Question

When using google maps api to display something google has started adding local restaurants/hotels into the map.
How can I hide them from appearing. I checked the same locations on sites that use maps (like yelp) and they successfully hide the local hotels/restaurants.
I’ve been looking for layers/overlays but can’t figure out how I remove this default behavior.

example

These things are appearing on my maps. is it possible to hide these bubbles and names?

edit
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/releases#36
says that 3.6 introduces business icons on by default. So setting v=3.5 as a parameter will hide the “Business icons”.

bounty
Is there a way of hiding the business messages without sticking with an older version of the api?

Answer 1

you can set them invisible by setting the map style properly. See

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/styling.html

and

http://code.google.com/intl/pl/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/reference.html#MapTypeStyleFeatureType

sth like that should do the trick (though not tested):

var noPoi = [
{
    featureType: "poi",
    stylers: [
      { visibility: "off" }
    ]   
  }
];

map.setOptions({styles: noPoi});