https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_PARC_Map_Viewer
There was a way to embed maps in a web page and provide a bunch of points of interest to overlay on the map.
Metricom was using it to provide coverage maps of their pole top box locations, for their spread spectrum wireless mesh radio network (it was rolled out in the Bay Area around 1994-1996 or so).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_(Internet_service)
I remember being impressed by how cool and powerful (and generous) it was for one web site like Xerox PARC's map viewer to provide dynamic map rendering services for other web sites like Ricochet's network coverage map!
Then a decade later, along came Google Maps in 2005.
Also:
http://www2.parc.com/istl/projects/www94/mapviewer.html
A particularly innovative use of the map service is the U.S. Gazeteer WWW service created by Brandon Plewe [Plew1]. It integrates an existing Geographic Name Server with the PARC Map Viewer. A user simply enters a search query (e.g. the name of a city, county, lake, state or zip code) and a list of matching places is returned as a formatted HTML document. Selecting from the list generates another HTML document consisting of two maps (small and large scale) with the location highlighted (using the Map Viewer's mark option). The server in New York does not generate or retrieve the map images, since they are references directly to the HTTP server at Xerox PARC. The user's WWW browser retrieves the map images from the server in California and displays the complete document to the user.
Documentation:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080621011940/http://www2.parc....
FAQ:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080420130346/http://www2.parc....
Details:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080608142726/http://www2.parc....
/mark=latitude,longitude,mark_type,mark_size place a mark on the map. ",mark_type" (1..7) and ",mark_size" (in pixels) are optional. multiple marks can be separated by ";" (see example below).
/map/color/mark=37.40,-122.14;21.35,-157.97 Specifies marks for Palo Alto, California and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.