Google Maps

Google Maps is the mapping platform most people already know how to use. Under the consumer app sits a set of APIs: map tiles, geocoding, Places search, directions, distance matrix, and Street View. Those APIs are how a store locator, a delivery tracker, or a job map gets a map that does not look like a demo.

It is not the only mapping stack. Mapbox, Apple Maps, and OpenStreetMap exist for a reason. Google Maps wins when the user already trusts the pins, the traffic, and the search box, and when the product can pay for the requests.

Product teams embed Google Maps to show where something is, how to get there, and what sits nearby. A clinic finder, a van on a route, a branch list with filters: the map is the interface for place, not a decorative tile in a footer.

The work is the journey around the map. Search, filters, a list that still works when the tile set is slow, and a key that lives in your project so the invoice is yours. A default embed with no fallback is not a locator.

Maps that stay part of the page, not a second product.

Sometimes Mapbox is the better engine for a custom style. Sometimes Google Maps is already in the contract and the Places API is what the team needs. We choose in the brief, then we budget tiles, script, and a fallback list so a blocked key does not kill the page. The locator is a page your CMS can still edit.

If the map is the first thing you notice, we have not finished the interface.