Google Maps - server side clustering is still quite slow - do I use mapplets?

Question

Hi guys, I'm still working on my google maps application. However clustering on the server end works but at the same time its quite slow and at times if I'm zooming out too much and playing around with the panning my browser stalls.

There is only so much that I can choose to hide using clusters.

EDIT

I'm thinking of using mapplets in this case but have no idea how to use them - rather I have no idea what they are exactly. I'm trying to build something on the lines of what you see at this link. Loads and loads of markers on the same page and the page isn't dying out. Any ideas guys?

Answer 1

Have you tried pre-clustering your markers?

UPDATE:

If you want to make a custom tile overlay, here is Google's documentation on the subject. There's another example here, but I don't know how they create the tiles on the server side. It will probably be a little tricky.

If you can figure out how to make the tiles, that would be a great solution. Otherwise, I think that server-side clustering is much simpler. If you could post a link to your page, we could see what's slowing it down.

Answer 2

Well you could try using MarkerClusterer (examples).

For more information read my answer on similar question where I suggested another plugin from that library which also happens to have clustering support.

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Also to answer your question why that map is not "dying":

It's not dying because everything you see is actually an image. I'm not sure if I can hotlink it from here but try this link. Since it's just an overlay image, you don't have to draw markers. Clicks on the image are processed by JavaScript and a pop-up is drawn if you click on the image where a marker should be located.