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Google Launches Mapping Service
Alex Reynolds writes "The beta version of Google Maps is now online, offering an alternative to Mapquest with what some might describe as a very much improved user interface, offering a cleaner layout, drop shadows, clickable waypoints and keyboard controls that allow you to move and zoom the map. For IE and Firefox/Mozilla at this point (no Safari or Opera support, as yet)."
GoogleMaps + AdSense + Google Local = Massive profits for Google and a fantastic customer experience.
I knew the folks at Google were smart, but...
I'm a big tall mofo.
They seem to have the directions to take on Microsoft
What about the rest of the planet?
A preview of the world map after Bush his second term is over :)
You can actually drag the map with your mouse to move the part that's being displayed. Way cool!
Jesus! They have drop shadows! Sign me up#@!
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
they achieve this by using XMLHttpRequest to make requests to the server and get back results via JavaScript. That's why dragging works so great... they do requests to get IDs of new images to show an dthen they start opening them.
Or, for that matter, map24. Think they've got the most impressive interface i've seen yet.
maps.google.com
Here's the kicker;
* They used DHTML and Javascript
* They did _not_ use Flash
Go take a look and consider that...
* No need to use the on-screen arrows to move around
* Left click and hold can be used to drag the map
* The arrow keys and other keys on your keyboard also work (PgUp, PgDn, +, -, ...)
While the useful part of the map is limited to the 50 US States, Puerto Rico, and the populated areas of Canada, it does not have local boarders (drag from Alaska or Hawaii to Florida or the Canadian wilderness if you want). Zoom all the way in before you think they left something out. It looks to be complete.
* The vector-generated maps are very readable when printed
* It uses Google's Local search; if you haven't tried that, give it a whirl (example: Choose a location on the main page, click Local when the location appears, and punch in "pizza" or "atms". Not perfect; "beer" and "pub" don't work so well, though oddly "brew" returns some good results. :( )'
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
1) They won't take you the wrong way down one-way streets.
2) They will get you to your destination instead of 95% of the way there.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
- Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada
- St Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church
- Customers For Life Inc
- Brantford Public Library
- Children's Aid Society of Haldimand-Norfolk
- Oxford Self-Help Network
Google teaches us so many things!- c -
I went looking for some cities I know of in the US, and the coverage is spotty, to say the least. New York is there, of course, but I went south to New Jersey and Delaware, and both Gotham and Metropolis are missing. Duh! Iowa and Minnesota exist, but Central City and Keystone are missing. Boston and Seattle are there, but no sign of Hub City, Gateway City, Star City -- need I go on? Obviously Coast City isn't there, but there's no marker for where it WAS.
Pretty shakey all round. Not impressed.
I have discovered a truly remarkable
We could not calculate driving directions between miami and anchorage. We currently only support road-based driving directions.
Coming soon - off road based driving directions!
Turn left out of drive.
Go through neighbours yard.
Swerve to avoid barn
Swerve to avoid cow
Attatch floats to car, cross pond
Drive across desert, hope for reliable engine
Drive through mountains, attatch boring attatchment(yawn)
Reach crevasse
Plummet
Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200
Because Navteq has invested millions and millions of dollars into GIS street data. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just license it? There are only two big, big sources of street data out there - Navteq and TeleAtlas. Virtually every online mapping service under the sun uses one or both of those sources. So does onboard GPS software. Increasingly, so do printed maps. Rand McNally's new line of local and regional maps (the ones with pastel covers) are based on Navteq data. They even boast about it. Look closely at other brands of printed maps and atlases and you'll notice often they don't even make the maps at all - you're likely to see MapQuest copyrights all over the place if you look closely. And MapQuest of course in turn uses Navteq and/or TeleAtlas data.
However, Navteq doesn't necessarily "do" everyone's maps. They provide the data and then the company comes up with a specification for linework, fills, etc. and adds or subtracts Points of Interest, boundaries, etc. A lot more goes into making a map than just the raw data. Let someone else do that.
The mapping industry has become one big consolidated relicensing operation. If good data already exists, it's foolish not to just use it. Believe me, there would be a hell of a lot more errors if everyone was creating their own data rather than using one or two reasonably good sources.
The biggest missing feature of all the mapping services I have seen is the lack of integrating mass transit.
I live in NYC, and whenever I am going somewhere, I usually pull out mapquest to find the address (cross streets) and then sit there with a subway/bus map to try and figure out how to get there. Aside from the time problem (the time intervals that flights trains and busses leave is not as flexible as a car), this should be relatively easy to implement as the search space is so much smaller, and should be easy to acquire information about (as opposed to every backroad across the US). Just overlaying subway and bus stops onto the street maps would be a huge improvement.
There are many profitable ways to utilize this:
I type in to WA. I get all the options- from trains, busses, airplanes. This is targeted marketing nirvana, as unlike people who are searching for TV's just to see the latest stuff, very few people ask for driving directions "just to see how they would get there."
Just targetting airlines and railroads, etc. might be too small of a market... So how about showing ads from places along the route? Driving from NY to DC? See the diners along the way. Taking the train? Stop at the pizza hut in Penn. There is alot of revenue to be made there.
It could be argued that this is a small market. However, considering that there are 10M people in NYC alone, most of which whom rely on mass transit, I would have to disagree.