My mom maintains a set of genealogy web pages and she just might use
Google Maps to mark grave sites and old homesteads and such, if only
she knew Javascript.  Which got me thinking... I bet a lot of people
know HTML but not Javascript and would like to put some maps on their
pages.

And thus Google Maps EZ was born: http://bluweb.com/chouser/gmapez/

This lets you use standard HTML tags (with a few special keywords) to
embed maps, add multiple markers, specify default pan zoom and map
types, and even add info windows, all without touching Javascript.

Let me know what you think!
--Chouser

Very cool.
One recommendation: Add a way to make a GMapTypeControl that's
instantiated like so:
new GMapTypeControl(true);
That's a little known and undocumented feature that makes the buttons
have only the first three letters of the map spec name, like in the
turn-maps in any set of driving directions. Makes the buttons smaller
and fit better in small maps. You could call it GSmallTypeControl or
something.

Ok, but my mom doesn't know html either.

have you seen http://mapbuilder.net/ (not my site), its been up for
some time, does similar to what you are doing, but you dont have to
write any html or javascript, just input your info, select a few
options and you get a map...

Ah, excellent. Thanks, I'll do that.
--Chouser

I was looking for something like that, but the only links I could find
on the wiki or here were to similar but inferior sites.
http://mapbuilder.net/ looks like a good one.

I think I'll keep my EZ project going for now, since it makes it easy
to put multiple maps on the same page, and I think the HTML you have to
maintain is a bit more approachable.

--Chouser

Your program works great.  Thanks for the help. Here is my map with
your program.
http://members.cox.net/maps/maps

 EZ Map works great. Here is a map that I made with EZ Map, it has
about 40 markers on it showing accomadations and golf courses used for
Little Peoples Golf Tournament held in Illinois. Thanks for your help
http://members.cox.net/maps/littlepeoplesmap

Hi,

Is there a recommended way to manage a ton of points in EZ Map?  I'm
trying to create a map with thousands of points, and this slows the
browser to a crawl/crash.  Is this something I'm going to need to use
XML+RPC for?

Is the basic idea that you need to load new points every time the user
moves the map?  If so what is the best way to figure out which points
to display?  I'm storing points based on lat/long -- must I make a
script which queries my DB for points close to the center point of the
current map and return XML points from this info?  That's going to be a
pain because I'm not looking forward to calculating distance of every
point from a point (although I guess pythagorous can do this for me?).
Is there a simpler solution?

Must I abandon EZ Map for this type of application?  It's such a simple
elegant little guy, I'd love to be able to use it.

Thanks,
Zach