142 Part II — Instant Gratification
If you click on the list of available Blackbirds or one of the icon points, you get detailed infor-
mation about the plane. The map will hone right in on the Google Earth photo of the plane so
that you can see its precise location. Figure 8-12 shows the Blackbird on the USS Intrepid.FIGURE8-12: Spotting the SR-71 on the USS Intrepid.Wrapping Up
Google Maps can be used to create a variety of different applications, from the most basic
icon-based highlights right up to complex, interactive sites where information from a variety of
sources is merged into a format that does more than simply overlay information onto a map. In
this chapter, you’ve seen some examples of a wide range of map-based applications. Next you
look at a simple way of building an information-driven application that is browser-driven
rather than web site–driven.With the information in this chapter, you should have some ideas and inspiration for your own
maps, as well as a good idea of what the Google Maps system is capable of doing. Often, as
demonstrated by the examples in this chapter, it is not just the map that helps to provide infor-
mation. Outside data and alternative representations of information in combination with the
Google Maps API demonstrate the power and flexibility for providing information.