Emil Hunefalk » Maps

Google Developer Day

EH — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:28:21 +0000

I was at the recent Google Developer Day at Wembley, and got a few ideas when listening to talks regarding development in Google Maps from the past six months:

Â It is now possible to integrate Google Earth as a map type of Google Maps – something they didn’t tell us enough about imho. However, it seems like thisÂ is still at an early stage..
If you’ve never been to a Google Developer day I would certainly recommend it – even if you know the API’s and have talked to many of the Google people who develop the app’s you use, there’s no better chance of finding other people giving fresh views of the world.
According to one speaker, using ‘usual Google maps’ gives you a 50 kb download, while the Ajax downloader gives you a 4kb download. A significant claim which I hope to get the chance of testing soon enough – at least within the next few months. Too bad it seems to have a limit of 50 markers..

Of course, there were also a few other interesting subjects, including for example OpenSocial and especially Gears – but that’s not for this post…

Maps – the Google version

EH — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:02:15 +0000

This is just about the maps for now, not about stand-alone software like Google Earth.

I’ve become impressed by the Google Maps API when working with it, by the support from the Google team and by the constant feature updates we keep getting – and of course by many of the extensions from the community.

I’ve tried out PdMarker, Clusterer and a few other extensions with varying results, and believe some of those features should be part of the standard API. Today I actually saw in one of the Google groups threads that some of those features will come to us soon, and especially the marker.onHover() for tooltips and marker icon change seems to be on its way.

As a way of learning the API I’ve followed some of Mike’s tips for managing the maps – and noticed it seems very updated (I haven’t seen any dates) – as well as following the official blog, looking a lot at the docs and sometimes checking out Google Maps Mania.

Even though I’m impressed by the maps, marker overlays, geocoders etc I am also a bit disappointed in the fact that I noticed this technology slowing my browser, and in conjunction my entire system, down so I can’t work at normal pace. Of course I understand it takes a bit of code to get it all running, but it seems to me there are still some memory leaks – and I really don’t like the message about ‘unresponsive script’ Firefox tells me about every time I exit the browser after looking at maps for a while….

I’m looking forward to the next update – but even more, I’m looking forward to GMap3(), hopefully with better OnUnload()…

I wish you a nice mapping..

GeoWeb – Mapping the Web

EH — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:17:19 +0000

Lately I’ve been tinkering a lot with maps and what is called the GeoWeb by some. I’m starting to master the API for google maps, geocoding addresses, airport locations etc through different services and creating my own maps showing markers and marker clusters to show locations for hotels, car rental offices and airports, as part of my job. While doing this I’ve also had the chance to discover much more of the GeoWeb, seeing a webcam over Trafalgar Square in London (which is placed wrong on the map) and a couple of creative mapmaking and tour creating sites, making me believe a great deal in the GeoWeb, and in the future both for services such as Google Maps and free software like Google Earth.

Some creative people use a map as a CV, a WikiMapia project was started to let anyone add information on maps – giving it so much information that my old laptop can barely move the map – and you’ve probably noticed the Google maps flight simulator, Goggles. You can find where you would end up if digging a hole through the planet from any position – I would end up in the middle of the pacific ocean if I started digging from here, so I guess I’ll skip that for now.

While creating my own maps with overlay, I’ve noticed it’s very simple javascript which helps us control the maps, overlays, events etc, and am now considering creating my own mashup using maps and some other services – doing something I haven’t seen around, at least not in Europe – but that will be a secret for now, until the plans start coming to life…

Happy mapping, and have a great weekend – I know I will, going to another place on the map…

Photography and imaging

EH — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:55:54 +0000

A few months back I bought my first digital camera, and have already taken about 2000 pictures with it, probably throwing at least half of them away soon afterwards. You can see some of my photos on Picasa, and others on Flickr, mixed with other types of images. Actually, I started writing this post after returning from another photowalk in Copenhagen, where I covered ’sÃ¸erne’ (’the lakes’) and adjacent areas. On some of my photowalks I can’t believe how many of the old buildings still stand, especially after the Germans invading. The photowalk consisted of 4-5 hours of photography with a few breaks for beer or coke.

– another photowalk I’d recommend for the Copenhagen visitor is the ‘CowParade’, consisting of a number of cows spread around Copenhagen in interesting locations, and if you walk there you will certainly find other places as well ….

Of course, I used Picasa on some of the photos, working miracles instead of making me throw them away. Another tool I was considering is Picnic, allowing me to edit online so I don’t have to keep track of which computer I started with (I consistently switch between three computers with different OS) and instead let me take a break and then continue on another computer seamlessly…

For the apprentice photographer like myself, I would recommend PhotonHead, and especially the camera review. But of course, you can also learn much from for example 10 ways and many other sites which can tell you about the arts of light, composition, posture and stance….

