[UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] mapserver vs. google maps - any comparisons done?

[Sims, Benjamin]

Hi, I have been asked to look into developing an application to display basic scientific data on the web. Its fairly vanilla stuff – display points at which a certain event happened, popup a descriptive text when the user hovers over them and then go to an information page when they are clicked. There may also be things like colour coding of grid areas and so forth. Having read a tutorial on using Mapserver with PHP some time ago and played around with a it a little bit, I had more or less decided that Mapserver was the best way to go to get this project done. However, over the last year the I there have been so many applications coming out riding on Google Maps rather than using a dedicated map server/GIS product. Despite this, I haven’t been able to find any information online comparing the different products available, or listing the advantages and disadvantages of going for one rather than the other. Does anybody on this list have such information, or personal experience that they would like to share? Thanks for any opinions, Benjamin