Loosing Site » Mapping

Google Charts – Now With Maps

Phil — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:32:49 +0000

Google has added a map chart type to its free data visualisation solution. Google charts API creates images on the fly to present data encoded in the image url.

The available maps are at continental or world scale, with the exception of the USA where geographical data for each state can be displayed.

Developer’s Guide – Google Chart API – Google Code via kwout

Data for the charts is included as url parameters using ISO Country Codes, RGB color values and simple numeric or string encoding of data values.

Developer’s Guide – Google Chart API – Google Code via kwout

The URL’s are simple enough to construct by (a careful) hand, but are more suited to scripting and code generation.

Meet Me Halfway

Phil — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:16:54 +0000

Mezzoman is a small simple mashup that helps people get together. Given two locations and an activity it finds suitable locations for people to meet that’s at roughly the halfway point. This screencast from DemoGirl shows how straightforward the application is to use.

Mezzoman – (Beta) via kwout

The application can be used in from the main website, or via Facebook where, depending on privacy settings, it may already know your friends’ locations.

Mezzoman | Facebook via kwout

Developed by Mark Zider and Tim Dempski, the inspiration behind the application is best summed up in Tim’s post:

“Mezzoman…is a mashup we created for a simple reason…Our friends live all over the place and we were tired (and so were they) of trying to find places to meet.”

Currently in beta, the application has tremendous scope for further development by extending the number of participants, range of activities or linking to transportation, scheduling and reservation systems.

Timeline Event Visualization

Phil — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:16:17 +0000

Visualizing a flow of events can help our understanding of causes and consequences, but sometimes important details get lost in the overview. Timeline, a part of MIT’s Simile project helps avoid this problem by simultaneously representing events on large and small scales with the ability to pop up background details on each event.

SIMILE | Timeline via kwout

Viewing the same information in linked time bands at different scales gives an interesting feel to navigating a chronology. Minutes and days can be scrolled with equal ease, balancing swift navigation with exact control.

Timeline runs wholly in the browser with no software installation required on either browser or server. It gets it’s data from XML or JSON sources, which means that it can be integrated into almost any web framework, adding another visualization option for extending existing reporting systems and data repository interfaces.

An example of an effective integration of third party data is Jörn Clausen’s USGS Live Earthquake Mashup which uses a combination of Timeline and Google Maps API to present information from the United States Geological Survey’s RSS feed.

USGS Live Earthquake Mashup via kwout

Timeline has also been adopted for use in commercial applications. One example is Salesforce Labs’ Campaign Timeline Calendar which displays an overview of sales campaigns and their durations.

Salesforce Labs Campaign Timeline Calendar via kwout

Potential business application include:

marketing presentations of company or product histories
conference schedules
communicating project plans, achievements or activities
documenting changing conditions for P.E.S.T. or competitor analysis

Timeline provides an engaging and innovative way to navigate chronologies and will become a part of many business and educational applications.

Technorati Profile

Location, Location, Location

Phil — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:51:01 +0000

I love it when life gets easier. Putting a map on a website used to be a real pain, so did using one. Now, with so many free mapping services available it has become extremely easy to give directions to business locations and venues.

Armada House in Bristol is doing a nice job. For an events and conference centre in the heart of a busy city, clear location and transport details are vitally important.

How to find us: Armada House Conference & Events via kwout

Armada House uses an embedded Google Map with markers for their location and for the locations of nearby car parks.

Telephone Ave, Bristol, City of Bristol, BS1 4BQ – Google Maps via kwout

To help with journey planning Armada provide a direct link to Google Maps. This means that customers and conference attendees are able to get detailed personalized travel directions and can also save the location to their own Google Map for easy reference in the future.

Building a feature rich interactive map has become even easier since the introduction of Google’s My Maps feature.

Any business that showcases products, holds meetings or offers services tied to physical locations needs to consider using on-line mapping services as a convenience to its customers and its staff.