Getting MULTIPLE distances with google maps

Question

So.. I have 10 latitude/longitude values in a database.

Using the V3 JS API i plot these on a map.

I then have an 11th point which is 'users current location'

I want to find the distance between the user location and each of the other points.

I have created a javascript which does this - essentially, it gets the lat/long, plots the markers etc. Then with a PHP foreach loop, i loop through the lat/long pairs, and output the javascript which gets these values.

Now.. I myself do not really understand how this works.. i followed tutorials :) But it does. It uses the directionservices() function. None the less, I feel that it is safe to assume that this method must be somewhat inefficient.

Does anyone know if this is a good approach?efficient approach? what alternatives there arE?

Many Thanks

Answer 1

In which database do you store the lat lng values? If your database is spatially enabled as PostGis is you can use build in database functions that i think is fast and efficient.

Then maybe you can find also a way for cashing precalculated numbers(i.e. distances) and improve the speed additionally.