Mickey from Google Earth Hacks share this new tool.

We've just created a new tool to make it easier for beginners to embed maps on their site, and I thought it might be worth blogging about.

The tool is called "YourMap."

Users fill out the form on that page (all fields optional except for "name") and a map will be created for them. They can choose the size, starting zoom level, starting map type, etc. Based on their address, the location will be geocoded for them. Optionally, they can submit alternate lat/lon if they wish to be more accurate.

Once the form is filled out, HTML code for the map is given to them. They put it on their site and it's done! In addition to showing the map, it also builds a Google Earth KML with their location inside.

The HTML calls an iframe on our server, so they don't have to worry about an API key or anything. I've tried to make it very, very simple to use, and I hope I've succeeded.

Another patent via Gary Price, this time from Google:

Markup Language for Interactive Geographic Information System (filed June 12, 2007)

"Data-driven guarded evaluation of conditional-data associated with data objects is used to control activation and processing of the data objects in an interactive geographic information system. Methods of evaluating conditional-data to control activation of the data objects are disclosed herein. Data-structures to specify conditional data are also disclosed herein."

I don't really get this - but I think it's about giving the user more control of the display of large data sets. Perhaps readers can help me out?