Wine Library TV - for those who have never heard of it - is a popular Web show hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk. The show is aired on a regular basis and the host invites viewers to join him for a wine tasting session (wines that he sells through his online boutique).

Here at Click2Map we like the show and we thought it would be a good idea to put all of the wines reviewed in the show on a map. In the end, wines are best defined by their region of origin, so it makes sense to browse the products of a wine boutique through a map.

Thanks to Click2Map, I just had to download a spreadsheet withholding the info about all WLTV’s products, associate an address for each wines, and let the Click2Map import tool slurp that info and create markers almost instantly. I then used the auto-detect clustering tool, grabbed the embed code of the map, and here I am writing this post.

The map below shows the wines reviewed (tasted) in the first 130 episodes of WLTV. There are 224 markers scattered mainly through California, Western Europe, and a little in Australia, South America and South Africa.

I grouped the wines according to their year of production, but I could also group them by type of grape (shiraz, merlot, cab…), by the grade range the host gave to each wine he reviewed, by price, and so on.

To view the map on a full page, click here.

xavierv

Today, the team of Click2Map is proud to officially launch a feature that tackles one of the major weaknesses of online maps: Crowded maps.

The experience of maps is often diminished when markers are concentrated in a specific location, therefore lapping over one another. Here at Click2Map, as some of you already know, we are dedicated to take Google Maps to a higher level of control for your various professional needs.

Hence the auto-cluster feature! The auto-cluster feature is an easy-to-use tool of our map editor that will enable you to create a unique marker for each area where markers are too densely concentrated. Visitors can simply click on this unique marker to unveil the list of markers it withholds.

The clustering tool enables you to laser-tune the display of your clustered markers based on 3 parameters:
- Clustering rate: the higher the rate, the more markers will be cluttered
- Minimum markers: indicates the number of markers necessary to start building a cluster
- Maximum zoom: indicates from which level of zoom markers won’t be clustered anymore

The video below shows the new auto-clustering tool in action for the Hollywood celebrities’ map we created for the occasion.

To conclude, here is why the auto-clustering tool is a big deal for us:
1. It tackles the problem of markers overlap.
2. It becomes a new productivity tool for power-mapbuilders looking for the perfect map design.
3. It is so easy to apply that even first-time mapbuilders can figure it out on the fly.

We would also like to thank our friends who helped us spread the word about the auto-clustering feature:
- Google Maps Mania
- Slashgeo

And the news was also picked up by Kort for hovedet - The GIScovery Channel. This means a lot to us, thank you guys.

On August 5th, the Cityfile New York Website published an article about celebrity-owned bars and restaurants in NYC. The article simply is a map (created with Click2Map). Our numbers indicate that the map (direct link here) was viewed 4 357 times, accumulated a total of 187 hours spent on the page, and generated 27 607 clicks on markers. Those numbers show a modest traffic converting into an engaged readership. How did this conversion happened?

For starters, kudos go to the author of this article who created a compelling and demanded content: “celebrity-owned bars”. Who doesn’t have a favorite star, right? The idea was bright enough to bring 4,357 people to the page. But once the author got attention, what made the engagement happen?

The conversion into 6+ clicks is due to the map format of the article. A map is a much faster way to process small bits of data in a much user-friendlier environment: Pics of stars are laid down on a map. Visually, with no reading effort, you get the gist of the story. Hover over the pics to see names of the stars (in case you don’t recognize them right away). Click on the pic to pop-up a witty description of the restaurant/bar, along with the address. In a way, it’s like reading Star magazine on a map. in a traditional text format, the article would have looked much heavier, and the snail mail address of the restaurants wouldn’t have generated a clear understanding of of each places’ location. On a map, you just cruise around, spend time on the page, and pop-up content here and there.

Something else might have facilitated the time spent on the page. I don’t know if the author made this little map navigation optimization on purpose, but you’ll notice that when the map opens, it focuses on the Lower East Side, the south of New York’s central peninsula. If you click on a marker/pic in the upper part of the map, the map automatically scrolls up to allow some room for the pop-up window. In the celebrity map for example, the more you click on pics, the more the map naturally up to unveil new markers/pics up north. The naive scientist approach that I adopt here is to say that online maps have a natural tendency to take their viewers north.

This map is almost turning in a case study here at Click2Map because it gathers 3 fundamental facts:
1. A popular article can be a map.
2. Maps create engagement on the site.
3. There are ways to optimize maps to enhance the navigation experience.

xavierv