Archive for the 'google maps' Category

Google Maps - blogger vs. wordpress.com

It should have been a great day for educators and expeditions. Google Maps announces that a new function, meaning you can embed a Google Map in your very own website and add points, including video and images.

Digital Explorer Blogger test site

Above is an example from Digital Explorer’s test blogger site, showing a map of the Atlas Mountains with placemarks added, highlighting Jbel Toubkal and other places.

Sadly, neither of the two free blog services have the perfect solution. If you try to use wordpress.com, Wordpress cleans the javascript, meaning you can’t see the map. If you use blogger, you lose all the flexibility of pages vs posts. A wordpress blog could have it’s homepage set simply to a map page.

It would radically simplify web communications for expeditions and fieldwork.

When a decent solution does appear, I will let you all know.

For now:

  1. if you use blogger - you’re fine, but bug the blogger support people to have posts and pages like wordpress.com
  2. if you use wordpress.com - you’re up the creek until the powers that be make changes - lobby them!!
  3. if you host your wordpress blog yourself, there are some plug-ins that will help out - the best one is at the Remote Sensing Tools blog and does not require any messing around with APIs and the like

Good luck, and let me know if there are any neater solutions out there.

Google launches ‘My Maps’

Google Maps is now much more than a search tool, or a great application for developers to create mash-ups. Digital Explorer created a map of the Middle East with geo-located video for the recent Offscreen Student Expedition.

It is now possible for anyone to create their own Google Map, using ‘My Maps’ and link to this from their own website. Have a play around and see what you come up with. There is an amazing amount of content which you can add to your own map. When you have clicked on the ‘My Maps’ tab, just click ‘Add content’.

The other exciting feature of Google Maps versus Google Earth, is that Maps now supports a html editor, meaning that you can embed video, extremely easily.