Starting with Google Mapping
You can add maps to your web site using the Google Mapping API that is now available. It works with the major browsers, but use caution on others. You can see a sample page at:
http://www.netadventures.biz/maps.htm
It’s not hard to do a page like this. To start, go to:
You will need an API key to fill this out. At the left menu you can find a hyperlink to Google to get your API key. This is free, but you do need to register with Google and enter the URL for the home page of the web site where you will add the map. Copy the API to your clipboard.
Return to the previous site and enter the API and fill out the rest of the page. You can either enter the address and let Google geocode it to the latitude and longitude or you can enter the latitude and longitude from your personal GPS (if you have one or one you can borrow).
Note: Trusting Google to geocode it may give some amount of error, and won’t work at all if the street is new and not in Google’s geocoding directory.
Once this page is submitted, a sample map is generated and two pieces of the HTML code to create the map are shown. One short piece is pasted into the page where you want the map. The other piece goes at the very end of the HTML code (the instructions tell where.).
Now upload your page and give it a whirl. That’s all there is to it.
As you might guess, there is already a very good blog for those doing Google mapping. Find it at:
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
There is plenty of material on the Internet for taking your Google mapping further.