On my last visit I noticed a post mentioning new functionality that allows you to include the standard user interface elements you get on the main Google Maps site, plus the standard behaviour of keyboard and mouse handling.

To include the new UI and behaviours, include the following code:

// var map = new GMap2(mapDiv);
map.setUIToDefault();

This function will ensure that any updates to the maps.google.com UI will also be reflected on your site without you having to carry out any updates.

Read the full blog post here.

As the maps I wanted to display were only a small addition to the panel providing a quick snapshot of a location, using the full JavaScript API would have been rather unnecessary.

This is where the static maps prove very useful and are an easy and quick addition to any web page, whether or not you use Google’s static map wizard.

Static maps are displayed as images and are configured by a number of parameters sent as part of the image source in the http request, for example:

http://maps.google.com/staticmap?center=51.235912,
-0.751019&zoom=13&size=460x250&key=API_KEY

To use the static maps you are required to sign up for a Google Maps API key which can be obtained from here, although if you already have a JS API key this can be used.

When it comes to road map views the static maps provide you with many of the features available in the JS version, including but not limited to zoom levels, markers and polyline paths.

One downside I encountered was that static maps does not provide the ability to display satellite or hybrid imagery, or at least as far as I am aware.

There is also a query limit of 1000 unique (different) image requests per viewer per day, but a quick browse at the Google Group for the Maps API highlighted a few posts encouraging people to cache their results.

Even if you prefer to stick to the JS version at least now you can display some form of output to any visitors without JavaScript or with JS disabled, although they’re not as dynamic at least there’s something for them visually.

UPDATE

Since originally posting this, Google have announced the new static map features on the Google Maps API Blog, bringing to our attention the introduction of the new marker styles, paths, map image formats and the ability to translate labels into a number of languages. Read the full post here.