Hi everyone, my name is Dan Rummel and I've been hacking Google Maps out of the San Francisco area for a couple years now. Recently I have been working hard on a start-up with a couple of college buddies: Seero.com (Putting live video on the map). In our UI, we want people to interact and explore using maps as much as possible, something we like to call GeoSurfing. However, sometimes after dragging and zooming a few times, one can quickly get lost in the middle of nowhere and unable to get back to the original viewport. So at the Google Javascript Hackathon, I started working on MarkerTracker, which is kind of like radar for 'important' markers. It's a simple and customizable tool that utilizes GPolyline to display directional indicators for markers that are out of view. Check out this simple example:
And to prove that the MarkerTracker can be used for something more advanced -- and to wish everyone a happy St. Patrick's Day -- here's a leprechaun chasing game:
A big thanks to Pamela Fox and all the developers who have contributed to the Google Maps Open Source utility library, it is a fantastic resource. Of course if you want to learn more about MarkerTracker check out the class reference and more examples. As always, please report any issues you find in the developer forum.
