Without doubt an excellent component. I have however tried to use the module to display the map on my site and no matter what I do the width will not fill 100% :(

Despite that, this rating/review is for the component which is excellent.

I didn't even read the instruction text but the installion and implementation was very easy.. Thanks for the integration and the component..

For me this is a great component. I know it's not a good move to have ads being displayed on the admin side but you can still remove them. Just find the admin.google_maps.html under the admin components folder and delete lines from 887 to 993. It's nothing to be scared about.

I had the same problem as others here, the markers were not accurate so what I do now it's to run Google Maps (desktop) and find the right longitude and latitude. You have to make sure all the info you type is correct.

There's room for improvement but hey I don't complain when is free! It does the work

This component installs without any issues. Setting up a Google API was simple.

A few issues though;

Why do I have to suffer google ads in my admin section of Google Maps API Component? These are a waste of time and my bandwidth.

Setting up the default location was a nightmare, I typed in the correct details and it displayed my location 300 miles away from where I was supposed to be.

I typed the exact same details into the googlemaps manually (outside my website) and got a direct hit on the map location I wanted to display.

I had to fudge by copying the longitude and latitude from the googlemaps page into the config for me default location.

Next I tried to add items/objects to my map and found the accuracy to be unusable, again I had to fudge by cut and pasting manually from the googlemaps website.

The accuracy problem must lay in the interface between this component and google maps as google maps works perfectly on its own.

I quickly uninstalled this component and setup a Google My Maps which allows you to create items and objects directly on the map, I then linked to the map and used the Joomla wrapper to provide a decent ACCURATE location map with all my markers in the correct place.

I would wait for a second release and hopefully the accuracy problem may be resolved.

I disagree with Akede. The Google Ad only shows up in the administrator backend of your joomla installation. I think that is a VERY small price to pay for an excelent component. He shouldn't Rate it based on that.

This is a great plugin... I can't wait for overlay support.
It works really well for markers and polylines, but I had to create a new template within joomla to support overlays... (Installing this plugin means that you can't run overlays within the same template).

Great work otherwise

A great little plugin that adds a really professional look to any site and a concerned and helpful author Mike Reumer who was extremely good and provided direct help when I struggled with the installation. As a noobie I am still astonished by this helpful trait, that I've found in several joomla authors

You need to get an API (a special code currently freely available) from Google and that needs to be done through the program. Getting a separate one through my email account didn't work. Program is a bit finicky and things have to be spot on but it allows a number of real time maps and separate markers to be installed on content pages.
The program had some issues with large text but these were caused by another problematic component and disappeared once this had been removed and taking this other component off also fixed another module with large text problems
A must for any club or business.
Puts your site right on the map, in more ways than one.

Kudos:
a great extension. It installed easily and quickly. It's full featured, yet fairly simple to set up. The directions were well written and anyone who can follow the directions to microwave a burrito can have this set up in a reasonable period of time. This allows for very professional presentation of location, as well as allowing multiple locations to be displayed as markers... Perfect for small organizations, a chain of local stores, venue location for events as menu items, affiliated businesses or organizations...

Issues: (almost too trivial to mention)
The ad banner in the component CP jumps when mousing toward the buttons.
The geolocation marker which on Google's own site pop's up a dialog for "From/To" address and an input textbox doesn't do so in this extension. I know this can be made to interact correctly because the Joomlicious contacts page image hack does this correctly... It is a much simpler tool than this and lacks tons of features that this extension provides.

Took me about an hour to decipher the instructions and could only get it to work in a wrapper (which is Ok), but once I got it working the rest was a breeze. A remarkable addition to the community. Thanks a ton!!

Love the component. The installation was painless and the configuration was straight forward, even for a non-technical end-user like me. Thanks a ton for the component! It is definitely my favorite.

My wish list item:

It will be nice to be able to add/edit/delete layers to the map and allow visitor to check or uncheck the layers they want to see on the map. I’m not sure if the Google API will allow the easy integration of such feature, but it will be nice to have.

A brilliant Google Map solution. My wish list is to add multiple Maps or Multiple side bars for when the marker list number exceeds the page.

Hi,

I just installed the component and I have to admit that I was scared when I opend the configuration and a google ads appread.

Next thing I removed the component again. Sorry mate that is very poor style and you should honestly remove this ads asap. Any kind of call backs is not very welcome.

When you changed that in your next release let us know - I'll definitly will update my review then.

Alex

Since we can also perform geocoding in the Netherlands, i'm using this component. I added telephone, telefax and url fields and change the maps.google.com to maps.google.nl for geocoding purposes.

The component as well as it's miniview & sidebar work well. Install is straightfoward with plenty of config options. Your page simply shows the googlemap. No ads or popups or other unsightly poo. The option to choose an individual marker category for the sidebar would be a handy addition to the next update. The only problem i had was working out how to change the font colors in the infoWindow XSL file. (if you have white text on page you may see nothing) >> Add a #map tag to your template css file with the settings you require then call the #map tag befire the text entries in your xsl file. Remember that XSL requires strict open/close on all tags.

You will love it !!!

Thanks David for this wonderful component! Highly recommended.