Google Maps Hacks--O'Reilly's Latest Release

For Immediate Release
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Mapping Online Gets Personal and Creative
"Google Maps Hacks"--O'Reilly's Latest Release

Sebastopol, CA--Asking for directions has never been this much fun. Google
Maps is changing the landscape of online mapping applications. Now finding
local pizza places, the best meeting places, or even the cheapest gas
stations, is an interactive experience that allows the user to get as much
detail as desired.  As with any great technology, individual users often
figure out how to make it work even better. "Google Maps Hacks" (Erle and
Gibson, O'Reilly, US $29.99) is the perfect book for anyone interested in
creating customized, interactive maps for personal or commercial use.

With the tricks and techniques found in "Google Maps Hacks," anyone can
adapt Google's satellite map features to create interactive maps for
personal applications or for businesses ranging from real estate, to
package delivery, to home services, transportation, and more. Such diverse
information as apartment listings, crime reporting or flight routes can be
integrated with Google's satellite imagery in creative ways, to yield new
and useful applications. Readers will learn how to:

-Take advantage of Google's location search interfaces and map navigation
 shortcuts
-Explore the world with maps, satellite photos, or a combination of both
-Create personalized links to Google's maps
-Put personalized markers--and more--on the map
-Find mashups, sites in which Google's maps have been combined with other
 data
-Use Google for navigation, wardriving, and even beating traffic tickets
-Integrate personal GIS-based maps with Google's maps
-Discover (and avoid) the errors made in maps
-Add photos and Flash applets to Google's maps

Written by Schuyler Erle and Rich Gibson (with a foreword by Google Maps
tech leads, Jens and Lars Rasmussen), "Google Maps Hacks" shares dozens of
tricks for combining the capabilities of Google's Keyhole map feature with
users' own datasets, so users can create interactive maps for unlimited
personal and commercial applications.

"We begin 'Google Maps Hacks' with a complete introduction to the
"standard" features of Google Maps. Then we continue our adventure with
sixty useful and interesting mapping projects that demonstrate ways
developers have added their own features to the maps," said Rich Gibson.
"After that gets your brain percolating, you learn to apply the techniques
and tools to add your own data to customize and manipulate Google Maps.
It's a fun ride."


Additional Resources:

For more information about the book series, including table of contents,
and author bios, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/googlemapshks/

For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596101...

Google Maps Hacks
Rich Gibson and Schuyler Erle
ISBN: 0-596-10161-9, 366 pages, $29.99 US, $41.99 CAN
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