Maps

EH — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:52:08 +0000

Since I’m creating a travel section of this site, I decided it could be interesting to make research on some of the mapping API’s out there, with Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and MS MapPoint being the obvious first candidates. These candidates are soon reduced to two when I look at MSN Maps, and especially the navigation and general feel of this application disheartens me, thereby leaving two of the giants as candidates.

Both Yahoo! and Google have extensive documentation and help for their mapping API’s, which of course helps when developing – but I’ve often found that smaller startups can have more interesting products, leading to a further search for mapping tools. The first API I find in this quick search is ZoomIn, another free system which reminds of the others, but feels a bit slow at the first look – and while looking around at their site it hits me with quite a few bad links which of course renders a bad feeling.

Moving on, I found MapQuest and the OpenAPI used for their service, including geocoding, routing, seamless movements in the map and a few other interesting features. Another option I found while looking around was MultiMap, which targets business clients and have many high profile clients.

With the options above, I started testing the interfaces with geocoding and to see if they have simple dragging, zooming and other features which are essential for a usable interface. I found that MapQuest, Google maps, MultiMap and Yahoo! were the most friendly and decided to go on with those.

In a next post I’ll give short tutorials for each api after some testing – and comment on how simple each them are. My progress can be seen under my travel section where I started with a WordPress plug-in for Google maps, and will continue next with a London map from Yahoo! maps.

Happy mapping!

Web 2.0 sites

EH — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:23:24 +0000

Since this topic is quite popular at the moment, I had a look at different solutions. For anyone curious to explore more, you can look at sites such as AjaxProjects for a comprehensive list, Digital Trend for the best a year ago (according to them at least) or maybe you should simple start stumbling upon them? Looking at Stumbleupon, I start wondering what actually should define Web 2.0, since I used that site about 5 years ago before going tired of so many stumbled spam sites…

Some say that Web 2.0 is about mashing it up, creating sites like del.icio.us and digg, or maybe collecting the most popular sites to one, and showing feeds from the mentioned sites and others, also including media sites such as Flickr and ifilm…

Before uploading your photo to Flickr, you can edit online with tools such as picnik, and the videos can be fixed at sites like eyespot before putting them on for example youtube or Revver….

If you feel like being passive for the day, you can instead use services such as Songbird for streaming from a multitude of online radio channels, or go to Travelistic to see travel videos…

When you look at all the sites and what they have in common it can be difficult at a first glance, but then you start to think of words and terms like ‘user experience’, ‘creativity’ and ’simplicity’ – which are very important parts of the new web taking shape for the future. For example, you don’t always need AJAX or other new technologies to make it ‘Web 2.0′ – but you need to make it worth the time spent to visit the site…

By the way, is anyone else tired of hearing terms such as ‘Web 2.0′, ‘AJAX’ and similar? The technology and thoughts have been around for ages…

Googling for the term ‘Web 2.0′ gives results showing people aren’t tired of it, and actually it’s one of the most hyped terms our there at the moment. Sites like All Things Web 2.0, WebWare and Web 2.0 Magazine try to list as many as possible in categories, while some show the contenct from multiple sites, for example the before mentioned popurls or the iGoogle portal.

Travel, or simply phone the world

EH — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:16:04 +0000

Something I’m thinking about now is how to set up a good travel section for this site. While working with development for a travel search engine where I’m now adding search for other travel related items to accompany the flight search already available, my interest for traveling has increased even further compared to before, also leading to insight in accommodation sites and finding out a little about what’s happening behind the scenes. Of course, I can’t share any of this knowledge here because of contracts and NDA’s, but can at least recommend what I come across and am impressed by. For example, I’d like to recommend having a look at Hip Hotels for some nice views before a trip, or if you feel like backpacking there’s usually some hostel with available beds through HostelBookers – or maybe you want to do some lifechanging travel, for example by volunteering in a third world country?

While on the road I usually bring the laptop, and there’s often available net either at or close to the hotel so I can use Skype which is of course connected as my home phone with SkypeIn and SkypeOut. This is actually what I also use at home, instead of getting a regular phone after moving to Denmark I simply decided to go with Skype, and can have a phone number in any country no matter where in the world I am at the moment. Now there’s even software to help if you want a temporary number – where Numbr sends any calls to the temporary number onward to your normal phone.

[Some of the links in this post are affiliate links where I earn a small percentage on sales - if you're curious about the products but don't want to support my blogging, the url's are www.Skype.com, www.HostelBookers.com and www.i-to-i.com]