There are a lot of green social networks out there: Care2, Greenwala, Gaia, Greenvoice… They all offer excellent social networking tools to encourage greener lifestyles through mutual help. One of those Websites, MakeMeSustainable, created a little Google Maps mashup to enable users to mark green businesses on a map. As a user registered in San Francisco, when I open this page, it suggests green locations in my area. When maps appear in the context of a social network, they always feel more consumer-friendly (because specific to a center of interest).

Up the green mapping alley, there is a much more impressive player in the field: Open Green Map.

Open Green Map leverages the collaborative intelligence behind social technologies to provide a comprehensive geo-located resource to find green sites, wherever you are! So far, volunteering contributors have created more than 350 maps in over 50 countries. I find their tagline ‘Directions to a sustainable future’ wittingly appropriate.

As of today, the most interesting way to engage with Open Green Map is to explore their maps. There are two features that the Open Green Map team built on top of the Google Maps API that I really liked:

1. First, maps appearing in an expanded marker’s window all have the background template of OpenGreenMap.org. In terms of maps’ marketing and branding, this is very smart and well-executed.

2. In the right sidebar, you have a small window that contains info about the map, about the map creators, and a search box to look for a specific keyword in the sites marked on the map. I have looked for this feature on Google Maps, and am pretty sure it doesn’t exist. This is some untapped search activity that Google is missing, but that Open Green Map nailed perfectly.

Open Green Map is a long way from becoming a complete resource. Also, as it will grow in popularity, I’d like to see how they will control the ‘green’ label users are applying to the sites they contribute to the system. There is still a lot of clutter, mainly when it comes to creating a map (I just couldn’t access this feature). It seems like you can share documents (hosted on Slideshare) about a list of companies, but I am not sure what it is for. Building a green geo-platform is an excellent idea that will hopefully help millions find their green paths (and may it not become a leftout project).

Geo-blogger Glenn at the GIS user blog shares his new passion for the Google Phone and the Twitter apps for Android. Personally, I haven’t found an app on the market that provides a positive twittering experience, but I have a little tweak to share that combines two Android apps in a geolicious way!

First, install MyTracks, the GPS track recorder from the Google team. If you jog for example, use this app to record your track every time, and compare your performance through the Google Spreadsheets the app generates for you. Your phone just turned into a physical performance booster there

Once you got MyTracks up-and-running, install Twidroid, the twitter app for Android. If you are like me and you do not like the noise of Twitter apps, go in the settings and turn off the notifications from your friends.

Now that you have those two apps running on your phone, next time you do your jogging around the park, here is what you will do:
Record your track - Hit ’share maps with friends’ in MyTracks - Select Twidroid.

Once Google generated a map for your track, Twidroid sends it right away to your Twitter stream, notifying your followers of your performance of the day. You could be more precise in your tweet, by adding “san francisco, dolores park, jogging’ in your tweet for example, so that other tweeps jogging in the same area can find you.

I find this app combo to be super easy to use, and also a real life-changer if you have been looking to hook up with other people on Twitter around outdoors activities.

To push this combo a bit further, let’s say that you want to share this map with a friend that has a Facebook profile, but no Twitter account. No biggie. Just install the Selective Twitter Status app on Facebook. Next time you recorded a track you want to show to your Facebook friend, just send him a shout out the way I described above, and add #fb at the end of your tweet.

I have tested it and it works wonderfully well.

It’s already a well-known fact around the SEO community, but it seems there is a lengthy lobbying to be done online to change mentalities about traditional SEO. Google SEO is not just about keyword strategies, links and hyper-active blogging. Today’s shortcut for professionals is Google Maps. Google invests a lot of time and energy in geo-technologies, as it believes it is the direction the mainstream Web is heading towards, and it pushes its geo-located search results on top of its SERPs (search engine result pages).

Today, an engineer of Google Maps reminds on the Google Latlong blog that user-generated content will get blended into maps and distributed across the Google Search pages.

