Creating fancy maps and pie charts using Google API charts

Google has recently developed a new tool to allow users to create Google-like charts and maps: the Google Application Programming Interface (API) chart. This tool allows the user to create custom PNG pictures by sending an appropriate syntax code over the web. Here we present two Stata programs that make it possible for users to create .png figures using the Google API chart directly from Stata and to download the figures in the current directory: (1) gmap allows the user to create thematic mapping of the world or one of its continents. (2) gpie allows the user to create pie charts in color and in 2D or 3D.