Extract raw data from google maps

Question

What data can be extracted from google maps? It seemed to me that I can just poll information about places and geography through their api. I'm looking to pull down a map of a city from google maps and then make my own map from it in order to throw that data into a game engine. A brute force method would be extracting the bitmap images and then processing that information, but is there some standard of geographical information I should explore? And if so, can I get that information from google maps?

Answer 1

If you want your own copy of a map you might be best off looking at Open Street Map, the Google TOS will likely dissallow the use that you are looking for, while OSM is open source and you can download the entire data set at will should that be your desire.

For mapping applications I would look into QGIS, it's again free and a powerful tool.

Answer 2

You can extract datasets and metadata from Google Maps Engine for use on other platforms. You can use the Google Maps Engine API to programmatically access and download data and metadata/configurations from your Google Maps Engine account. This approach is best when you need to download a larger number of data sources from your Maps Engine account or if you’ve updated vector tables using the Maps Engine API.

To download data with the Maps Engine API, your application must handle OAuth 2.0 for authentication as well as the calls to retrieve data via the GME API.