Having been using Google Maps for about as long as I’ve been using the Internet, getting into building my own maps was an easy task.  Google’s made its map interface very user-friendly, and their tutorials are a help if you don’t know where to start.  For me, I just started playing around with the tools, and quickly became proficient in creating and editing the shapes, lines, landmarks, etc. that can be added to your custom map.

View My Awesome Map in a larger map

As for the charts, you can definitely tell it’s in a beta form.  I couldn’t actually get the preview on the right side of the page to show my chart, so to have a look at what my chart was like visually, I had to constantly view at as an image in a separate window.  It was very annoying and made the whole process twice as long.  Also, the Radar Chart is impossible to figure out.  After nearly 20 minutes of trying to create one, I gave up and went on to a Pie Chart; which was exponentially easier.  You’d have to be a savant to make even a half-way decent Radar Chart.

Overall, I love working with Google Maps, and found it fun and easy to use.  Google Charts on the other hand go can throw itself off a building.