kjfitz
10/12/05 08:50 PM
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Do you ever notice that sometimes when you submit a map with a URL at maximum zoom and later when you launch the URL for the map it is zoomed to a different level?
The URL contains a "span" argument that is totally dependant on the size of Google Maps (now Google Local by the way) in your browser.
In my browser (I use Firefox) here is the URL I get when I click "link to this page" while I give Google Local the maximum space in the browser by closing all sidebars, status bars, and maximizing the browser.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Sao+Paulo,+Brazil&ll=-23.489462,-46.807326&spn=0.006674,0.012883&t=k&hl=en
If I make the map area of the same URL as small as a postage stamp by shrinking my window down and then click "link to this page" I get this different URL:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Sao+Paulo,+Brazil&ll=-23.489462,-46.807326&spn=0.001496,0.002120&t=k&hl=en
Note that the "spn" arguments are smaller values the smaller the map area in your browser gets.
Now what does this mean to you?
If you create your URL in a browser that has a large area to display a map and then later you or someone else looks at that same URL on a computer with a smaller screen size that has a smaller window the magnification will pop down a level or two or three in order to fit the whole original image into their smaller window.
So... If you are focusing on a particular detail of a map, say a building in the center, then you want everyone who views the map to view it a maximum magnification/zoom.
So now that we know how the "spn" generally works, we can hack it to always show max zoom by replacing the "spn" values with a very small value: 0.000001,0.000001
Our new URL will be:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Sao+Paulo,+Brazil&ll=-23.489462,-46.807326&spn=0.000001,0.000001&t=k&hl=en
And now no matter how small you make your window the map will remain focused at maximum zoom.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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nic
10/12/05 10:17 PM
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Good post Kevin, thanks!
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