Alexandre Passant

I've just discovered - via dowhatimean.net - that Google Maps now displays European street names!

The API has also be updated (you have to make the changes by yourself if you use it), and also offers nice features as tabbed infos windows or control maps.

I think this integration of European streets is really great, especially for services that allow to get location from maps, which couldn't be done easilly before for European stuff. Actually, I was waiting for it for a service I'm currently rewriting from ning.com to Ruby on Rails: recordShops. I hope I can write about it (and release) soon.

Finally, I've upgraded FOAFMap and already existing maps to handle this new API. Here's a list of changes you'll certainly need to make to update your app:

• gPoint(long, lat) => gLatLng(lat, long) to create a point (be careful with the new args order which is really annoying when upgrading static data);
• map.getZoomLevel() => map.getZoom() to retrieve current zoom level of the map;
• map.centerAndZoom(GPoint, ZoomLevel) => setCenter(GLatLng, ZoomLevel) to center/zoom to the map