There are two Adsense for Maps products  provided by Google to monetize Google Maps API application:

• Advertising alongside local bussines search result using the GoogleBar that requires your Adsense account be enabled for Adsense for Search
• Advertising based on map viewport using the Maps Ad Unit that requires your AdSense account be enabled for Adsense for Content.

Advertising using the GoogleBar

Adsense using the GoogleBar

var map;
if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
    var mapOptions = {
         googleBarOptions : {
                 style : 'new',
                 adsOptions: {
                      client: 'your-publisher-id',
                      channel: 'your-ads-channel-id',
                      adsafe: 'high',
                      language: 'en'
                 }
         }
    }

    map = new GMap2(document.getElementById('map'), mapOptions);
    map.setCenter(new GLatLng(27.6648274, -81.5157535), 12);
    map.setUIToDefault();
    map.enableGoogleBar();
}

Line 06: adsense options:
Line 07: your adsense publisher ID
Line 08: your adsense for search channel (optional)
Line 09: ad safety level (optional)
Line 10: language in which to display results

Advertising using the Maps Ad Unit

Adsense using Maps Ad Unit

var adsManagerOptions = {
  maxAdsOnMap : 2,
  style: 'your-ads-unit',
  channel: 'your-ads-channel-id'
};

var publisherID = 'your-publisher-ID';

adsManager = new GAdsManager(map, publisherID, adsManagerOptions);
adsManager.enable();

Line 01: specify ads options
Line 02: maximum number of ads
Line 03: your ads unit
Line 04: your ads channel id
Line 07: specify your publisher id
Line 09: construct the  GAdsManager object
Line 10: enable ads

ESRI’s 2010 Mashup Challenge invites members of the geodeveloper community to stretch their imaginations, test their technical skills, and develop creative geospatial Web applications. The developers have to create an innovative mashup using ArcGIS Online and ESRI Web Mapping APIs for the chance to win one of four cash prizes. Awards will be based on originality, creativity, and analytic process.

How to participate:

1. Build a mashup using ArcGIS Online and ESRI Web Mapping APIs
2. Shoot a video of your application and post it on YouTube
3. Submit your mashup

Prizes:

1. 1st Place: $10,000
2. 2nd Place: $5,000
3. 3rd Place: $2,500
4. 4rd Place: $2,500

Deadline: March 5, 2010

More on the challange ..

Web services like Mapquest and Google Maps have transformed the way we think about and use maps. But these services do more than just driving directions-they provide APIs that web developers can use to build customized map applications.

In Map Scripting 101, author Adam DuVander uses a project-based approach to teach you how to create useful and fun online map mashups like weather maps and local concert trackers. DuVander shows you how to use Mapstraction, an open source JavaScript library, to create and manipulate basic maps by setting zoom levels, showing and hiding markers, geocoding addresses, customizing maps for visitors based on their locales, and so on.

You’ll also learn to handle complex GIS (geographic information system) data and formats like KML and GeoRSS, and to create graphical overlays to make sense of data and trends. This is a perfect book for any web developer, whether their goal is to build a map to track earthquakes around the world, or to simply mark the best coffee shops in town.

Book data

Author: Adam DuVande
Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (June 15, 2010)
Language: English

Source: Amazon

The Mapnik team have released version 0.7.0 of their open source map toolkit. The release targets stability and usability of the Mapnik Core and brings notable advancements to the Datasource Plugins. It also brings improvements and fixes to the C++ core that warrant a major release and new a ABI version.

Plugins

• Addition of GDAL raster overviews – You can now rapidly read large raster datasets

- Turn multiple geotiffs into a Bigtiff and build overviews with gdaladdo then read with the GDAL plugin.

