Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Bookmark a Google Map or Post It on Your Web Page

Google Maps makes deep use of JavaScript to dynamically redraw the map without (apparent) requests to the server. This means that the location bar in your browser does not get updated. This only becomes an issue when you decide to bookmark a map to use later.

When you bookmark Google Maps, you find that you've bookmarked the overview map of the whole United Statesalmost certainly not what you intended! Fortunately Google has provided a way out. Next to the Email link, under the Map and Satellite links, is a link to "Link to this page," as shown in picture


picture by Mapsandearth

Clicking "Link to this page" updates the address bar in your browser. Now you can bookmark the page in your browser or share the link on del.icio.us [Hack #9]or copy the link from the address bar and paste it into your own web page. alternatively, you can right-click on "Link to this page" and select Copy Link Location (in Firefox) or Copy Shortcut (in Internet Explorer) to copy the link directly to the clipboard.

To post a link on your web page:

  1. Find a map that you like.

  2. Right-click on "Link to this page" and select the Copy option.

  3. Paste the link into your web page within an appropriate anchor tag.

For example, here is a link to a map of Salina, Kansas: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Salina,+KS&spn=0.124512,0.215467&hl=en.

You could include it in your web page with this HTML:


 
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