Is it possible to have specific markers based on a user's search with Google Maps API? For example, I'd like to be able to create unique markers for different food cuisine types: american, asian, european, and indian. If the user types in american for example, can I add a special marker for this and if so, how can I achieve this?
Google has a great API that details how to do what you need pretty well. The Google Places API has some examples of how to search for places. The Maps API has an example on how to add custom marker symbols. Once you get the data back from the query posted, you can parse it to get details on the restaurant and associate an icon with that restaurants position