There are countless Wordpress plug-ins for dealing with Google Maps, but of the English language ones that are officially updated via the Wordpress Plug-In Directory, but of them all, those that sounded the most interesting after reading their descriptions included:
GeoPress (WP 2.4 Compatible)
GeoPress adds geographic tagging of your posts and pages. You can enter an address, points on a map, or enter coordinates using the post interface.
WP Geo (WP 2.7 Compatible)
When editing a post or page, you will be able to set a physically location for that post. You can select the location by clicking on the map to position the point, searching for a location, town, city or address, or entering the latitude and longitude…
Geo Mashup (WP 2.7 Compatible)
This plugin allows you to include Google maps in posts and pages, and map posts and pages on global maps, with several other powerful features.
GoogleMapper (WP 2.7 Compatible)
This plugin allows a Wordpress Site Admin to enter locations of stores etc into the db. The information is then displayed on the front end using the google maps interface. The user can enter a starting location in the search field, the system will then find the closest location from it’s starting point and display the path and steps necessary to get to that location.
UMapper (WP 2.6.3 Compatible)
This plugin is a universal mapping platform that makes it a snap to create engaging maps and add them to your blog posts. Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo and OpenStreet are all supported by this truly universal plugin.
However, up until this point, all we had done is read the description…
Now came time for testing…
Let us first point-out that we are testing within a Wordpress MU 2.6.5 environment so our reviews may not be entirely accurate for the majority of users, but for those looking to mapping solutions for Wordpress MU, these reviews should be ideal…
GeoPress (WP 2.4 Compatible) by Mapufacture
We had GeoPress up and running in minutes, and although the back-end settings did not knock us off our seats in all their glory, the interface for adding maps within posts and page worked quite well and did as advertised - the inline documentation was helpful and provided short code examples and PHP code examples, which is useful for theme developers.
WP Geo (WP 2.7 Compatible) by Ben Huson
Once again, no problems installing, and to be honest, at first glance, the back-end seemed better than GeoPress, not to mention being slightly more configurable. However, a lack of documentation made this difficult to customise, and we were unable to easily figure out the PHP code to add maps, which is not useful for theme developers, but then again, having auto generated tool-tips for beacons, sidebar widgets and the option for including maps in archives displaying multiple posts as markers on a map more than made-up for the short-comings of lacking documentation..
Geo Mashup (WP 2.7 Compatible) by Cyber Hobo
The first thing we noticed with Geo Mashup was the options - there are quite a few, including the set-up of a Mashup Page, which allows you to show all posts from any categories you like, with post content, excerpts and so forth as the tool-tip from the associated beacon, and for this reason alone, we were super excited and almost decided to call it a day. However, please note that this plug-in does take more effort than the others to set-up properly, but it’s well worth it, especially as extensive documentation is little more than a link away.
GoogleMapper (WP 2.7 Compatible) by PubliPage
The first most interesting fact about GoogleMapper was the ease in which it allowed you to provide custom beacons. In addition, the promise of having a separate system (not attached to posts) that could store multiple locations sounded interesting. However, a total lack of documentation, non-English support and having spent ten minutes trying to get the thing to work without any luck quickly put us off this one - especially as there was not even a preview of the locations being added into the system as you add them.
UMapper (WP 2.6.3 Compatible) - by UMapper
Saving the most exciting one for last, the first thing that hit us with UMapper is that due to the universal nature of the plug-in (promising the use of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo maps), it was necessary to sign-up for a UMapper API, rather than using our existing Google API keys. After going through the process of doing this, we came to realise that it was a good thing, as this system is not just for Wordpress, and allows you to add and edit maps directly at the UMapper site. Wait a minute, hold everything - this beast is even Wordpress MU compatible - with the auto-generation of Sub-Accounts! At first glance, we thought things were too good to be true, especially when we could not find a way of adding or managing maps within Wordpress, which is very discreetly tucked away right next to the Add Media button, which only works when in Visual Mode. And that’s when the party really got started…
UMapper allows you to draw on top of your maps! You can edit the beacon, edit the content of the tool-tips, draw lines, squares, adding as many markers as you like and need we say more, especially when a picture can speak at least a thousand words (and then some):
And when we thought it could not get any better, we saw the end results, where the map actually allows other people to embed itself or email to friends, in-turn transforming your maps into widgets!
Nothing is perfect, for there is an obvious downside to this plug-in, which is that since it is powered by Flex from UMapper itself, all data is stored with UMapper, and should they decide to shut down, so will all of your maps, which is something that does not occur with any of the other plug-ins. This also means that the system is not white-label and quite clearly shows that it is powered by UMapper, which may be a problem for some developers.
With that said, our concluding thoughts are as follows:
For those desperate to customise and add layers to their maps, or need a geo-mapping solution for Wordpress MU, UMapper is the only choice by far, so long as your are happy with promoting UMapper.com! But for those looking for a white-label solution, Geo Mashup is certainly the better choice for you, yet if you need a simple easy to use and set-up solution, GeoPress stands out with its inline documentation.
Daniel
Thanks for this overview of the Geo Wordpress plugins. Nicely written.
Cheers
Daniel
WPMUP TEAM
Thanks for taking the time to comment Daniel - GeoPress was a pleasure to use, simple and definitely ideal for the casual geo-blogger!
AD8
There is a very detailed review and set of instructions on how to further customise Geo Mashup that we highly recommend you take a look at:
http://www.bioneural.net/2008/09/21/geo-mashup-implementation-guide/
WPMUP TEAM
Thanks for the tip AD8 - much appreciate, a well detailed review that will really help others get to expand their knowledge of Geo Mashup and the Google Maps API, thanks again for sharing…
WPMUP TEAM
And then came gMaps!
loncho
Hi, easy post to know about this kind of plugins.I have a question, have you try using Geo Mashup with Wordpress MU + Buddy Press ?I´m with some bugs trying on a test. You can see it con airmylove.comThanx in advance :)Loncho.
WPMUP TEAM
We performed the review above whilst using Wordpress MU.Before we could test the plug-ins with BuddyPress, we started working on gMaps, a full-screen geo-blogging MU theme built around Google Maps…http://wpmupremium.com/blog/2009/02/17/introducing-wpmu-gmaps/
RaiulBaztepo
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo