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Basic Google Maps Placemarks

By Ian Dunn

E-commerce & Shopping /

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Basic Google Maps Placemarks Review - In-Depth Analysis

Embeds a Google Map into your site with customizable markers and information windows.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.73/10

User Rating

4.4/5 (based on 51+ reviews)

Active Installations

3,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

5 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin creates a custom post type for placemarks (markers) on a Google Map. The map can be embedded into pages or posts using a shortcode, allowing for various display settings. You can create markers that appear on the map and set their icons using the Featured Image meta box. When a marker is clicked, a box will show the marker's title and description.

Features include unique installation icons for each marker, options for map type and size, and the ability to set up different maps on separate pages. Markers can be categorized, and there is support for clustering large numbers of placemarks. The plugin is compatible with WordPress MultiSite and is internationalized for multiple languages.

For support, documentation is available, and users are encouraged to contribute translations and report bugs. Donations are not accepted, but users are encouraged to donate to charitable organizations.

Comparing to Alternatives

Basic Google Maps Placemarks is a straightforward mapping plugin with some customization options, but it faces competition from several other plugins offering more features or different map providers.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Simple and efficient with minimal bloat
Supports clustering of placemarks
Customizable with category-specific placemarks
Good for displaying mapped areas with descriptions
Free and easy to use

Weaknesses

Lacks Google API key setting in plugin interface
Not updated frequently (last update over 3 years ago)
Known past security vulnerabilities
Some display issues requiring map drag to refresh

User Sentiment Analysis

The plugin holds a strong positive rating with 88% of users giving 4 or 5 stars, praising its simplicity and customization. However, about 10% of users gave low ratings, mainly due to functionality issues related to Google API integration.

Positive highlights

'Great plugin if you want to start customizing one.' - psuba
'Looked for over 4 hours for the best and most customizable maps plugin. This is the winner.' - marinetg
'This saved me a lot of work adding Google Maps to my site.' - correll250
'Simple efficient & fast, works perfectly well despite no recent updates.' - drazon
'Good plugin, appreciate the cluster option.' - hello

Common complaints

Plugin does not provide a setting to add the required Google API key, causing maps to fail to load.

Weaknesses

No built-in Google API key configuration
Occasional display issues requiring manual refresh
Security vulnerabilities fixed only in recent versions
Lack of recent updates may concern some users

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users who want a simple, lightweight Google Maps plugin with basic placemark features and clustering, and who are comfortable managing Google API keys externally.

Not ideal for

Users needing seamless Google API integration within the plugin, frequent updates, or advanced mapping features. Also not ideal for those concerned about past security vulnerabilities or requiring active plugin maintenance.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers basic Google Maps placemarks with clustering and customization options sufficient for many simple mapping needs.

Final Verdict

Basic Google Maps Placemarks is a solid choice for users seeking a straightforward and customizable mapping plugin without unnecessary bloat. It excels in simplicity and offers useful features like clustering and category-specific placemarks, making it suitable for many basic mapping applications.

However, the lack of an integrated Google API key setting and past security vulnerabilities may pose challenges for some users. Those requiring more advanced features or seamless API integration might consider alternative plugins. Overall, it provides good value as a free plugin for users comfortable managing API keys externally.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Basic Google Maps Placemarks plugin.

Google Maps

Map

Marker

Placemark

Screenshots

FAQ

Read the instructions on the Installation page. If you still have questions, read this FAQ and look for answers on the support forum. If you can’t find an answer, start a new thread on the forums.

There are several possible causes for this error, but they generally fall into two different categories.

Google Maps didn’t recognize the address you entered.
The plugin couldn’t connect to the Google Maps API to geocode the address.

If the error is followed by something similar to the example below, then the problem was with connecting to the Maps API:

Geocode response:  stdClass Object (     [results] => Array     (     )     [status] => OVER_QUERY_LIMIT )

If the problem is with the address, you can try entering it in a different format. For example, instead of “5th Ave and Blanchard St, Seattle”, try “2124 5th Ave, 98121”. You can also try using latitude/longitude coordinates to bypass the geocoding process entirely; see the other FAQ answers for details on that.

