I just came back from a two-week trip to Australia, where I spent my daytime hanging out with all the awesome Maps API Engineers at the Google Sydney office and my nighttime sampling the local restaurants and stores. Now, since I think about the Maps API 24/7, I found myself wondering "Can I use the Local Search Control to find even more places around Australia?" The answer, thanks to our friends at TrueLocal, is yes.
Want proof? Check out the map below, which is centered on Port Douglas, a town in Northeastern Australia where I spent a weekend eating and snorkeling.
This map also shows off a cool way that Maps API Developer John Coryat came up with to alert the user to the presence and purpose of the control: an info window above the control with suggested queries that trigger a local search when clicked. The other features that the control in this map uses are:
- Initial info-window suppression
- Using an external div for the results
- Setting the target of info window links to a new window
- Setting initial focus to the search control
