Embedded Maps in Websites

Embedded Maps in Websites

A client has reached out to the Web design team to see if we could create a interactive map for his construction company. He would like a map the could zoom in and out along with added pins where he had done work for people. Finally, he said he would like to be able to hover over, or click on the pin to make a tiny box pop up that gives a description of the work that had been done and a review from the customer. He gave the example of  zillow.com as something that he was shooting for ( image to the left). In this case, Zillow had embedded a bing map into their site and had separate codes for the different points. I think that it might be possible that they used the info from people who have accounts to enter in all the addresses.

I did some research for other sites that had done something similar. One example would be Walmart.com. In this website they had a find a store near you tab hat had a google map that had been embedded into the site. I could not find the code that tagged each Walmart, so I believe they had google use their information to tag all the Walmart's  location, hours, and services available. 

The other website that I found is Sprint.com. Sprint was unusual. in the sense that they were one of the only websites that I found that had created their own map, or at least as far as I can tell. They had codes for their zoom in and out button and had separate functions programmed in for each of their stores. Based on looks I would not consider this the best map, but observing the code for each and every function was pretty cool, however I do think it is a little unrealistic for this project and this client. Especially since he would like to be able to update the locations, and reviews himself.

With all of these limitations taken into consideration, I think that the easiest way to complete this website for this client would be a similar way to the way Zillow did it. A google map would be easy enough to link into a site, plus the client would be able to plug in his own data because he would have addresses available and he could ask them for review on his site also. Whether this is achievable or not, I'm not sure since I am still a very beginner web designer. However, this would be the route I would take to complete this website.