any use for geotagged blogs you need some sort of map in you site. It’s nothing like using the Google Map API directly. Everything is done from the article post page (searching the map for the location, specifying the location etc.) You can also connect the dots of post by category with different color dots and lines. Dylan (the author of the post) is currently working on a big release that incorporates a large number of user requests (some of my I hope).

  8. Jaan Kanellis Says:

    February 20th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

    I am using it to, it is very cool and easy to use.