It was inevitable that Google has now made Google Maps much more shareable. It’s now as easy to post your very own pannable and zoomable Google Maps in your blogs and websites as you do with YouTube videos. Just browse Google Maps as usual, find the location you want to showcase, add markers via the “My Maps” tab, and then click on “Link to this page” link beside the upper-right corner of the map. Copy the contents of the second textbox and paste it to your blog or website. It’s that easy! You can find more information and examples at the Google Lat-Long Blog.

But first, make sure that you enable the HTML mode of your blog or website before pasting the Google Maps code. Otherwise, you’d see garbage. How to enable the HTML mode? It depends on your site platform. For example, in Multiply, you need to check the “Edit HTML” checkbox first before pasting the code. I haven’t researched on it, but it’s likely that not all blog/websites will allow embedded Google Maps since the embedded code uses an IFRAME element, which might get rejected.

Ok. So I guess it’s not that easy. Case in point, I can’t show off an example of an embedded Google Maps on this very blog post because I don’t allow raw HTML for security purposes.

It’s true that anyone can embed a Google Map in their website almost from the day Google introduced Google Maps. (For example, see my experimental map of U.P. Diliman, which I blogged about here.) But this requires that you get a free Google Maps API key and you know how to program in JavaScript. There are many third-party services that makes this process easier, but I think Google’s solution makes it even more painless. Not everything in Google Maps can be embedded (like Mapplets and the new Street View), but I guess it’s just a matter of time.

If you find exploring places in Google Maps and Google Earth enjoyable, then I’m sure you’d like to read my second blog, Vista Pinas, where I virtually travel to various Philippine-related places that you can see in Google Maps. Subscribe to it if you haven’t done so.