Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth (ExtremeTech)

Introduction

D

o you know where you are?

Do you know where you are going?

Could you find the nearest restaurant to your current location?

When you looked at your latest holiday photos, could you remember where you were?

It is just these sorts of questions that drove me to write this book. I’m interested in the answers

to all of these questions, and particularly in ways in which I can represent information about

my world, and the world we live in, in a way that relates that data to its location.

During the course of writing this book I visited New York (U.S.), Edinburgh (Scotland), and

Sorrento (Italy), in addition to many different places within a few miles of my home. In each

case, Google Maps and Google Earth could be used to record information about where I had

been, to look up information about where I was going, or simply to help me understand the

area I was visiting. All of these situations, and more, are documented and described within this

book.

Who This Book Is For

This book is aimed at both amateur and professional programmers who want to make use of

either Google Maps or Google Earth in their own applications. To get the best out of this

book, you should have some basic programming experience and ideally be familiar with

HTML and JavaScript. It would also be beneficial to have experience with scripting languages

(particularly Perl) and SQL databases, such as MySQL.

Managers and other interested parties might also find sections of the book useful, because it

can help them understand how the applications work and also provide background knowledge

on what Google Maps and Google Earth are capable of.

How This Book Is Organized

The book is divided into four basic parts:

Part I covers the basics of the Google Maps interface, the fundamentals of the Google Maps

API, and how to organize and translate existing information into a format that can successfully

be used within Google Maps and Google Earth applications. The section should get you up to

speed on the core techniques and abilities you need to work with the rest of the book.

03_790095 flast.qxp 6/12/06 1:28 PM Page xxi