How can I change the color of a Google Maps marker?

With version 3 of the Google Maps API, the easiest way to do this may be by grabbing a custom icon set, like the one that Benjamin Keen has created here:

http://www.benjaminkeen.com/google-maps-coloured-markers/

If you put all of those icons at the same place as your map page, you can colorize a Marker simply by using the appropriate icon option when creating it:

var beachMarker = new google.maps.Marker({
  position: myLatLng,
  map: map,
  icon: 'brown_markerA.png'
});

This is super-easy, and is the approach I'm using for the project I'm working on currently.

MapIconMaker: a library for Google Maps v2

One way is to use the MapIconMaker(deadlink). There's an example here(deadlink). Google Maps default icons are 20px width and 34px height, so you could use something like this to emulate:

var newIcon = MapIconMaker.createMarkerIcon({width: 20, height: 34, primaryColor: "#0000FF", cornercolor:"#0000FF"});
var marker = new GMarker(map.getCenter(), {icon: newIcon});

You could even wrap it in some function to make things even easier on yourself:

function getIcon(color) {
    return MapIconMaker.createMarkerIcon({width: 20, height: 34, primaryColor: color, cornercolor:color});
}

That's what I personally use for all markers I create. I prefer to have the option to change colors of a whim.

Update: The Hex color of the default icon is "#FE7569". Also, you can setImage on a Marker rather than creating a new Marker with a new icon. So if you want a function to highlight you could go with something like this, using the function above:

function highlightMarker(marker, highlight) {
    var color = "#FE7569";
    if (highlight) {
        color = "#0000FF";
    }
    marker.setImage(getIcon(color).image);
}

StyledMarker: a library for Google Maps v3

Since V2 was replaced by V3 sometime ago I thought I should update this answer. I created a library for custom markers that can be found on the V3 Utility Library here(deadlink). It allows for different colors and shapes, and you can place text on the marker as well. It works by using the Google Charts API which has methods for creating Google Maps type markers. Feel free to look at the source code if you'd rather use the Google Charts API directly.

The thing about that library, however, is that it takes care of defining the clickable regions of these marker images for you, so, for instance, the longer bubble with text will have the clickable regions one expects, like this example(deadlink).

Material Design

EDITED MARCH 2019 now with programmatic pin color,

PURE JAVASCRIPT, NO IMAGES, SUPPORTS LABELS

no longer relies on deprecated Charts API

    var pinColor = "#FFFFFF";
    var pinLabel = "A";

    // Pick your pin (hole or no hole)
    var pinSVGHole = "M12,11.5A2.5,2.5 0 0,1 9.5,9A2.5,2.5 0 0,1 12,6.5A2.5,2.5 0 0,1 14.5,9A2.5,2.5 0 0,1 12,11.5M12,2A7,7 0 0,0 5,9C5,14.25 12,22 12,22C12,22 19,14.25 19,9A7,7 0 0,0 12,2Z";
    var labelOriginHole = new google.maps.Point(12,15);
    var pinSVGFilled = "M 12,2 C 8.1340068,2 5,5.1340068 5,9 c 0,5.25 7,13 7,13 0,0 7,-7.75 7,-13 0,-3.8659932 -3.134007,-7 -7,-7 z";
    var labelOriginFilled =  new google.maps.Point(12,9);


    var markerImage = {  // https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/reference/marker#MarkerLabel
        path: pinSVGFilled,
        anchor: new google.maps.Point(12,17),
        fillOpacity: 1,
        fillColor: pinColor,
        strokeWeight: 2,
        strokeColor: "white",
        scale: 2,
        labelOrigin: labelOriginFilled
    };
    var label = {
        text: pinLabel,
        color: "white",
        fontSize: "12px",
    }; // https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/reference/marker#Symbol
    this.marker        = new google.maps.Marker({
        map: map.MapObject,
        //OPTIONAL: label: label,
        position: this.geographicCoordinates,
        icon: markerImage,
        //OPTIONAL: animation: google.maps.Animation.DROP,
    });

Since maps v2 is deprecated, you are probably interested in v3 maps: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/markers#simple_icons

For v2 maps:

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/overlays.html#Icons_overview

You would have one set of logic do all the 'regular' pins, and another that does the 'special' pin(s) using the new marker defined.