Google continues to ramp up Google Maps’ marketing and education to lure more users to its Web services.
Today, the company aggregated the information Website and blog owners need to add a Google map to their sites.
The new Google Maps Get Maps Web page tells novice map makers how to do anything from plotting locations to embedding driving directions, and provides more advanced custom mapping options for programmers.
Google Product Marketing Manager Mike Pegg explained the value of the site with hypothetical situations, which could be actual use cases and probably were or will be at some point.
On the quick map front, Pegg said event planner Katie needs to build a map with 10 markers plotting event locations and display it on a Web page for an event that will be happening tomorrow. What Google Maps tool should she use, Pegg wonders rhetorically. His answer:
“When Katie arrives at this site she follows the easy steps to create a My Map. She selects the size of the map she wants to embed and copies the auto-generated HTML and adds it to the event Web site. She even customizes a slightly smaller version for the event blog which she decides to embed in a post to let attendees know about the map. She sends a quick e-mail to her team with a link to the map.“
Google provides a quick map plotting scenario in four steps:
Pegg also has a scenario for advanced mapping on the Google Lat Long blog here. This includes the ability to compare the features of two Google Maps APIs and tells users how to reach out to a certified Google Maps developer.
Google also provides some examples of how 150,000-plus Websites, including the New York Times, Yelp, Kayak and Zipcar, use Google Maps.
Google launched a similar tutorial Website for its Google Maps Street View tool on Aug. 4.
In that exercise, Google shared information about subjects such as the motor vehicles Google employs to make the panoramic, street-level mapping feature possible and the actions users can take to request that inappropriate pictures be removed.
I said it then and I’ll say it again: This is a welcome overture from Google toward being more transparent. It will also help hold the hands of users who might be a little stumped as to how to add Google maps to Websites.