• Huge set of improvements to PostGIS Plugin

- The PostGIS plugin now supports custom placement of the BBOX query
- It is is able to skip initialization queries if you supply the ‘geometry_field’,’srid’,or ‘extent’
- Errors are now thrown for queries with invalid syntax – should help in debugging complex SQL

Python

• Additional support for python pickling (near complete)

- Map pickling still needs some refinement, but most objects are nicely pickleable now

• Improvements to Python linking on Mac OSX

- Smarter default linking to the right Python framework (helps if multiple versions exist like on Snow Leopard +   python 2.6)

• Improvements to python docstrings

Core

• Completed adding full support for PPC/ Big endian systems

- Ability to read binary data was completed for 0.6.1, but color support needed work and is now finished

• Large extension to TextSymbolizer functionality by David Eastcott  and Jochen
• New support for semitransparency in png256 output
• New ‘gamma’ attribute on PolygonSymbolizer to allow for seamless polygon edges
• Support for writing map xml to string

- Call mapnik.save_map_to_string(m) to send a map to an xml stream

• Support for relative paths in xml loaded from string

- Works with libxml2 entities even! Thanks Dražen!
- Tested with the latest OSM stylesheet.

• Variety of bug and usability fixes

View Changelog

Download: Mapnik 0.7.0

MapServer 5.6.1 has just been released and available for download now. No new functionality has been added. This is a maintenance release that fixes a few issues found in 5.6.0, including a few important ones related to queries that may have prevented some users from upgrading to 5.6.0.

Changes:

• Changed msSaveImageBufferGD to be in accordance with msSaveImageGD.
• Changed the query map rendering implementation without adding extra layers to the map.
• SQL Server 2008 plugin is not handling null field values correctly.
• Hatch symbol not properly saved.
• Expose symbolObj.inmapfile to the SWIG API, have already been exposed to PHP.
• Expose getGeomTransform/setGeomTransform to SWIG instead of exposing the private vars for rfc48.
• Fixed writeSymbol to support writing ‘ANGLE AUTO’.
• Fixed problems with point queries not working via the CGI (mode=query or mode=nquery).

Download: MapServer 5.6.1

MapServer 5.6.0 has just been released and available for download now. The new release contains a few new features and performance enhancements.

New features:

• MS RFC 51: XML Mapfile schema and XSLT.
• MS RFC 52: One-pass query processing, making WFS queries on
  database backends much much faster.
• MS RFC 55: Improve control of output resolution, allows printing
  maps at printer resolution using a mapfile defined for screen resolution.
• MS RFC 57: Labeling enhancements: ability to repeat labels along a
  line/multiline.

Enhancements:

• Security fixes (also backported to 5.4):
  Improved security relative to untrusted directories and mapfiles
  (RFC 56)
• Fixed several security issues found in an audit of the CGI
  application (#2939, #2941, #2942, #2943, #2944)

Performance optimizations:

• Load all GDAL image bands in one pass for faster processing (r9260)
• Optimized access to very large shapefiles (#2930)
• Several enhancements/fixes to OGC Web Services specs support
• Several enhancements/fixes to all flavors of MapScript

MapServer is an open source and free software for translating vector maps to raster images and displaying it on a web page. It supports installation on Windows and Unix/Linux platform. This tutorial will cover installation guide for Windows platform, guide for Unix/Linux platform will be covered on another tutorial.

MapServer for Windows comes in a package that allow us to quickly install. It is designed to perform a full installation of Apache, PHP, MapServer CGI and MapScript in a single installation. The package was developed by MapTools.org and available for free download here. Current release package at the time of this writing is ms4w_3.0_beta7.zip, which comes with Apache version 2.2.10, PHP version 5.2.6 and MapServer version 5.2.1.

How to Install

1. Download installation package from MapTools.org
2. If you upgrading from older version, go to ms4w directory and run the apache-uninstall.bat file to stop and uninstall the Apache Service. Rename the old ms4w directory to something like ‘ms4w-old’.
3. Extract ms4w_3.0_beta7.zip at the root of a drive, eg. C:. If successfull, you should get a new ms4w directory (C:/ms4w).
4. Run apache-install.bat file under ms4w directory (/ms4w/apache-install.bat) to start and install Apache Web Server as service. This will open a cmd window that prints log messages like image shown below:


Install Apache

5. To test the installation, open your Web browser and type http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 into address bar, you should see the main ms4w page like image shown below:


MS4W Page

Generated Map Image
Default MapServer generated map images are located on /ms4w/tmp/ms_tmp that available as /ms_tmp via URL (http://localhost/ms_tmp/). The absolute image URL and image path should be /ms_tmp and /ms4w/tmp/ms_tmp.

