Something about Google’s My Maps thing that they don’t mention in the user guide: the fact that these maps are available in KML means not only that they can be viewed in Google Earth, but also that they can also be accessed via the Google Maps API, now that the API supports KML and GeoRSS.

Google’s My Maps, in other words, can be a mashup-making tool, not just a mapmaking tool. I used it this morning to good effect, on a mashup on that has been languishing, incomplete for months, on my personal site. I’d already set up the embedded map — the location, the map layer, the zoom level — but was procrastinating adding the data for fear that it was about to get more complicated. All it took to complete the mashup — at least functionally; I’ve still got more data to add — was a little dinking around in My Maps and two lines of code on the page to import it.

Previously: Google Maps Adds My Maps Feature.