Last week, Google announced Styled Maps as part of version 3 of the Google Maps API; it allows developers to make changes to the appearance of maps appearing on their websites. Here’s Google’s case for the feature: “No matter which Maps API site you are on, every map looks the same. If you want your map to stand out from the crowd, your options are limited to customizing the markers and controls, and if your brand has a particular colour scheme that is reflected on your site, Google Maps may not sit well with it.” Ed Parsons makes the case for them as well.

The changes can be made in the Javascript code; there’s a wizard to make things easier. At the moment it looks like you can the colour scheme and which geographical features and labels to include; it’ll be interesting to see if more options come later on.