Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: function addmarker, var map, saved route, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Local (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Code examples are extensive. A comfortable read in readily understandable 'how to' format."GEO:connexion May 2008

Product Description

This one-of-a-kind resource contains 500 pages of jaw-dropping hacks, mods, and customizations. These include creating mashups with data from other sources such as Flickr, building a space station tracker, hacking Maps with Firefox PiggyBank, and building a complete community site with Maps and Earth. Now you can map out locations, get driving directions, zoom into any point on the globe, display real time traffic, and much more.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; illustrated edition edition (July 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471790095
• ISBN-13: 978-0471790099
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #281,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Organized, clearly written, but misleading title, August 31, 2006

By	Shaun W. Taylor (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While I enjoyed the author's clear writing style, and I was pleased to see that the level of detail and explanation given in each chapter is consistent, I did not find the book's content to be particularly valuable.

The book is organized very well, and it reads like a Google Maps tutorial, rather than a hacks book. The flow from chapter to chapter is similar to the Maps API online documentation, which makes following along with Google's documentation a breeze while reading the book.

The first 100 pages were introductory, describing Google Local, the Maps API, ways to store and share information, and so on in very general terms. This puts all users on equal footing, but it seemed odd to see so much basic information in a book about hacking Google Maps.

One thing that shocked me, especially given the approach taken in the first 100 pages, was to see all of the examples written in Perl. If the introductory lessons are needed by anyone, chances are that programming / scripting is new to him/her, and I don't see Perl as the appropriate language to learn at that point.

Version 1 of the API is used throughout the book, but version 2 was released in April 2006. Version 2 is largely backwards compatible, but Google has asked everyone to move to version 2, saying that v1 support can be turned off at any point. This doesn't take away from the value of the lessons, but it does add some overhead. I consulted Google's documentation and adjusted all of the books examples for the api changes as I read.

Another thing that particularly surprised me was the mention of using scraping techniques to extract geocoding data, without mentioning the drawbacks to doing so. Personally, I avoid scraping like the plague. There's no better way to break an app than to scrape its data. Geocoding is part of the v2 api, btw.

To summarize, the book is a clearly laid out introduction to using the Google Maps API, and it is written well, but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend. For an introduction to maps, I would consult Google's much-improved online documentation, and O'Reilly's "Google Maps Hacks" is a better read for what I would consider hacks (also written to api v1).

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Limited info on Google Earth, August 10, 2006

By	CJ - See all my reviews

If you are primarily interested in Google Earth, use Web based resources. Material on Google Earth is limited and appears to be appended to a book written on Google Maps.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Already out of date, but still worth the read, November 18, 2006

By	Eric Lund "GPS nut" (Helena, MT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although I really enjoy this book, it's too bad that it's already out of date (as mentioned in other reviews).

As someone with very little previous experience with JavaScript, I found this book to be really helpful it describing how to make stuff happen. I personally have found the Google Maps API Documentation to be far too terse and difficult to figure out; kinda like reading a dictionary to learn how to write.

This book takes the simplistic Google examples and builds on to them to give you a better idea of how you might actually build an application.

True, "Hacking Google Maps" might not be the best title for the book ("Introduction to Google Maps" might be more appropriate) but it was a very well written and useful book for getting my own Google Maps mash-up going.