Some of our more regular users may have noticed that we’d been sparingly doing this for a while now, occasionally surfacing results from KML, GeoRSS, or Wikipedia we crawl from the web, along with photos and videos we think would be useful - but now we’ve opened the floodgates! From now on, you can expect to see more higher quality user-created content to show up, often intermixed with our traditional results.

In other words, just create maps, Google will find them and index your content if it thinks your content adds value to the Google geo-search experience.

Off course, here at Click2Map, we are proud to be positioned as one of the leaders in the map creation space. Anyone can sign up to our service, easily generate a massive amount of geo-located content on Google Maps, and let the magic of Google bots do the rest.

Remember, Google makes it easy for anyone to find anything, but we make it easy for Google to find you.

This week, we made a few changes over at Click2Map regarding our paying accounts. To refresh everyone’s memory, Click2Map offers 4 different plans for its users: The Bronze plan (free), the Silver plan (making uploads and distribution easier), the Gold plan (Bronze+Silver+ supports CSV, XML, KML and geoRSS imports and exports) and the Platinum plan, where our database becomes yours.

For pure marketing purposes, we decided to restrict the number of maps and markers each account holders are allowed to create (see it like Facebook’s 5,000 friends limit policy). It goes a little something like this:
- Bronze accounts are limited to 1 map and 50 markers
- Silver: 5 maps and 250 markers
- Gold: 10 maps and unlimited markers
- Platinum: Unlimited maps and markers

Rest assured: If you are already signed up to Click2Map, those changes will not apply to you. We value the trust that all of our previous customers have showed towards our products, and we want to reward this trust. Also, for all of our customers, starting from the Silver accounts, you can now share password-protected maps if you want to keep your markers accessible to just a few eyeballs.

There is one new addition in our line of products that we are pretty proud about: because we have limited the number of maps and markers, we are launching the unlimited option for each of our products. Here is a clear example of how an unlimited option may apply:

If you need Click2Map to embed 10 maps with several hundreds customized markers, and driving directions on your site, you have to sign up to the Gold plan (10 maps and unlimited markers). However, in terms of tools, you do not need anything higher than the Silver version. Hence the unlimited Silver version, where you can do all you need and create as many maps and markers as you wish!

We didn’t do this just because we like to add fine prints into our plans: The unlimited Silver plan is $40 cheaper than the regular Gold plan ($149 vs $190). and the same goes for each of our products. In other words, where it may seem like we limited our offer, we actually made it more fair for every paying customer, and more flexible to fit all needs.

We hope that you will find this news as exciting as we do, and we welcome any feebacks from our users. To prove that we care, there is one last new addition that our customers have been requesting so heavily that we could not not let them have it: For our valued Platinum customers, the Click2Map logo will no longer appear on your maps once you publish them!

For a clear comparison of our different plans, click here.

Since the launch of Android-powered phones, Google has been active in releasing geolocation-related features. Last week, we covered the launch of Latitude, the service from the Mountain View-based search engine that lets you share your “exact” location with your friends on the spot. This week (Thursday to be precise), Google released My Tracks, a new application that enables users to easily share their outdoor activities with others.

From the official Google Blog:

My Tracks records tracks of outdoor activities using the phone’s built-in GPS. It shows these tracks on a map and presents live statistics, including an elevation profile. And here’s the best part: it lets you easily share your activities with friends and the world using Google Maps, as well as archive your training history with Google Docs.

(the Google Latlong blog also covers the launch)

Where Latitude received mixed reactions from the blogosphere for being a creepy app, My Tracks comes to the rescue to show how useful and fun geo-tracking can actually be. My Tracks is not pioneering this GPS application: hem, Map My Tracks is another independent application that does about the same, except that their app can be installed on over 100 different Web-enabled phones.

Stephen Shankland from Cnet tested the new app. He identified two main glitches with My Tracks: First, enabling GPS tracking on the G1 is extremely battery-consuming, where a Garmin device will last two days on two AA batteries. Second, it seems like Google isn’t accurate enough with its GPS tracking technology yet: altitude is never accurate, and you’re lucky if the marker of yourself on the map doesn’t put you 20 feet (or more) from where you actually are. On the good side of things, Stephen Shankland appreciated the sharing features associated with the app:

The ability to Twitter and e-mail links to maps is nice, and I e-mailed myself the KML file of my trip with no trouble, letting me view it in Google Earth at my leisure.

