The Click2Map™ Blog

I have noticed two geomarketing related posts that involve online maps which made a lot of innovative ideas sprout in my head.

The first one was picked up on All Points Blog. In the article, Geomarketing at work, Adena Schutzberg writes about a very specific occurrence:

Yesterday I received an e-mail asking for a blog post on a data company in exchange for a data file.

She goes on to conclude that not all the geo-entrepreneurs are doing Web 2.0 stuff. Indeed, the trade of a data file for a blog post is rather original. I’ve asked the author what kind of data file is actually worth a blog post and am waiting for the response. This is interesting in terms of online PR. Generally, a lot of companies are having a hard time finding incentives to create a buzz around their brand. In this case, it shows that in the blogosphere of GIS and online maps, since a lot of the top bloggers are primarily geo-professionals sharing their work experiences, it makes sense to barter business assets for a small share-of-voice on a popular site.

Update: Adena Schutzberg kindly responded saying: “It was a ZIP Code point file for the U.S. Some searching should find the company if you want to take him up on the deal. I would encourage any blogger who does to disclose the transaction.” Thanks Adena.

The other article that caught my attention was found on the GoogleMapsMania blog. In this post, Word Magazine Album Covers Map, Keir Clarke reviews the rock magazine’s new feature where visitors can find where the picture of their favorite albums was taken.

It seriously is a very interesting concept. First aren’t you curious to know where this picture was taken? It’s a real hotel in… Or how about this one below?

This Music Map feature is not only entertaining, I think it puts the finger on a great unexplored online marketing outlet for musicians. As I mentioned in a previous post, being a professional musician implies being on the road and sometimes exploring the strangest places. Those traveling experiences automatically become part of the stories told in songs. In other words, online map marketing makes a lot of sense for musicians as this new emerging media has the power to make you travel as far as a song has.

xavierv

As Darren Herman states in a recent post, “widget” is one of the dominant buzzword of 2008. As the Web turned into a shattered media environment, the portable and sourceable nature of widgets made it a must-have for marketers, advertisers, and distributed service providers. That it be for your Myspace profile or for your blog, there are so many types of widgets available out there that, just like Facebook Apps, end-users are now less compulsive about those flashy little objects. The market is reaching a point where the supply overwhelms the demand, therefore a tougher competition between widget providers is getting off the ground.

So what makes a good, competitive widget? To answer this question, I turned to widget-expert Lawrence Coburn, Co-Founder and CEO of RateItAll, publisher of the Sexy Widget blog, and early-adopter of widgets (RateItAll was the first Web company to offer distributed rating widgets). Here is Lawrence’s answer:

I typically look for three things in a widget: 1) Fresh content; 2) Fast load times; 3) Easy share-a-bility. In my experience, the best widgets are those that are constantly showing new and interesting data, don’t slow down the host site, and do their best to enable the easy republishing of the widget elsewhere.

Obviously, if a widget doesn’t show fresh content, there is no point in using a widget. An iFrame with a static page src’d would do. The fast loading aspect of widgets is crucial on the end-user side of things: if retrieving information for a widget takes up too much time in the page loading process, site/profile publishers will get rid of the widget to gain in accessibility. Regarding share-a-bility, I think there are two dimensions implied there. First is the embed code that makes grabbing and placing a widget a breeze. Second is the customization features that enable site/profile publishers to adapt the widget to the look & feel of their sites.

To diversify the ideas brought in this article, I also asked Daniel Ha, Co-Founder and CEO of Disqus (Disqus is a commenting system that offers different widgets to make commenting more engaging). Here is Daniel’s take on this question:

A good widget needs to meet just a few points that immediately come to mind: a) easy to install, b) immediately useful, c) customizable, d) reliable and fast. Because widgets are usually low-barrier applications, they should be simple to install and its benefit should be recognizable from the beginning (you shouldn’t need to wait for network effects). Being customizable and reliable/fast is important because widgets are applications that are distributed across websites, but still need to feel like they’re native.

Daniel and Lawrence seem to agree a lot on the positive characteristics of a widget. “Easy to install and customizable” are synonymous to share-a-bility. “Reliable and fast” means fast loading time. Daniel also mentions “immediately useful”. That is a very good point, probably the most important now that widget consumers are getting pickier by the minute: “Will visitors interact with it/Will I benefit from this interaction?”

If we are so interested in widgets here at Click2Map, it is for the simple reason that we are developing a widget to make sharing Google Maps a fuller experience. Even though Google is doing an awesome job at bringing online maps to the masses, the sharing features are still a little limited. Our goal is to enable our users to benefit from our unique features from creation to distribution.

To follow on the great ideas shared by Lawrence and Daniel above, I would add - at least in Click2Map’s case - that a good widget creates loyalty. Maps are a way to localize places/people on a map through markers. GeoRSS enable subscribers to be automatically informed of new markers’ creation. If a widget is visually attractive, offers useful information in the context of the site it is embedded in, and enables to create a long-lasting tie through RSS-like technologies (similar to subscribing to comments in a post), then the benefits for the site/profile publisher are worth the awful sweat of copy/pasting the widget’s embed code.

xavierv

Some users asked us about the URL address for the generated maps, like:
http://generator.click2map.com/maps/Steff1985/North%20America%20Parks

Why “generator”? Why not “www”? Couldn’t it be more standard with a URL address like:
http://www.click2map.com/maps/Steff1985/North%20America%20Parks?

In fact yes! So, we decided to apply this change for the maps generated as web pages or widgets.

If you have a link to your maps on your website, we can update it.

What about already generated maps?

Nothing changes! Using “generator” in the URL address of your already published map will still work.

If you didn’t noticed there is no help file for the Editor. We are writing it…

But the fact is that some functions may be hidden for users because they are not obvious even if we work hard on the user interface.

So, if you didn’t noticed:

• You can edit the map by right clicking the node in the treeview corresponding to your map
• When you edit a map from the Map Dialog you can change the center of your map by dragging the map in the preview
• From the toolbar you can click the “Quick Add” button to add markers just by clicking on the map. You can later edit the marker properties by clicking the marker icon (and then the “Edit” link in the Info Window) or by double clicking in the row corresponding to the marker in list (below the map)
• You can drag a marker on the map if you want to change is location
• If you right click on the map, a contextual menu appears. You can go to the center of your map or change it. You can also change the default zoom of your map

A lot of people ask us how to see the map they have published.
The next build we clarify the process, but in the meantime here is a quick answer:

First you need to publish your map by clicking the Publish Button in the toolbar. You can preview your map from the Publish Dialog by clicking the Preview Button. The URL address of the Preview page is the address that you can use to share or put on your website.

The address will look like this: http://generator.click2map.com/maps/your_user_name/your_map_name.

Of course the future help file will explain in detail all the features of the Editor.