How to get walking or driving distance via google maps with php

Question

I\'ve worked with google maps before, but when implementing it, I\'ve never found any documentation on how to get the exact distance between 2 given locations via Javascript

Answer 1

This posting gives a way and a warning.

To break it down you use google maps to query a URL like this

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=from+A+to+B&output=kml

and then you view the data retrieved from that url (in kml format) and look at the placemark tags (run it through simplexml) each placemark tag will have a description child that will have a text description of the next step in the route from A to B.

Also mentioned in the article is that by using this method you are bound by the google maps T&C which states

Also, you may not use Google Maps in a manner which gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of numerical latitude and longitude coordinates.

So you may want to keep that in mind.