Google maps one of the best mapping API. But sometimes you don't need navigation, zoom and other cool stuff. Sometimes you need something simple. Simple and fast. Yes, google maps makes a page a bit slowly, a bit big, just because this is maps. Looks like guys from Google understood this. Sometimes you don't want to load all the tiles and JS API. You just need to show some address or route on the map. And here static maps can help you. Static map can show simple markers and even routes.

What is so special with these static maps? Static maps is just an url, nothing more, no JS. This is URL that points to the image.

http://maps.google.com/staticmap?center=40.714728,-73.998672&
zoom=14&size=512x512&maptype=mobile\&
markers=40.702147,-74.015794,blues%7C40.711614,-74.012318,greeng%7C40.718217,-73.998284,redc\&
key=ABQIAAAAb1NmS6C8S9-MMXlYL9Q-RRSx6c7sV4hKqe-jPp9AwgHIMiXszhRaLoR4qw61u_5jZn9ohtUjCjYruw

And looks like

Looks impressive. I found this very useful in my projects. Maybe you find too.

All data comes in URL. And this makes things a bit limited. But in case if you want to show just address of the company/shop on the map - useful. You can even show some routes from one location to another location. And nobody limit you in your fantasy. You can write back-end in ASP.NET which can easily show any place on the map. And the last advantage - it's very simple to understood and start using - 5 minutes at all.

More about Static Maps at : http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/staticmaps/

Static maps Wizard at: http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/simplewizard/makestaticmap.html

Special thanks to Google Maps team.