Online Mapping Software
Friday, February 18, 2005
Online Mapping software seems to be all the rage recently. For years this category was limited to Mapquest.com. And they had completely owned this market space but in the last year there have been quite a bit of competition that has been developed. Here it is a small list, that shows the range of services available on the web today. (This excerpt courtesy CNET Anchordesk)
A9 Yellow Pages - Amazon's new search engine, A9, offers a location search that includes contributed photos of the block where your restaurant, guitar store, coffee shop, or tailor is located. So far, the search engine is hard to use, and not every result includes a photo--and not every photo is on point. But if you've never been to College Ave. in Oakland, and you really need to find Suzy Q Korean BBQ, you'll feel right at home once you get to the right street.
Google Maps - No pictures here, but Google Maps is just plain nice. Once you enter your location, you can interact with the map, clicking and dragging to various locations, and looking up to-and-from directions on the fly. Knowing Google, I'm hoping for some fast improvements to this site, too. Why not let us click the address, say, and bring up search results for the location, such as reviews, photos, news stories ("didn't I hear that restaurant burned down?") and the like? I'll be waiting.
GeoURL - The new site is scheduled to launch today, and I hope it does. GeoURL is a geographic search engine that essentially links the location of Web sites using GPS coordinates. You could find out, for example, if your favorite blogger lives anywhere near you--OK, I admit, that seemed to be its most promising feature. Still, bloggers have to find each other somehow, and there are probably other uses that have yet to be discovered.
Zip Decode - I think this site's getting a bit too much attention lately, because it's behaving a bit slowly, but Ben Fry's Zip Decode site has mapped all the zip codes in the United States. Type in numbers (make sure you turn on zoom!) and watch the map dynamically narrow itself down to a specific location. Use: unknown. Coolness: extreme.
Baby Name Wizard - I don't care if you're having a baby, had a baby, don't ever want to have a baby, or haven't ever seen a real baby in person. If you have a name, you should see this site, which graphs the popularity of certain names over time, and which lets you troll various decades just to find out the most interesting names. Hours of fun.
Think it's all silly or just developmental? How about:
Tsunami Disaster Mapping - This interactive, open-source map is designed to focus Indian Basin disaster relief where it's most needed, by integrating data about the tsunami and earthquake with mapping. It provides information on deaths in affected areas and proximity to the earthquake's epicenter. The project's creators hope workers in the affected area will contribute data to make the application even richer.
(This excerpt courtesy CNET Anchordesk)
A9 Yellow Pages - Amazon's new search engine, A9, offers a location search that includes contributed photos of the block where your restaurant, guitar store, coffee shop, or tailor is located. So far, the search engine is hard to use, and not every result includes a photo--and not every photo is on point. But if you've never been to College Ave. in Oakland, and you really need to find Suzy Q Korean BBQ, you'll feel right at home once you get to the right street.
Google Maps - No pictures here, but Google Maps is just plain nice. Once you enter your location, you can interact with the map, clicking and dragging to various locations, and looking up to-and-from directions on the fly. Knowing Google, I'm hoping for some fast improvements to this site, too. Why not let us click the address, say, and bring up search results for the location, such as reviews, photos, news stories ("didn't I hear that restaurant burned down?") and the like? I'll be waiting.
GeoURL - The new site is scheduled to launch today, and I hope it does. GeoURL is a geographic search engine that essentially links the location of Web sites using GPS coordinates. You could find out, for example, if your favorite blogger lives anywhere near you--OK, I admit, that seemed to be its most promising feature. Still, bloggers have to find each other somehow, and there are probably other uses that have yet to be discovered.
Zip Decode - I think this site's getting a bit too much attention lately, because it's behaving a bit slowly, but Ben Fry's Zip Decode site has mapped all the zip codes in the United States. Type in numbers (make sure you turn on zoom!) and watch the map dynamically narrow itself down to a specific location. Use: unknown. Coolness: extreme.
Baby Name Wizard - I don't care if you're having a baby, had a baby, don't ever want to have a baby, or haven't ever seen a real baby in person. If you have a name, you should see this site, which graphs the popularity of certain names over time, and which lets you troll various decades just to find out the most interesting names. Hours of fun.
Think it's all silly or just developmental? How about:
Tsunami Disaster Mapping - This interactive, open-source map is designed to focus Indian Basin disaster relief where it's most needed, by integrating data about the tsunami and earthquake with mapping. It provides information on deaths in affected areas and proximity to the earthquake's epicenter. The project's creators hope workers in the affected area will contribute data to make the application even richer.
(This excerpt courtesy CNET Anchordesk)
