Google Maps as Mapserver Layer

[Richie Pierce]

Thanks for the quick responses, that's what I was afraid of.  Fortunately,
for the State of Arkansas we have an online clearinghouse for all our
publicly available data (www.geostor.arkansas.gov) so the data is freely
available with or without Google's 'semi-free' services.  And the imagery
I'm wanting is running as a WMS service through ArcIMS WMS connector.  So
currently I'm using a Mapserver WMS layer to display the imagery.  It's
just frustrating when Mapserver displays the rest of the data so quickly and
then takes so long to display the WMS layer through ArcIMS.  Guess we'll
have to bite the bullet and add disk space and serve it locally. At least
for my non-OpenLayers sites.  BTW...OpenLayers does display Google Maps
layers.  And it also allows you to define multiple connection url's
(www.domain.com, sub1.domain.com, sub2.domain.com) for your WMS layers which
increases the tile loading speed 5X.     Thanks again for the help.
 

Richie Pierce
Sr GIS Analyst
a.c.t.GeoSpatial, Inc.
2900 Percy Machin Drive, Suite One
North Little Rock, AR 72114
Ph(501) 771-2985
rpierce at actgeospatial.com
www.actgeospatial.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Ramsey [mailto:pramsey at REFRACTIONS.NET] 
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 11:11 AM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Google Maps as Mapserver Layer

Richie,

One of the quiet tragedies of the Google Earth/Maps mania is that once 
public data is handed over to the Googleplex it becomes slightly less 
public. You are only allowed to access mapping data served by Google via 
Google-approved mechanisms, such as the Maps API or directly via Earth.

Another public geodata issue, I suppose. If enough folks who wanted to 
"give their data to google" instead gave it to a 3rd party who processed 
it into standardized tiles, then people could still get direct access to 
the public data, and Google/Microsoft could easily integrate it as well.

Paul

Richie Pierce wrote:
> Like many of you we have space limitations when it comes to our raster 
> files.  We just received notice however that Google will be integrating 
> our new Statewide ortho flight into their Google Maps/Earth service.  
> This is exciting for me because it will allow me to get access to our 
> statewide imagery without needing the space on my own server.  I was 
> wondering if it was possible to use Google Maps imagery as a layer in my 
> map file.  I am using Mapserver and OpenLayers on some of my sites which 
> will work wonderfully.  But I also have other sites that I'm using a 
> custom Mapserver interface, and I'd like add the new orthos.



-- 

   Paul Ramsey
   Refractions Research
   http://www.refractions.net
   pramsey at refractions.net
   Phone: 250-383-3022
   Cell: 250-885-0632