If the problem is with the connection, some of of the possible reasons for that are:

Google Maps places a limit on how many geocoding requests it will serve per day. If you’re using shared hosting, there could be other sites on your server or netblock that are also making requests, and you’ve hit the limit for the day. If this is the problem, you’ll probably need to ask your web host to move you to your own VPS, or just wait until tomorrow and try again.
There could be problems with your network or server that are interfering with the connection. If this is the problem, your web host can help you troubleshoot it.
Google could be blocking requests from your server’s IP address or netblock due to abuse or violations of their terms of service. The violations could be caused by your site, or another site on your server/netblock. If this is the problem, your web host can help you troubleshoot it. After they remove the problem then it might start working again after a delay (probably 1-7 days), or they may need to contact Google to ask that the server be removed from the blacklist.

You can also try using latitude/longitude coordinates to bypass the geocoding process entirely; see the other FAQ answers for details on that.

Yes, if you want to use the same custom icon for all markers by default, instead of having to set it on each individual placemark, you can add this to your theme’s functions.php or a functionality plugin:

function setBGMPDefaultIcon( $iconURL ) {     return get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/images/bgmp-default-icon.png'; } add_filter( 'bgmp_default-icon', 'setBGMPDefaultIcon' );

The string you return needs to be the full URL to the new icon.

If you only want to replace the default marker under certain conditions (e.g., when the marker is assigned to a specific category), then you can using something like this:

function setBGMPDefaultIconByCategory( $iconURL, $placemarkID ) {     $placemarkCategories = wp_get_object_terms( $placemarkID, 'bgmp-category' );      foreach( $placemarkCategories as $pc )     {         switch( $pc->slug )         {             case 'restaurants':                 $iconURL = get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/images/marker-icons/restaurants.png';             break;              case 'book-stores':                 $iconURL = get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/images/marker-icons/book-stores.png';             break;              default:                 $iconURL = get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/images/marker-icons/pin.png';             break;         }     }      return $iconURL; } add_filter( 'bgmp_default-icon', 'setBGMPDefaultIconByCategory', 10, 2 );

Here’s another example to uses the placemark’s ID:

function setBGMPDefaultIconByID( $iconURL, $placemarkID ) {     if( $placemarkID == 352 )         $iconURL = get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/images/bgmp-default-icon.png';      return $iconURL; } add_filter( 'bgmp_default-icon', 'setBGMPDefaultIcon', 10, 2 );

The string you return needs to be the full URL to the new icon.

The width/height of the map and marker information windows are always defined in the Settings, but you can override everything else by putting this code in your theme’s functions.php file or a functionality plugin:

function setBGMPStyle() {     wp_deregister_style( 'bgmp_style' );     wp_register_style(         'bgmp_style',         get_bloginfo('template_url') . '/bgmp-style.css'     );     wp_enqueue_style( 'bgmp_style' ); } add_action('init', 'setBGMPStyle');

Then create a bgmp-style.css file inside your theme directory or a child theme and put your styles there. If you’d prefer, you could also just make it an empty file and put the styles in your main style.css, but either way you need to register and enqueue a style with the bgmp_style handle, because the plugin checks to make sure the CSS and JavaScript files are loaded before embedding the map.

Add the following styles to your theme’s style.css file or a child theme:

.bgmp_placemark {     width: 450px;     height: 350px; }

Contributors and developers

“Basic Google Maps Placemarks” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Ian Dunn

Free Version Docs

WPS

6.73

Average

Ratings

4.4 out of 5 | 51

Version

1.10.8

Last updated

5 months ago

Active installations

3,000+

WordPress version

6.9.8 or higher

PHP version

or higher

Languages

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Basic Google Maps Placemarks Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

Screenshots

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (51)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (2)

Previous Versions

WPS

6.73

Other plugins you might like

Leaflet Maps Marker (Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps)

WP Open Street Map

WP Mapbox GL JS Maps

MapSVG – Vector maps, Image maps, Google Maps

Out of the Block: OpenStreetMap

SimpleMaps