Last week I was excited to see that Google released their Google Maps API. I was hoping that this would allow me to add some advanced features to the Google Maps Plugin that users have been asking for. However, after looking at it, there seems to be a couple problems. First, you can only plot points based on longitude and latitude. Second, they don’t give you a way to get the longitude and latitude from an address, according to their documentation. There are some free geocoders out there for the US, but I didn’t see any for Canada or the UK. (If they do exist, please let me know.)
Also, using the Google Maps API means you have to register a web address with them to get a key that lets you embed the map on a web page. While you can apparently register 127.0.0.1 for local use, from what I’ve read in the Terms of Use and in the Google Maps API Discussion Group, it would seem that I would not be allowed to integrate a Google Map into a stand-alone desktop application (which would include a Widget as well). I may try to get some clarification on that down the road if necessary, but for the moment, I don’t need access to the API to get driving directions or maps for a single address.