Large number of Google Map Markers and IE6?

Question

I'm working on an application that generates a large number of Google Map markers (2000 - 7000) via JSON. I'm also using MarkerCluster. It works quick on Chrome and FF but IE6 takes few minutes and just crashes the first time I try to zoom in.

I'm not doing any more than just adding the markers to a map using JQuery & GMap API. So I looked at the following URL of the regular Google Map.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=hotel&sll=53.182996,-2.581787&sspn=1.494529,4.927368&ie=UTF8&split=1&rq=1&ev=p&hq=hotel&hnear=&ll=53.123702,-2.730103&spn=1.496594,4.927368&t=h&z=8

It shows a lot of tiny markers (~1000) and works fine on IE6. Do you have any ideas why this works and the markers added via the API struggles?

Thanks

Answer 1

Having thousands of markers coming out of your program does not sound like it is going to be very friendly for anyone with an older machine.

MarkerCluster doesn't actually reduce the number of markers on the map. It just groups them.

I would recommend implementing a clustering algorithm on the backend so that the number of markers to be shown on the map is reduced.