There are ups and down to Google’s new app. Nonetheless, what we are seeing here is the integration of geolocation technologies settling in our daily lives at the speed of light. Most people still don’t see how this technology applies to their daily needs, but faster then they will know, the technology will be embedded in their phones, and will become a main component of their daily activities! And once again, the businesses that did not ignore their geo-marketing potential will live happily ever after!

2008 is closing down on us. Unlike what the eighties movies predicted for the future, we are still running cars on gas (even though Prius sales boomed this year), world poverty keeps being the hidden guilt of the rich minority, and we haven’t found an instant cure for a simple cold.

A lot happened on the Web though. The mobile Web is becoming mainstream at a faster pace than we can imagine, thanks in part to the iPhone 3G. The interesting aspect of the iPhone (and other smartphones like the g1) is its geolocation feature. The phone can detect your location and guide you around.

GPS is not a 2008 technology, but associated services related to this feature are opening up new opportunities. Loopt was the most advertised iPhone app heading towards this direction this year. I was personally more impressed by the g1’s zombie run game, even though the features are still pretty basic so far.

Of course, here at Click2map, we are interested to see how Google Maps evolves in this space:

(in 2008) Google Maps continued to increase the coverage for Street View, which is now available in the US, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. You can now get walking directions, car directions enhanced by StreetView, traffic estimations and explore places by looking at geo-tagged photos and videos.(via)

A few days ago, Google Maps launched a translation feature for all Google Maps reviews. The launch of the Google Map Maker also opened the option for anyone to contribute to the effort by bringing their own pieces to the puzzle.

There is a lot going on around geodata. By locating entities, and criss-crossing different positions, the web is making it possible to better connect individuals with other individuals, and with businesses. The question remains: Even though the technology is being developed, are people adopting it? Do people use maps more often? What is the trend for 2009?

Here are a few insights from the Google Search Insights site:

Of course, here at Click2map, we believe that those numbers are not innocuous. For example, we have seen the high demand for driving directions and have responded to it. Those curves are also showing how the pioneer Mapquest has lost its leadership to Google Maps. Finally, it shows how the technical term geoweb is gaining awareness and is pushing curious minds to search for it.

In 2008, we have seen a lot of geolocation features spreading onto widely-used Web applications such as social networks. In 2009, based on this article from the Boston Globe, I think we should expect to have more info delivered to us based on our location.

For a great review of mapping in 2008, read this article: Loci 2008: Matt Cutt’s Important Local Articles of 2008.

Happy New Year!

Mike Blumenthals wrote today about the latest Google Maps scandal (for the mapping community) where spammers were eating up flower merchants ranking and contact info on Google maps, provoking huge profit losses for those businesses. Apparently, things are back to normal, or almost.

Anyhow, these days, I’m a lot into (benign) hacking, and I thought it would be interesting to list a few useful Google Maps hacks here. I’ll try to leave third-party applications on the side as much as possible to focus only on tweaks, but this is not an easy task (mostly for a non-developer like me).

The first category of hacks are video games: Developed by Japanese Katsuomi Kobayashi, Geoquake is a driving simulation game using Google Earth. It is a flash application that allows a 40 frames per seconds visualization (compared to Google Earth’s traditional 20 frames/sec). In the same type of hacks is the flight simulator, a fun way to fly over your town using the Earth plug-in. Also, as reported yesterday on Google Maps Mania’s Friday fun, another Japanese developer has created this game that plugs the Wii and Street View together to allow you to jog around your neighborhood without leaving your living room.


Try to run on the google street view like a jogging game of wii fit from katsuma on Vimeo.

A Google Maps hack to keep an eye on is the Easy Google Maps hack, a project started this week during the Hack Day event, which plan is to tackle Google Maps’ lack of usability by creating a maps “player” based on the same idea of the Easy Youtube player. The project idea is really good and could be very useful, so I hope those developers will reach their goals.

