What’s Next for the Google Maps API?

Abstract

As this book goes to press, the Google Maps API is still very much in development; its feature set continues to change and improve. As the API increases in popularity and new methods are added, it’s often necessary to alter the way things work to enable new capabilities or provide more consistency throughout the API as a whole. Version 2, for example, split the GPoint class into separate GPoint and GLatLng classes, each with enhanced capabilities corresponding to their respective roles in handling pixel coordinates and geographical locations. In reversing the zoom levels, which may have been an annoyance to developers, Google allowed the maps to support as many detail levels as the satellite photography (or your custom overlay) warrants.