Mapping Google Maps 442
jgwebber writes "Google Maps is starting to cause a bit of a stir as Google makes the browser do still more backflips than most expected. In the tradition of dissecting Google Suggest and GMail, I've done a little dissecting of this newest service."
what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be awesome if Google could completely take over the commercial mapping software application market (ie Streets and Trips/Mappoint and Street Atlas) by enabling routing/directions between the points on the map. Hell, allow us to then download the planned route back to the GPSs via a GPX and that would really rock. I mean web-based applications such as maps.google.com and maps.yahoo.com have already taken over from older programs like Automap which just gave text directions and simple maps. Why can't they add even more features? I don't know anyone that asks for directions anymore. Everyone just uses the web-based software.
For now I'm just happy being impressed by the pretty scrolling. I'm excited to see what comes of this after the finish up the Beta.
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://map.search.ch/ rocks! (Score:3, Interesting)
Note that you can also check the "Strasseskarte" box to switch between the satellite view and the just-the-facts-ma'am road map view.
Cheers,
-j.
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:3, Informative)
The photos are at least a few years old, but it's still pretty, if not particularly useful.
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:5, Informative)
USAPhotoMaps downloads aerial photo and topo map data from Microsoft's free TerraServer Web site, saves it on your hard drive, and creates seamless maps from it. You can:
1. See the latitude/longitude
2. Add waypoints, routes, and text
3. Jump to any waypoint or latitude/longitude in the U.S.A.
4. Transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes to and from most GPS receivers
5. See your GPS location
6. Scroll and zoom
And it's free.
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:2, Interesting)
While I've fiddled with it and found the interface to have it's up-sides and down-sides (not really very big considering it's a web app.) I think you're looking for functionality at a wh
like Endless Pursuit? (Score:2)
I once had an idea of doing this, and might eventually get around to finishing it. I just dont have the map library to do the overlay. All I could do is draw the tracks. Image librarys (like gd) make drawing the tracks easy, and overlaying just as simple. Getting a library of
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:4, Funny)
I scrolled right for a long time but Europe never came into view.
In addition to that, (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:3, Funny)
So what you are saying is that you want Google to have a monopoly?
Well since it's Google - they can be fully trusted - lets give it to them.............
Re:Old info (Score:4, Informative)
I love how you can clock on a waypoint in the directions and it pops up a bubble window in the main map with a closeup detail!
-nB
Re:Old info (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map? (Score:3, Informative)
First, multiply all your lats and lons by 1e5.
Now, take the first lat, and encode it (encode function to be specified later.) Append that to the string. Do the same with the first lon.
Now, take the DIFFERENCE between the second lat and the first one, and encode that. Append that to the string. Again, do the same with the second lon.
For each additional lat/lon, encode the difference from the previous one.
Now, the encoding:
If the number you have is negative, multiply by two and ta
Still doesn't work with Safari (Score:2, Interesting)
Hell if I were a browser company I'd pay Google a small consulting fee just to find bugs in my browser. You know,
Safari javascript is based on KDE's kjs library (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Still doesn't work with Safari (Score:2)
I do remember a Google spokesperson expressing in a news story that Mac/Safari users were very important to Google, and gmail would be working with Safari soon (at that time).
A month or so later, all was well with Apple's browser and gmail.
Re:Still doesn't work with Safari (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Still doesn't work with Safari (Score:4, Informative)
Google + DOM = Mozilla Juggernaut (Score:5, Insightful)
new Google browser (alpha) is intriguing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Google + DOM = Mozilla Juggernaut (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Google + DOM = Mozilla Juggernaut (Score:3, Funny)
However, I take this as a sign they are at least considering something more interesting.
Unless it is just part of their well-known secret plan to produce a Google-branded Firefox, operating system and fast-food chain, of course...