Change the Installation Directory
Default MapServer installation is at the root of a drive (eg. C:/ms4w). To change it to another location other than drive root (eg: D:/Server/ms4w), you should replace all ‘/ms4w/‘ in files listed below with your new path.

• /ms4w/Apache/conf/httpd.conf
• /ms4w/Apache/cgi-bin/php.ini
• All files in /ms4w/httpd.d
• /ms4w/setenv.bat

Beginning Google Maps Mashups with Mapplets, KML, and GeoRSS is a beginner’s guide to creating web mashups using Google mapping technology.

• Serves as a single–source primer to displaying data on Google Maps
• Covers both mapplets and the Google Maps API
• Provides everything you need to start participating in the Geographic Web

What you’ll learn in this book:

• “Mash up” GeoWeb services onto a Google map.
• Package your mashup as a mapplet and publish it to maps.google.com.
• Enhance your map with driving directions, local search, map advertising, and more.
• Discover common Google–mapping mistakes to avoid.
• Find out how and when to geocode existing data into mappable coordinates.
• Deliver your own data as GeoXML.

Book data

Author: Sterling Udell
Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 14, 2008)
Language:  English

Source: Amazon

Have a Google Maps mashup that you’d like to expose to millions of users on maps.google.com? New to the mapping craze, but have an idea for a killer map–based application? Want to learn how to create GeoRSS and KML feeds with your geotagged content, exposing your customer to new ways of exploring and navigating your content?

Google Maps Mashups with Google Mapplets

• Is the first book to cover Google’s new Mapplet technology
• Shows you how to create Google Maps–based applications and publish to maps.google.com
• Provides a single–source resource and practical guide to Mapplets and mashups
• Teaches you how to mash up Mapplets using location–specific data
• Includes examples of real–world applications

Readers will be taken through the process of building a mashup of multiple data sources and APIs, using Tourfilter’s concert and event data to map concerts and venue information happening nearby. Creating GeoRSS and KML files will also be covered, showing readers how to publish their content with geographic metadata and encouraging their users to interact with their data in new and interesting ways.

This book is aimed at developers, designers, and technologists looking to explore Google’s new Mapplet technology. The book will be a great resource for those just getting into Map–based applications and mashups, as well as for seasoned Maps developers looking to reach an extended audience with their mashups on maps.google.com.

Readers of the book should be familiar with JavaScript, basic HTML and CSS, PHP, and some SQL.

Author: Michael Young
Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (April 1, 2008)
Language: English

Source:  Amazon

MapServer 5.6.0-rc1 (release candidate 1) has just been released and available for download now, major issues about blocker has been fixed.

Changes in version 5.6.0-rc1 (2009-11-27):

• Fixed a problem with shape-based queries against projected layers when using a tolerance (#3211)
• Fixed long expression evaluation (#2123)
• Added simplfy and topologyPreservingSimplify to MapScript (#2753)
• Fixed Oracle FastCGI memory leak (#3187)
• layer->project flag not being reset properly for drawquerylayer (#673 #2079)
• OGC SLD: support multi-polygons geometries for filters embedded in an SLD (#3097)
• [WMC] embedded SLD in context does not work with namespace prefix (#3115)
• Support name aliases used in sld text symbolizer (#3114)
• decode html and unicode entities for polygon truetype symbol fills (#3203)
• Parse PropertyName parameter for wfs requests (#675)
• Fixed when saving a map, layer->transform isn’t written properly in all cases. (#3198)
• Fixed buffer overflow in oracle spatial driver with large sql data (#2694)
• Improve FastCGI include file finding logic (#3200)