A more practical hack was found on LifeHacker. The hack offers a mean to zoom way in on a map by tweaking the maps’ urls. Also found on LifeHacker is a way to make your Google Maps searches a little faster by entering your geo-location directly in the url, as follows:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1683 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA

By now, I think we all heard of the biggest drawing in the world, right? Well, this actually was a hoax, but it inspired a few people to apply this drawing technique, and others to apply this hoax technique, like BoingBoing, which developed a quick app that lets you easily draw shapes on a map (this is not a Gmaps hack, but it is worth the mention).

Recently on Click2Map, we announced a new addition to our service that enables our users to easily cluster their markers on Google Maps to make their cartographic info more easy to browse and click through. While this is the easy and mainstream way to group markers, developers can also use this Javascript hack to cluster markers. The technique is a little complicated, but it definitely fits the Gmaps hack section.

A great site that integrates Google Maps and offers a wide range of geographic services is heywhatsthat.com, developed by Michael Kosowsky. The service is so hackalicious that the creator gave a keynote speech for one of the Google TechTalks.

There are probably so many more hacks out there, but they are so hard to find that I will stop here and rely on your good will to share tips and urls to further this discussion. I couldn’t find a single hack for MyMaps, despite intensive search, and this disappoints me a little, as I am sure there could be great creative ways to use this marker creation tool.

xavierv

With Hurricane Gustav shaking the tranquility of the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of people are structuring social media tools to facilitate the flow of information in this particular area.

On Twitter, Mark Mayhew - New Orleans local and heavy-user of the Web-based SMS platform - keeps track of all signs of climate change or threat.

Journalists from the Chicago Tribune are also implied full time in reporting on the moods of Hurricane Gustav.

All big media houses are actually covering the Hurricane, using traditional online tools, like Aljazeera on Youtube.

From individuals to corporations, everyone is implied in tracking and reporting any climate changes, ready to pull the emergency alarm at any time.

Another great way to follow the Hurricane is through Live News Camera, a video hub syndicating a variety of local and national TV networks. The Website has a dedicated page, the “Hurricane Center“, where visitors can search for local TV networks on a (Click2Map) map.

The concept of Live News Camera is made possible thanks to the technology we develop here at Click2Map, which makes it really easy to explore new ideas with Google Maps. In the case of Live News Camera, the map creator created 2 groups of markers (USA TV and World TV), but each group contains close to 70 markers total, and some markers contains several tabs. Because we make data management a breeze, map creators using Click2Map have the richest detail-oriented maps online.

Thumbs up to Live News Camera for offering such an original source of info in those times of climate uncertainty!

xavierv

On Twittervision, maps turn into social venues. Twittervision serves up real-time tweets from all over the world on a map. You can search twitterers by area code, look at tweets on a 3D earth map, check out the latest uploads from Flickr and from Youtube.



Twittervision is more than a fun gadget. I find the experience of attributing a place to a tweet extremely enriching. People waking up in Paris, looking for booze in Detroit, watching the sunset in Sydney… As of today, I know a lot of people who are still confused with Twitter. That is because Twitter is more of a back-end engine serving SMS than it is a social portal. There is no real structure or context around it: we can still see the central pillar of this soon-to-become SMS juggernaut.

Through maps, Twittervision adds a new dimension to the short-messaging experience. The same way a wine is best defined by its place of origin, 140 characters can say so much more when geographically contextualized.

The creepy thought that first came to mind was, it is officially possible to fly over the world and read people’s thoughts in real time. Tell that to your grandparents and they will think you’ve just lost your mind. On the other hand, maps compensate the space distortion effect of the Web. It provides a visual system to define my position relatively to those of others. Psychologically speaking, having reliable spatial marks is crucial for a person’s proprioception.

I don’t mean to get all analytical on Twittervision, I just wanted to share that georss is a really awesome component of our new social habits.

Twitter is now on a map, and Click2Map is on Twitter: Anybody interested in online maps, let’s mingle!

http://twitter.com/click2map