Google Maps embedded in AMP layout

The Google Maps JavaScript API works with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. A text editor with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS handling capabilities will be useful when exploring the API. For Mac users, there are lots of commercial or free text editors, such as TextWrangler, BBEdit, Sublime Text, or WebStorm. They all handle HTML, JavaScript, and CSS in the same way. For Windows users, there are different text editors as well, but Notepad++ is the most used and recommended one. Choosing an editor depends on your computer's habits, so there is no exact solution or recommendation for users to select one editor. Everyone has a different perception that affects these choices. There is also need for an HTTP server to implement these recipes. There are different types of HTTP servers including Nginx, Apache, Tomcat and IIS. But the installation process of standalone servers can be a problem for most users. We encourage you to use solutions that bundle HTTP Server, Database Server, and a scripting language together. XAMPP and MAMP represents a solution for the Windows and Mac OS X platforms respectively.

Google Maps API version 2 was the previous version of the API before version 3. Some of the key changes that were made between these two versions include:

1. Simplified API: Version 3 of the API is simpler and easier to use than version 2. It uses a single script file, which makes it easier to implement and customize.
2. Improved performance: Version 3 of the API is faster and more efficient than version 2, which allows for smoother and more responsive maps.
3. New features: Version 3 of the API includes new features such as street view, overlays, and marker clustering, which were not available in version 2.
4. Mobile support: Version 3 of the API is designed to work on mobile devices, which allows developers to create maps that can be used on smartphones and tablets.
5. Deprecated features: Some of the features that were available in version 2 of the API, such as GGroundOverlay and GGeoXml, have been removed or deprecated in version 3.
6. New Libraries: version 3 introduced new libraries such as Places Library and Geometry library which provide functionality that was not available in version 2.
7. Security: version 3 introduced an API key which is required for all requests to the API, this was not required in version 2.
8. Licensing: Google introduced licensing for the use of the API, this was not present in version 2.