Custom icons based on contact type for google maps

I was making some changes to the way google maps work for my own project and the results looked interesting to be included back in main. What I ended up doing is using custom markers for map icons (screenshots at http://picasaweb.google.com/goran.gugic/DropBox# )

While I am at it - completing the code and fixing the icons (need to add shadows and fix the individual icon which has some white pixels among the transparent ones) I will also change the default map type for multiple results.

When discussing this on irc people I was asked about changing the size of the map and default zoom level (makes sense only when mapping a single contact IMHO). Don't know exactly what is wrong with the size (height of 600px and width of 100% of available space works pretty well in most cases I've seen), but the default zoom level is something I could change.
I am not thinking about adding a configuration options for this just simply changing the current zoom level to a 'more reasonable' one.

So if anyone has comments re proposed changes:

• using icons instead of gmap markers,
• fixing default individual icon (transpareny),
• creating shadow images for these,
• changing default map style to terrain when mapping a set of locations,
• changing default zoom level when mapping a single location to more zoomed out
  do let me know

Resources used (if anyone is interested in google maps, it's a complete example, custom markes are towards the end):
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/articles/phpsqlajax.html

Link to forum: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,12689.0.html