Re:Google + DOM = Mozilla Juggernaut (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Google + DOM = Mozilla Juggernaut (Score:4, Interesting)
Languages are important, but even more important is the runtime environment they have access to. If the environment has the basic stuff you need, then even a crappy language would be pretty powerful. Think of a templating language like velocity -- it's not designed to be powerful by itself, but to be very convenient to integrate with a context that supplies it with everything it needs to do powerful things.
Years ago, in the era of of the 16MHz microprocessor, I had the problem of writing an Exel spreadsheet that required lookups from huge tables. Using VLOOKUP took hours. So I implemented a double hash algorithm in the Excel macro language. Mind you, this wasn't VB for apps, this was the nasty old lotus-y macro language. It turned out to be easy, because the spreadsheet environment provided most of the lumber I needed, I just had to snap it together.
backflips? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:backflips? (Score:5, Funny)
I agree, software hates being personified.
Re:backflips? (Score:3, Funny)
One of my wife's friends is a retired physics professor. We had a talk once in which he was railing against the anthropomorphization of everyday objects. Since objects aren't supposed to have feelings one way or the other, it got me thinking about how many things in my own life that I anthropomorphize. So given a choice between (a) changing my tendencies to anthropomorphize, or (b) accept that I anthropomorphize and be done with it. Instead I chose (c). I realized that since anthropomorphiz
Re:backflips? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:backflips? (Score:2)
Re:backflips? (Score:3, Insightful)
You put everything together, and creating a consistent cross browser experience with something that plays so many tricks with the browser is like jumping into a pool full of crap, swimming a lap, and coming out smelling like a rose.
Looked at one way, the application's features are rudimentary. Looked at another, the means used are pretty extraordinary.
It's just an expression.. (Score:3, Informative)
Settle down, Beavis.
Re:backflips? (Score:2)
What's the matter? Feeling left out of the fun?
By the way, complaining that people are being clever really just implies that you happen to lack that quality.
Re:backflips? (Score:2)
Combination (Score:2, Interesting)
- Nice company
- Cool services
- Sweet interfaces
That is a rocking combination.
The fact that they seem to be making stuff available under Firefox as well is also great.
Re:Combination (Score:2)
While I'll give you the last two, I do have to question the term "nice company". The "niceness" of a corporation depends upon your point of view.
Whoa! (Score:5, Funny)
Not bad, Google!
Re:Whoa! (Score:2)
Damn! And I just lost my mod points. That is funny stuff, man.
Re:Whoa! (Score:4, Funny)
That's just beautiful. It also works wonderfully well with the old Slashdot favourite, 'miserable failures'.
Re:Whoa! (Score:4, Funny)
litigious bastards in salt lake city
One hit. Guess who...
Re:Whoa! (Score:4, Funny)
"liberal wacko in Washington, DC" comes up with CNN, PBS, and the Washington Post. Spot on!
Not to beat the dead horse, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe "v" is the version number (.1 for the beta) (Score:2)
Each tile URL is of the following form:
http://mt.google.com/mt?v=.1&x={x tile index}&{y tile index}=2&zoom={zoom level}
I'm not sure what the 'v' argument specifies, but it never seems to change.
Maybe "v" is the version number, which is why it never changes. Version
Scrolling only partially works (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scrolling only partially works (Score:2)
Re:Scrolling only partially works (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Scrolling only partially works (Score:2)
And cup your hands beside your head. You should be able to scroll again.
Google Search Results (Score:2, Interesting)
For some reason, if one enters an address in Google Search to find a location on a map, the resulting search results still point to MapQuest and Yahoo!Maps. (See example) [google.com]
They need to update that.
Re:Google Search Results (Score:2)
No graphics (Score:2)
<img src='http://innuvo.com/users/joel/map.gif'>
Maybe that's the way XHTML is supposed to be but since I'm not one who does web design for a living I don't know.
Re:No graphics (Score:3, Funny)
Nice as a video game engine (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll consider using it... (Score:2)
I look forward to it getting better.
