Google Maps V3 Offers Easier, Faster API
Google has announced the next major version of its Maps API. While Google has added features to the API at a pretty regular pace, the Maps API hasn’t seen a major rewrite in almost three years.
The new Google Maps API v3 promises a simpler, faster set of tools and has been optimized for the small screen with the iPhone’s Mobile Safari and Google Chrome making the list of supported browsers. Your mashups should also work on Android’s browser with only a few small issues.
Although version 3 is currently only in the testing phase, there are several big changes that should make it an appealing upgrade for developers.
- You no longer need an API key — If you’ve ever tried cutting and pasting code from Google Maps tutorials, only to get API key errors, your pain is gone. Cut and paste with abandon.
- Smaller JavaScript download — The API has been refactored with an emphasis on using MVC architecture. The result is a smaller JavaScript file, making for significantly faster page loads.
- The Default UI is enabled automatically — There’s no need to add zooming or other controls to your map under the new API. It’s a small change, but it saves a few lines of code and makes developers’ lives easier. Of course, if you’ve been using your own, custom UI controls you can still do so.
- Chrome and Mobile Safari have been added to the list of supported browsers. While your mashups should work on Android-based phones with the most recent update, Google does caution that there may be some issues during this Labs testing phase.
For a complete rundown on what’s new and changed in Google Maps API v3 check out the reference page on Google Labs and the documentation. There’s also a new Google Group for gathering developer feedback on v3.
While Google is calling the new API “experimental,” I went ahead and ran some of the demo code in the browser. I can safely say that if you don’t mind the beta status, the speed improvements alone are well worth any risk of reliability.
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