Friday, January 27. 2006

ArcWeb Explorer: Quick Review

A few sites report that the beta of ArcWeb explorer is available, so instead of reporting that, I actually tried it! Warning: when you visit the link above, on the ESRI website, you will see ads from companies providing data to ArcWeb Services. That took me by surprise, I confess. I guess it's just another perk of being an ESRI data provider.

Verdict: It's ok; I'd describe it as a sort of a Live Local/Google Local client wannabe.

It uses Flash 8, which seems to work fine. It's Java, so you need not download anything. For now it's a front end to some selected ArcWeb Services. In time, developers will have access to tools to customize it, as I understand.

It does, to quote the demo we gave for ArcView 1.0, about five things:

navigate - You move around the map via a strange iPod-looking wheel. I found panning slow and could see each tile redrawing. I fould it awkward to use. (It wants to be as fast and elegant as Google Local panning, but it's not.)

find - It geocodes quite well and will find location of computer by IP address (mine was spot on) and geocode lists of addresses in an Excel spreadsheet. (I didn't have such a spreadsheet to test, but I have to believe ESRI customers do.)

directions - It will route between up to 10 locations "dragged and dropped" form the find widget. (Live Locally to me.)

map styles - You can change map colors between default (pastelly), bright (yikes!) and gray scale.

share - you can capture (copy) or send the URL of a map via e-mail

Comments

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I agree that it's more awkward to use than competing products (Where is the drag to pan??). The 'GIS' box is a clear sign ESRI is still writing GIS software, not consumer oriented mapping software.

Still amazes me they aren't learning from what made their competitors so popular. Remember it is mostly just GIS and DTP (Desktop Publishing) software users that have any idea how to drag a box to zoom in to something.

Then again as a GIS user I am frustrated by the inability to draw a box with google and microsoft. Maybe a 'novice' and 'expert' navigation mode to suit both user types.

I found the speed on a par with google and microsoft when I tried - but I admit some days they seem fast and some they seem slow. Internet sites of any kind always suffer from unpredictable performance.

I don't see a way to route myself with 'stops' on the way in google or microsoft so this feature is unique.

The bulk geocoder is a good feature. Although microsoft and google don't have it - others have provided similar free services - one based on yahoo comes to mind.

To me it's really a 'me too' with some extra stuff - nothing likely to be perceived as earth shattering or forcing a paradigm shift as when google maps was launced and the online mapping war re-started.

#1 Casual Reader on 2006-01-28 12:57 (Reply)

The GUI design is amazing, easily the best of any browser-based mapping app, but a big disappointment for me is the lack of map dragging like in Google Local. Dragging is like tabs in browsers -- once you have it, your habits change so quickly that its sudden absence just jars.

Draggable maps in a browser has got to be the biggest innovation in that space for 2005, so why aren't all such maps draggable in 2006?

#2 Stefan Geens (Link) on 2006-01-28 17:13 (Reply)

The only way to have draggable maps is to pre-render everything at multiple scales. This imposes a fixed number of zoom levels. Not to mention that if you want to change the symbology of something you have to re-render everything again. Plus, disk space starts to become a problem. So that's one reason you don't see them outside of Google.

#2.1 Chris on 2006-01-30 09:27 (Reply)

...or it can be done as we at Idevio do it: with streaming vector data and a java applet. That way we can have draggable zoom too. Check it out at http://www.idevio.com/demo/DemoTA/

#2.1.1 Patric (Link) on 2006-02-04 12:32 (Reply)

Hey, where's the love! Why no mention of Yahoo Maps Beta! Check it out if you're not aware of it.

#3 peta b on 2006-02-03 23:36 (Reply)

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In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Casual Reader on 2006-01-28 12:57 #2: Stefan Geens on 2006-01-28 17:13   #2.1: Chris on 2006-01-30 09:27     #2.1.1: Patric on 2006-02-04 12:32 #3: peta b on 2006-02-03 23:36
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