Re:I'll consider using it... (Score:2)
Google not promoting their own map app? (Score:2, Interesting)
Endless pursuit (Score:3, Informative)
I once had an idea of doing this, and might eventually get around to finishing it. I just dont have the map library to do the overlay. All I could do is draw the tracks. Image librarys (like gd) make drawing the tracks easy, and overlaying just as simple. Getting a library of map images that would allow you to use it for this sort of thing would be the hard part.
tm
Why aren't competitors beating Google to market? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have three answers. I wonder which ones are valid:
1. Laziness
2. Encumberance with legacy political and business issues (is feature x threatening to partner Fooinc, how can we hang ads on this, etc.)
3. Focus on fancy-pants analysis of numbers (data mining to try to optimise, rather than revolutionize), leading them to be blind to simple measures like using Javascript and caching lots of content in the client.
What other reasons are there?
Re:Why aren't competitors beating Google to market (Score:5, Interesting)
What WOULD you call Google's approach? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not quite user-interface, in the sense of elegant widgets or consistency or any of that stuff. Google's traditional search features could almost run on Lynx on a green screen. Maybe they can. Google Maps is visually spiffy by comparison to Mapquest, but it's nothing we haven't seen in standalone programs years ago.
It isn't really "search." Or at least, if it is, with every new thing they roll out, Google does an amazing job of expanding my notion of what "search" means. What does it mean to "search" on "250 pounds in kilograms?"
Something that Google seems to share with Apple is some sort of courtesy or kindness or service orientation to the end-user. It just works. And unlike Microsoft or Apple, Google's services seem to come with fewer strings attached.
One of the things that delights me about Google is a certain kind of freshness I haven't seen elsewhere as often as I'd like. They have the characteristic you used to see in innovative software that when you describe the latest Google feature, it doesn't sound all that new, yet when you use it you get that feeling that something unexpected has been revealed.
Where this is going... (Score:5, Interesting)
Slick, but Wrong (Score:2)
Re:Slick, but Wrong (Score:2)
Why Safari is NOT supported (Score:3, Informative)
Can't get thar from hyar. (Score:2)
Real-time traffic maps... (Score:2)
I wished I had safari but from what I saw. (Score:3, Informative)
Will this bother some Privacy Fanatics ? (Score:5, Interesting)
John Smith in New York City, NY [google.com]
Depending on how the results are categorized and obtained, this seems like it could be a hot issue.
Brandon Petersen
Re:Will this bother some Privacy Fanatics ? (Score:5, Insightful)
JS / HTML graphics: iWon Prize Machine (Score:3, Informative)
Probably the most striking thing about Google Maps is the very impressive (for DHTML, anyway) graphics. Now, I'm sure that many of you old JavaScript hacks out there have known this sort of thing was possible for a long time, but it's very cool to see it (a) actually being used for something real, and (b) where normal users will see it.
Back in the Summer of 2000 iWon.com [iwon.com] released the Prize Machine [iwon.com].
They didn't want people to need a plugin to use it, so they wrote it in JavaScript.
It's a slot machine with moving prize images. You click the arm and it pulls down and starts spinning. It talks to the server to see if your spin won a prize or not, and spins the wheels accordingly.
Nifty little app, actually.
Re:JS / HTML graphics: iWon Prize Machine (Score:3, Interesting)
Really opened my eyes to the possibilities of what JavaScript/DOM can do. Glad to see Google, iWon, and other sites finally starting to make use of it.
Google uses XUL (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's the big secret:
Google uses XUL to develop all their rich websites. For example: Gmail, Maps, Groups and others on the way. This natively XUL interface is then converted to HTML/CSS/JavaScript that we can see and run. This conversion is done by a program Google wrote a while ago and the conversion is very simple. Of course, it's not perfect and needs to be loked over by hand. This is how Gmail is compatible now with all the other browsers.
In the future, when they decide it is time, they will publish their XUL interfaces side-by-side with their current interfaces. I'm not trying to give any hints, but this is related to a large push that Google is going to make to support XUL technology and will happen by the end of this year or early 2006.
