geo2web.com

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MAPme.com - A Community Based Mapping Project

MAPme.com a social mapping site which allows everyone from travelers to special interest groups to create and contribute locations by suggesting ‘Hotspots’ and other information that other members of a map might be interested in.

Filters include ‘weirdness’ - in this case the ‘Dancing Elvis Troupe‘ in Tokyo

These travel guides are community maps where other members can leave comments or photos or even submit their own locations. Usually, these suggestions will either be added directly to each map, or they go into a moderation queue assigned to the map owner (depending on the type of map).

“Each map is like a new post in a geographic forum”, says John McCann, who managed the development of the site. “We have given the map owners as much flexibility as they could ever need in terms of being able to moderate location data, but we’ve also allowed for options for public and personal maps – public maps are generally a free for all, and personal maps are for mostly private use”.

Global Development
The development of the MAPME project took around 6 months, and was achieved on a shoestring budget by outsourcing work to all corners of the globe. Programmers working in the UK, Philippines, The Russian Federation and Australia patched together the MAPME application using open source software including the CAKE rapid development framework and of course the Google Maps API

Complexness
According to Robin Metcalfe- the lead developer of the project, the most complex undertaking was getting the permissions system right, and working out how to allow users to effectively explore a map that might have 500 or 500,000 markers. “We don’t have a map with 500, or even 5000 Hotspots on it yet, but I think our system can handle it”.

Community Mapping
While community mapping is relatively new concept and something that hasn’t really taken the online world by storm (yet), MAPme.com is also excellent for creating travel or city guides that are useful in their own right. Take for example this guide to Cebu, in the Philippines;

http://www.mapme.com/map/cebu

Future Applications
Apparently a Facebook Application, and Map Widget (built in Flash) are on the way, but for the time being map in can be exported in GPX format (easily transferable to portable GPS devices) or by KML. You can even keep an eye on any map activity by subscribing to the RSS channel for each guide.

MAPme is a great looking new site in the ilk of Flagr.com and Platial.com but on a global scale which is easier to use and better to look at. With the addition of an exportable map widget, this could easily be the best web 2.0 community mapping site on the net.

Map your World at http://www.mapme.com

Overall there is a lot of content already and subject matter that might call for some over 18’s certification but on the whole the site works well with the sense of being part of a geo-community mapping project.

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Google Maps API for Flash New!

“This API lets Flex developers embed Google Maps in Flash applications. Similar to the JavaScript version, this ActionScript API provides a number of utilities for manipulating and adding content to maps through a variety of services, enabling you to embed robust, interactive maps applications on your website.”

The demo gallery has several examples and what can be achieved by using the New Flash Version of Google Maps API for Flash.
The Spinning Map looks like a good potential starting point (was this inspired by Flash Earth?)

For Map Savvy Developers out there will already now that Yahoo has had a Flash based API for almost over two years now is on Version 3.5.2 beta. http://developer.yahoo.com/maps/flash/asGettingStarted.html

So the question is why now?
The Javascript version is still useful on its own and is constantly being updated and supported, but the Flash version can expand on what Google Maps has now and can extend the functionality
“Smoothness and speed are a big part of it. We’ve [Google] designed it so that Flash graphics can be used for each tile layer, marker and info window - opening up possibilities like dynamic shading, shadowing, animation, and video. When the user zooms the map, magnification changes happen smoothly and place names fade in.”

Note some developers do not like flash and will avoid it if they can, but flash today has evolved to become a very useful tool to visualize information, displaying this data on maps can greatly enhance and explain complex situations.

More information and Official Source:
http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-google-maps
-api-for-flash.html
(contains flash map/video and funky jazz sounds)
Thanks to Rob at Map Channels for pointing the new API out.

So look out for a Google Map Flash API vs Yahoo! Maps Flash API soon.

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Google Maps adds ‘More’ and Explore

Google Maps has added Wikipedia and Photos from http://www.panoramio.com/

This enhances the online mapping application into a more powerful and visual locating tool.

Clicking the ‘More’ exposes the new available layers.

See it in action

These features seem to be spawned from the Google Earth Desktop application and now made available in the web browser.

So when will Google Maps do 3D?

Source and more information available at Google Maps Mania

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It is my pleasure to be asked by Pamela to write another guest blog post; this time to discuss my experiences in using the new Static Maps API to enhance our Orbitz TLC Traveler Update mobile airport traffic page. I am pleased to report that although the API is in its early stages, [...]

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Why re-invent the wheel when you can copy and paste our wheel instead?
In the Google Maps API group and in my Inbox, developers often ask me questions such as “How do I draw a circle on the map?” or “How do I create groups of toggle-able markers?” Most of those questions are answered [...]

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The Google Maps API Blog reports of a new Google Static Maps API that will be of interest to Google Maps developers.
Google says that “the Google Static Maps API provides a simpler way to add maps to your website. Rather than use JavaScript, the Google Static Maps API creates map images on the [...]

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There’s a lot to discover in Google Maps: addresses, businesses, points of interest, user maps, and even photos, books, and videos. To help sift through all of this, we’ve added a new search option that will help you find exactly what you want. Check out the new “show search options” link near the [...]

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We know that the last thing teachers have is tons of free time to spend learning about new teaching tools. That’s why I’m thrilled to point out some new YouTube video tutorials that offer up basic tricks for using Google Earth and can serve as inspiration for lesson plans. While any new user [...]

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Happy New Year! We’re starting things off with a number of exciting updates.
With help from a team of USGS scientists, we reengineered the Earthquake layer to be more accurate and informative. And to top it all off, we gave it a fresh new look. This layer presents historic earthquake epicenters of magnitudes greater [...]

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Almost exactly a year ago, I joined the Maps API team to be a middleman(woman) between the literally thousands of Google Maps API developers and our internal Geo teams. So this post is both a summary of the 2007 and my first year here. I originally anticipated this being a short post until [...]

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I’m Joe Monahan, a 27 year old cyclist originally from South Plainfield, NJ and now living in Chicago, IL where I work the days away as a User Interface Engineer with Orbitz.com.
I’m excited to announce an addition to the Google Maps Open Source utility library: the ExtInfoWindow, an “extended” info window that allows [...]

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About a month ago we introduced Gmap2.enableGoogleBar(), a command that puts our normal logo against a white background and adds an expandable local search box. The local search box is based on the configurable LocalSearchControl, so developers immediately asked when they’d be able to use the same options for the GoogleBar.
Well, a ton [...]

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In this crazy Web 2.0 world, it’s all about one thing: the user. It’s about what the user wants from your site, and what the user can contribute to your site. That’s particularly true about map sites - the world is a big complicated place full of users who are experts on the [...]

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The good news: here at Google, we’re constantly increasing map coverage internationally: pushing out new tile updates, adding geocoding/routing data, collecting local business results, etc. The bad news: it’s not easy keeping up with the coverage and remembering where we have what. I can barely keep track, and it’s my job.
So, [...]

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Are your map’s info windows bursting with information, barely able to contain it all? Well, let them burst — into maximized info windows. In v2.93, the team has added various options, functions, and events to expand GInfoWindow, letting you mimic the behavior of the Google Maps local search result info windows, which [...]

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