Develop Reference

Google Maps API v3, Remove Marker icon or changing to "null"?

I'm writing a Python Flask application in which I'm using Google Maps. I want to be able to add labels to a polyline that I've drawn which symbolizes a ship route.
The route is drawn using a set of coordinates and the polyline feature of the Maps API. I want to add time labels to the polyline and the easiest way seems to be to use Map Markers. However I don't want the large standard pins to show up, but would prefer a small icon/marker together with my text or even none at all. As far as I have gathered you can create "Circles" (which are modifiable) or "Markers" (which you only can change the icon of). I would prefer to go with "Circles", but those you apparently can't add text to..
How can I add text to my map and avoid the Google Maps Pins showing up?
Currently I have an list of objects that contains latitude, longitude and date + time. I'm iterating through it adding markers, but as I do I would like to keep out the marker icon or instead draw the circles if someone knows how to draw circles with added text?
for(i = 0; i < markerList.length; i++){
var position = new google.maps.LatLng(markerList[i].lat, markerList[i].lng);
var date = markerList[i].date;
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
position: position,
label: date,
map: map,
icon: "None" //Produces error: 404 (NOT FOUND)
});
}
Being able to change the label size also is a very much appreciated function, but I have been unable to find any information about whether that is available. Being able to change the color of the text would also be nice.

As no answers have been given yet and I've sort of found a solution to my problem I guess I will share for others out there with the same problem. At least until someone comes up with a better solution:
I ended up using a predefined symbol and scaling it down to 0 in size as follows:
for(i = 0; i < markerList.length; i++){
var position = new google.maps.LatLng(markerList[i].lat, markerList[i].lng);
var date = markerList[i].date;
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
position: position,
label: date,
map: map,
icon: {
path: google.maps.SymbolPath.CIRCLE,
scale: 0
}
});
}
Sadly I haven't found a way to mess with the label yet.

try markerWithlabel and you can change the icon of the marker whit a svg or png plus the label too
like this jsfiddel
.

#Zeliax You can add visible: false to not have marker icon show on your google map. icon prop looks for a path that you want specify for your marker to look as. It is basically a url for your display image.

Google Maps API: how to tell if a marker is hidden by another marker?

I have a map that has markers programmatically placed on it based on values in my database. When you click on a marker, it will go to a detail page for that location.
My problem is that when the map is sufficiently zoomed out, markers that are close enough to each other appear as a single marker, in effect hiding some of the markers. Is there a way to tell programmatically whether a marker is part of a group of markers or is hidden/covered up by other markers?
My intention is to do something like this for each dynamically generated marker:
marker.addListener('click', function() {
// if marker is not hiding any other markers
window.location.href = markerURL;
// else if it is hiding markers/is part of a group of markers
map.setZoom(15);
map.setCenter(marker.getPosition());
});
I have checked the Marker API documentation, but can't seem to find any useful methods. getClickable and getVisible always return true in my case, regardless of whether a marker is covered by another marker. Any suggestions? Thank you!

I ended up going with MarkerClusterer to solve my problem. I was hoping for a simpler solution, but this turned out to be pretty simple after all.
The only thing I needed to add to my existing marker-generating code was a list: var markers = [];, and then I called markers.push(marker); on all of my markers. The final step was to create a new MarkerClusterer object:
var markerCluster = new MarkerClusterer(map, markers, options);
And MarkerClusterer handles the rest more or less (the options parameter is optional, but I used it to set the path to my images and set the maximum zoom level). Now, in the situations where previously my markers were stacked on top of each other, making it impossible to see or click certain markers at certain zoom levels, I instead see a cluster with a number indicating the number of markers in that cluster. Clicking the cluster icon will further zoom in, revealing my markers.
All of this was done following the simple usage example on their github page, but they have pretty good documentation too. Most of my time getting this to work right was actually spent styling the cluster icons to match my site's color scheme...

Marker Clusterer, cluster at 1 marker also

I am using marker clusterer with google maps. All is working very well but I would like to know how to cluster a marker even if there is only 1 marker with that grid. At the moment on page load you will see the odd marker darted around and others are within a clustered icon. I would like all even the single markers to display a cluster icon also.

Set the option minimumClusterSize to 1 (default is 2)
new MarkerClusterer(map, markers,{minimumClusterSize:1});

How to identify google maps marker on the map

I have a list of google maps markers as html links next to a google map. I have the function that is triggered when I click on the link. Marker ID is passed to this function.
My question is - when I have 100 markers, I want somehow IDENTIFY the clicked marker on the map. Some sort of ripple effect that would go away from the marker.
please advice what are my possible options so I could develop appropriate solution
Example: 100 markers already on the map. I also have 100 names on the left. Each name corresponds to each marker. When I click the name, I want the marker that belongs to that name somehow "blink" or identify itself in some other way among other markers.

before the markers was pin on the map
you need to set a global markers variable
var gb.markers = [];
while you create each marker need to push into global marker array
marker = new google.maps.Marker({
// other stuff
'id': marker.id
});
after you done with assign function to marker, push it into global var
gb.markers.push(marker);
make sure when you click on marker will get marker id
and loop the global markers or make marker array with id as index

A ripple effect would be quite complicated, possibly involving positioning of a 'GroundOverlay' object centered around the marker you wish to highlight.
If your goal is just to be able to highlight the marker, perhaps playing a simple animation using 'Marker.setAnimation(animationObject)'. You could perhaps using 'Animation.BOUNCE' to highlight the marker?

markerClusterer: Update cluster icon

I'm using markerClusterer: http://google-maps-utility-library-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/markerclustererplus/docs/reference.html
and my problem is this:
The user, on the map can edit the icon of the markers.
So, I want that one marker's icon is changed, the cluster parent must recalculate the cluster icon.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Resolved.
The .CALCULATOR() function is recalled every time you zoom in and zoom out the map, so is automagically resolved.