11

Google Maps API v2 vs Google Maps API v3?

why Google create a new one?

what are the prons and cons?

which one to use?

Thanks

Bart
  • 4,830
  • 16
  • 48
  • 68

4 Answers4

4

Google Maps v3 is very slow when it comes to subclassing overlay classes. Most of the time when you have some custom overlays on your map it will start to LAG which means it is unusable in most cases.

Version 2 is much, much, much FASTER for REAL PURPOSES.

Unfortunatelly it is not supported anymore :(

Joro Seksa
  • 1,525
  • 3
  • 18
  • 44
3

V2 is deprecated. Google will continue to support V2, (fix eventual bugs), for at least 3 years, but no new features will be added to it. V3 is the current version.

Why create a new one? Because V2 was made before smartphones became a common everyday device. V3 is much lighter and faster, and it is specifically oriented towards mobile devices, though it performs fine on PC as well, of course.

Marcelo.

Marcelo
  • 9,387
  • 3
  • 35
  • 40
  • 1
    you forgot to say that api v3 is sh*t, it's missing many features of quite perfect v2, many things got very complicated (for example: WMS layers, checkBrowserCompat, checkResize, setDraggableCursor and many other methods missing, [fromLatLngToContainerPixel much more complicated](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1538681/how-to-call-fromlatlngtodivpixel-in-google-maps-api-v3/8240226#8240226) and [bugs](http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=1399)). So the conclusion of what to use is not clear at all. – Tomas Nov 23 '11 at 10:16
  • 1
    http://maps.google.com still uses v2 API, so conclusion is clear. – jrumbinas Mar 26 '12 at 07:31
3

google maps api v3 is NOT a replacement of v2. It's missing many features of v2, so you can quickly get dissapointed. I think this post explains it the best:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-js-api-v3/browse_thread/thread/ea02ee8291d3577e

and also, if you need to manage a lot of markers, according to this post v2 is the way:

http://blog.navigationarts.com/google-maps-api-v2-or-v3/

Tomas
  • 57,621
  • 49
  • 238
  • 373
  • That links tells us a lot. +1 for the best answer. – nawfal Jan 07 '13 at 14:30
  • Thanks, @nawfal. Now looking at my answer after a year, I realize that v3 is inevitable, but I hate the missing functionality when porting from v2... Many questions here at SO are related to this. – Tomas Jan 07 '13 at 15:07
2

I believe this answers everything:

http://www.youtube.com/v/zI8at1EmJjA

Bart
  • 4,830
  • 16
  • 48
  • 68