Google Maps

This page contains a series of experiments with the Goggle Maps API. The Google API needs latitude and longitude co-ordinates to display maps. Because ( as I understand it) the UK postcodes are 'owned' by the Post Office, the Google API cant legally process postcodes directly and these have obtained via free geocode sites or obtained by searching for the postcode on the main Google Maps site and reading off the latitude and longitude.
Map
External Google Maps Link
This example opens the Google Maps website ina new window displaying a location based on the complete UK postcode, in this case MK46 5ET.
Google Map for postcode: MK46 5ET
Partial Postcode Lookup
This example displays the name of a postcode location and an embedded Google map based on the first part of a UK postcode, eg MK46. Latitude and longitude are looked up in our database, hence the use of ONLY the first part of the postcode else the database would be HUGE ( and probably illegal).
(first characters)
FULL Postcode Lookup
This example displays an embedded Google map based on the FULL UK postcode, eg MK46 5ET.

Thanks to the efforts of Emad Fanous we can use his service to geocode the postcode ( turn it into latitude & longitude ) and THEN use the Google API to get our map.

UPDATE As of July 2007 Google seem to have relaxed their restrictions on using UK postcodes and it is now possible to use their API to translate UK postcodes to latitude and longiture co-ordinates. This example has been updated to use this mechanism. In fact, the Google Geocode lookup can use place names as well as postcodes. Note that if a place name is ambiguous, the first location will be displayed. To get round that, add the country, eg 'Buckingham, England' rather than just 'Buckingham'