Map of the Week: Instant Google Street View
Why we like it: Instant Google Street View starts clean, with a simple search box.


As Google, we find this approach very appealing.

As you type, it rapidly updates the page with images from Google Street View...

...until you get where you want to see.


Instant Street View uses the Google Places Library Autocomplete Service to quickly get the location you’re looking for. It uses the Street View Service to display the Street View panoramas. And when you’ve found what you want to look at, you share it via your favorite social media or get a quick map view:



Most of all, we love that it’s fast. So get out there and share some great images from Instant Street View.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations

Since we launched the Place Autocomplete feature of the Google Places API, we’ve been excited to see a number of developers use it to make entering addresses into HTML forms quick and easy for users. Today, we aim to delight developers and their users even more by releasing Query Autocomplete, which includes popular queries alongside place and address predictions, and Javascript Autocomplete Data Services, which allows you to style and mix in your own predictions while using the Google Maps JavaScript API.

Query Autocomplete

Google Places Query Autocomplete is a new feature available as part of both the Google Places API and the Google Maps JS API Places Library. This feature has the same type-ahead-search behavior of the original Place Autocomplete, but just like the Google Maps search field, it returns places, addresses, and popular queries, such as “italian restaurants” or “swimming pool.”

Autocomplete Data Services

In the Places Library of the Google Maps JS API, we first offered Place Autocomplete as a drop-down widget that’s bound to an input element. We wanted to give developers more flexibility, so both Place Autocomplete and Query Autocomplete now have data services that return predictions in a JSON collection. With this collection, you have complete control over your text inputting and autocomplete experience while using the Google Maps JS API.

This control allows for mixing in your own predictions, such as the user’s home location or her favorite restaurant, or styling predictions to better match your application. In the demo below, we used the data service to give our predictions some rotating Google-themed colors.



Our Autocomplete services do not need to be used in conjunction with a map, but it does require a “powered by Google” logo to appear under the text field if a map isn’t shown.

The Google Places API autocomplete services are here as part of our goal to make location-based textual input an effortless experience. Give them a try and let us know what you think!

Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps Developer Advocate

P.S. Submissions for the Places API Developer Challenge are now open. Build an app to help your community and for a chance to win tickets for Google I/O!

Map of the Week: Map of the Dead
Why we like it: This map is a highly creative and innovative use of the Google Places API and Styled Maps. Also invaluable tool for a “zombie apocalypse.”

When the impending zombie apocalypse is upon us the first thing you need to do is find shelter and supplies. Naturally, your first choice should be the Anti-Zombie Fortress. Unfortunately, Google does not have one on campus and my facilities requests have gone unanswered. Therefore, if you’re like me you’ll just have to make do with something else. Luckily for the rest us of there’s Map of the Dead.



Map of the Dead is designed to help the living survive the zombie apocalypse by locating the nearest points of interest that are relevant to survival and identify the danger areas. The first thing you need to do to use this invaluable tool is to enter your address. The site uses HTML5 Geolocation to tell where you are, but if you need enter an address manually the Google Places Autocomplete API ensures that an address can be quickly populated automatically, saving precious seconds.



Danger areas are identified on the map using the Styled Maps. Red areas denote where zombies are most likely to roam, while dark areas are typically less populated and therefore less likely to have feeding zombies. After finding shelter, the next most important aspect to surviving the zombie apocalypse is having the right supplies. Using the Google Places API, Map of the Dead displays the most relevant points of interests nearby; such as hospitals, outdoor supply stores, and police stations.

We hope this map has helped you understand how your neighborhood would fare in such a event. Thanks to the developers from Doejo for making this our map of the week!

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

It’s Fab Friday again! I missed last week, felled by a nasty cold. But you can’t keep Fab Friday down. Just back, I decided to roll out this screencast on Autocomplete in the Places Library of the Google Maps API:

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do with autocomplete.

Continuing my attachment to maps of imaginary places, here’s a map of Skyrim, from the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The map uses the Google Maps API Custom Map Type to display custom tiles.

I also love tools that allow you to create your own maps, like Harvard World Map. World Map allows you to create a map based on datasets that are provided, and allows you to add your own data layers. You can then embed those maps in other sites or link to them on the World Map site. This example shows population density in China:

Have a good weekend!

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps API Developer Relations Team