Re:Google uses XUL (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Safari support (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Safari support (Score:2)
Sometimes it's not difficult to provide equivalent functionality in a standards-compliant way (for example, the MSN portal). In such cases, it is best to stick to standards.
Given the relative complexity of Google's Maps website, I think it's fair to give them the benefit of the doubt and accept the possibility that it is extremely hard to do this in a standards-compliant way. I think they may have chosen the option of giving each browser a slightly modified page and they just haven't gotten around to
Re:Safari support (Score:3, Funny)
I really have trouble seeing it as in any way Google's fault that the standards have failed to deliver browser compatibility.
Re:Safari support (Score:3, Insightful)
This is nothing like MS not supporting png for instance, (or did not for a long time) forcing me to use crappy gif images for transparent logos and such. Therefore, MS
Re:Safari support (Score:3, Insightful)
I assume you are saying that Firefox isn't modern? I really don't see how your complaint is any different than those posting yesterday from outside of the US (and lower
This is a BETA. They are going to target the largest group of surfers possible. In order to do that they are going to
No trying to troll but is safari ever better? (Score:2)
Is there anything that safari does better than firefox?
Are users simply using safari because it ships on their mac?
Re:No trying to troll but is safari ever better? (Score:2)
There are only two reasons why I still use Firefox:
1) Konqueror's JavaScript engine blows. It's great for HTML, but not JS. I believe Safari has a better JS engine, but it's not been backported to Konqueror yet.
2) I like AdBlock too much to give it up. I've tried Privoxy, but it tends to slow things down
Re:No trying to troll but is safari ever better? (Score:2)
Safari fits in better. Firefox sticks out like a sore thumb. It doesn't integrate with thing like the system wide spell checker for text boxes. It's just a bunch of little things that end up making it feel very out of place. Firefox 1.1 is supposed to fix some o the integration problems, and 2.0 should feel pretty native.
Re:Safari support (Score:2)
Then add the fact they use a heck of a lot of client-side scripting and technology that not all browsers currently support, and it's pretty amazing tha
Re:Safari support (Score:3, Informative)
And I can see where Google is coming from. Sometimes, to make the cleanest interface possible, you have to use some really powerful tricks. Gmail uses the same sort of setup that I used in my phone directory... I haven't looked into the specs of Safari too much, but I do know tha
Re:Safari support (Score:5, Informative)
Safari doesn't support XSLT. It's not google's fault that Safari is behind even IE6 in this respect.
Re:Quick review (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Quick review (Score:2)
let me elaborate, map24 has detailed canada maps, google has none and thus is not (or rarely) useful for us canadians.
OTOH, map24 takes a little longer to load, and is a bit slower in panning around
Re:Quick review (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Quick review (Score:2)
British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec all seem to have maps as detailed in the maximum zoom as US cities. Winnipeg also has street-level detail. Oddly, Edmonton and Calgary don't. But it's still a beta.
Re:Quick review (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Quick review (Score:2)
In the OP's defense, I think map24 has just been slashdotted...
Re:Quick review (Score:2)
Map24 has a neat distance measuring thingy where you can measure the distance between two points by clicking between arbitrary waypoints. Google Maps doesn't seem to have this. Hopefully t
lat/lon is there (Score:2)
Not sure if you were complaining that they don't display coordinates on the page, or that they aren't there at all for you to grab. While it is true that the lat/lon coordinates are not displayed on the results page, they are there in the html source. Which the submitter mentioned in his review.
So any app you might have (like a geocoder) that would like those coordinates can grab them from the html, just like you used to be able to do with Yahoo
Re:Quick review (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Usage... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:link is devoid of any useful content... (Score:2)
Re:A stir? (Score:2)
Re:When it supports (Score:3, Funny)
Keep in mind that Southwest USA is where Google is, and I'm sure they have a much easier time getting geographical data. Besides, it would suck if the Google developers did all that work, got the site up, and it couldn't even show them their own offices!