Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map

Katherine Mangu-Ward | April 5, 2007

A new Google tool lets you make your own maps using a mashup-type interface. Basically, it's Google Local for the lazy:

Developers have created over 35,000 Google Maps mashups, marrying the Google mapping platform with external data sources to create all sorts of interactive maps where users can find information on apartments for rent, bike routes, hotels, gas station fuel prices, parking garage fares, and so on.

My Maps has a graphical, drag-and-drop interface that lets users create a map, add placemarks to it, as well as draw lines and shapes. Users can also add notes, photos, audio clips and videos to placemarks.

Users can choose to make their maps public or visible only to friends. The Google guys have already taken it to the next level with a map and photo collage of their campus. Coming soon: Live, constantly updated maps of every security camera in America--perhaps with video feeds.

Comments

|4.5.07 @ 12:33PM|#

It's cool the way computing mapping is moving out of government offices and into the private sector.

The city planner who gave me my first internship had a GIS system up and running so far back that you needed to know UNIX's programming language to use it.

VM|4.5.07 @ 12:38PM|#

Just make sure that you properly review the situation

SHOW TUNES BATTLE!

(looks around quickly. denies making that statement.)

|4.5.07 @ 12:41PM|#

O brave new world that has such killer apps in it.

I don't even want to resist.
Assimilate me now.

jimmydageek|4.5.07 @ 12:56PM|#

here you go - my recently created map

...brave new world, man...brave new world.

highnumber|4.5.07 @ 1:10PM|#

jimmy,
Do you hide your Chinese food in the forest?

jimmydageek|4.5.07 @ 1:28PM|#

highnumber | April 5, 2007, 1:10pm | #

jimmy,
Do you hide your Chinese food in the forest?

No, silly, I eat it...wtf kind of question is that?

I do know what you mean though, that map is horribly outdated (at least 5 years?). In the area where my Chinese food is "hidden" there is a small shopping center (subway, blockbuster, gun shop, barber shop, phone shop) and there's a larger shopping center nearby that's also not shown on the map...

...brave new world...

|4.5.07 @ 2:10PM|#

Options for mapmaker lighting:

Sunrise, sunset

jimmydageek|4.5.07 @ 2:16PM|#

Now I look like an even bigger idiot than before...if that's possible LOL.

I see, highnumber, that when using the satellite imagery on the map, my Chinese food is strategically placed within the canopy of the woods. Beats the Chinese food from the local Chinese restaurant.

|4.5.07 @ 2:17PM|#

For International Talk Like a Pirate Day, they should make every map look like a treasure map, with a big black X at the destination, and landmarks designed as, for example, "Here Thar Be Dulles International Airport."

|4.5.07 @ 2:34PM|#

Arr, I like the cut o' yer jib, young Master joe.

|4.5.07 @ 2:36PM|#

joe,

That would be hilarious.

|4.5.07 @ 2:42PM|#

It's cool the way computing mapping is moving out of government offices and into the private sector.

The city planner who gave me my first internship had a GIS system up and running so far back that you needed to know UNIX's programming language to use it.

joe,
man i know all about this. IMS applications have been around for a while now, but i think google has changed the game. it is now what consumers are expecting and it requires a level of programming that local govt. just can't afford to provide.

local govs will still be valuable in the world of GIS for map production and as data providers - as much of the data people are interested in - is government data (property tax info, land use, zoning, precinct bdys, and of course census data).

usgs national map project is pretty cool too.

|4.5.07 @ 2:45PM|#

and of course, the interactive map applications provided by google and others lack the analytical component of pure GIS.

for the layperson just wanting a map - the web apps are unbeatable.

lunchstealer|4.5.07 @ 3:06PM|#

God damn it, now I've got that stupid song stuck in my head. I was forced to sit through that movie 25 years ago in band class of all places, and it's still haunting me over a quarter of a century later.

VM|4.5.07 @ 3:08PM|#

lunch:

musical interlude! Clear your thoughts!!! (by Going Underground)

highnumber|4.5.07 @ 4:08PM|#

Thanks, VM!
Too bad I don't have a sound card at work. ;(

I'll put the DVD on when I get home tonight.

VM|4.5.07 @ 4:12PM|#

High#:

awesome! The Jam is amazing! Just listened to "Mr. Clean".

highnumber|4.5.07 @ 4:38PM|#

I just put on my Weller/Style Council/Jam playlist.

Sox - Tribe tied in the 8th.

highnumber|4.5.07 @ 5:04PM|#

White Sox winner!!!

VM|4.5.07 @ 5:14PM|#

The pick off throw to second is one of the riskiest plays. Only the tribe and the cubbies attempt it.

interesting. Might Cleveland be the uncool embodiment of everything that's Cub-dom?

|4.5.07 @ 6:49PM|#

I hear Mark Cuban is gonna buy the Cubs.
First order of business, Get a modern facility to play in. Maybe a dome with plastic grass

highnumber|4.5.07 @ 6:53PM|#

No way Selig and the other owners will allow Cuban into their club.

|4.5.07 @ 7:31PM|#

VM,
"Going Underground" is one of the dozen or so songs that I have deemed Best.Song.Ever. My wife constantly mocks me for having too many best songs ever. Man, is that good.

highnumber|4.5.07 @ 8:30PM|#

mccleary,

It's the Jam's best song, hence it is indeed the Best Song Ever. Your wife is right to mock you. It has no equal.

Except for maybe "I'd Rather Go Blind."
and "What's Going On"
and "That's Entertainment"
and "Town Called Malice"
and "Drive My Car"
and "Live Forever"
and "Tin Soldier"
and "Waterloo Sunset"
and "I Can't Explain"
and "Respect"
and "Peggy Sue"
and "Around & Around"
and...and...and...

Please don't tell your wife what I wrote. I fear her mockery.

VM|4.6.07 @ 12:04PM|#

just celebrate their entire catalog!

yoooo da men!