Add a map-search element to your blog

Google is adding a new tool to its menu of Google functions on the Blogger Editing toolbar:

Google describes this as a "Beta feature" in a message at the top of the Blogger dashboard, at least for some accounts.

A new "Insert Google Maps widget" tool is present on the "Add links or AI-powered enhancements" menu on the editing toolbar (yes that's its name, go hover your pointer over it and see).

It joins "Insert Google Search Widget" and "Auto add links to Search" there, although on some blogs the robolinks thing has gone missing.

These have nothing to do with sidebar widgets. (Are you confused yet?)

What does it do?

The tool will insert into the post a centered rectangular widget showing the name of the place that you specify, three photos, if there are any in Google's database, and a link to the same location in Google Maps.

Clicking the tool launches a dialog box for you to specify the location by place name or by clicking on a map.

If there are no photos for the place in Google, it will show a map segment, though this may be at such a zoomed-in scale as to be unrecognizable as part of a map.

The default width of the widget is 400 pixels, but it can be resized by selecting it in the editor and dragging one of the side handles. Furthermore, at least in responsive themes, the widget scales with screen width.

The name shown will be the name as Google knows it: if you locate Grandma's house, that might be a street address or map coordinate. 

Wait, there's more!

If you choose the name of a business that Google knows about, the widget will show Google's listing for that business, including links to reviews and so forth. The links there are live, just as they are in the full listing.

(This is a cool orchard not far from where I live.)

The new tool seems to be Google's answer to a shortcoming of the Insert Google Search widget tool. 

That originally invited us to create a link to places as well as people or things, but couldn't seem to find an image even for the the most famous locations on Earth:

Like the Search widget, the Maps widget (1) adds itself at the insertion point in the editor and (2) can be undone from the toolbar's Undo or the usual keyboard combination.

What's the story?

Google has not published any documentation about this tool, or I would link to that. Since this is a "beta feature," that is, not final, perhaps we'll get a nice description once everything is squared away.

However, now is the time to use Feedback (on the Blogger Help menu) to comment on any of these new tools. 

In the past, developers have been interested in feedback during the shakedown period; afterwards, not so much.

Notes

• These widgets have nothing to do with sidebar widgets
• "Insert Google Search" no longer invites us to name a place
• The map widget seems to take a while to load, which is a detriment to overall site performance.