Google announced a Public Alerts page on Jan 25. The idea is to keep you informed of emergency alerts for floods, tornadoes, winter storms, and other dangers that may be headed your way. But, it's completely query driven, not location-based in this first attempt. Google is seeking feedback. Mano Marks noted on Twitter he'd worked on this project in the past.
- Google Blog
MapQuest launched an HTML5 client.
- press release
Adam Sadilek of the University of Rochester has developed a tool to predict one's location based on friend's locations known through Twitter. How well? It can locate you to within 100 meters with up to 85% accuracy.
"You can actually infer a lot of things about people, even though they are pretty careful about how they manage their online behaviour," he reports.
- New Scientist
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/26 at 05:30 AM |
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Esri offers a statement on the future of its APIs, in response to recent announcements from Adobe regarding Flash for Mobile and runors about Silverlight.
We’re committed to providing the best technology for GIS developers and giving choices from the most widely used developer platforms in the market. By offering many options, we enable developers to address different customer needs and expectations. Our commitment is not based on a specific technology, but based on supporting the GIS developer regardless of the platform chosen. Each of these areas: JavaScript/HTML 5, Flex, Silverlight, and native application code, gain significant improvements in the upcoming ArcGIS 10.1 release.
- ArcGIS Server Blog via @cageyames
MapQuest offers some unlimited and less limited APIs no doubt in (rather late) response to Google's plan to charge for high transaction users. Thefully unlimited access option is the free Community Edition licence built on OpenStreetMap. Read the blog post and the licenses to be sure you understand the restrictions.
- MapQuest Dev Blog via @cageyames
I expected a stronger response from the mapping API providers to Google's announcement about fees for heavy users, but perhaps most realized the population impacted is not all that large. Still, Search Engine Land offered an alternative via a post from a the company behind Chitika Maps (never heard of it).The hook? The company "pays you" to use its API via ads on the maps.
- Search Engine Journal
by Adena Schutzberg on 11/18 at 03:00 AM |
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Your local Patch site might have an article like the ones I saw for Duluth and Chevy Chase yesterday. It highlights how Patch now hosts live traffic thanks to MapQuest.
by Adena Schutzberg on 10/21 at 04:51 AM |
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Want to know what a tree species is on your hike? Take a picture of the leaf and Leafsnap will help you identify it. The app will also upload your image and location to help create a database of species distribution. The free app is form free app developed by Columbia University in New York, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution.
- Lorton Patch
How about mapping the local Halloween decorations? Oddity: the story is hosted at Castro Valley, CA Patch but the map is from Google built with ZeeMaps. I wonder if the folks writing for Patch are aware they are owned by the same company as MapQuest? Or does MapQuest not yet have a crowdsourcing solution? Or maybe its going to be mqVibe?
- Castro Valley Patch
NASA is crowdsourcing exploration of the ocean bottom.
Using a new platform which takes a square kilometer of ocean-bottom imagery and parses it out into an easily navigable, compelling user interface, we humbly ask you to help find scientifically relevant items, in order to allow us to outline them for a broad representation of the reef. Then, traverse planning scientists can then use this aggegated data to target, or confirm the interest items for further study. We can't do this kind of science on our own. We need your help today and again when we send humans beyond the surly bonds of Earth.
- SpaceRef
by Adena Schutzberg on 10/20 at 05:41 AM |
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Last week MapQuest (owned by AOL's Huffington Post division) launched the beta version of its social network (press release). Here's what it does per the AP (as reported on HuffPo, just to be "meta"):
The company says mqVibe uses algorithms to produce real-time rankings of 50,000 neighborhoods in 27,000 U.S. cities. It also lists the best-ranked places for dining, shopping, beauty and spas, health, lodging and other services.
Rankings are based on user votes and what the company describes as interactions on MapQuest.com and external data.
That's not exactly what I gleaned from early peaks into the network, but clearly MapQuest wants to tap into the human need to list and rank things and places. I note with some irony how rankings are somehow related to "interactions" on the site itself. Does that mean if you want to rank your site higher, you better get on MapQuest?
Glenn Letham at GISUser desribes the network as "much anticipated " He explored the beta and "so far I'm very impressed!" He likes the Facebook integration (you sign in via Facebook Connect) and that visitors can select areas by neighborhood (my first thought: who's neighborhood data are they using?). Once you find places of interest, you can give them "thumbs up" or "down" and leave a comment. And, then comes the social part: the ability to share the comment with Facebook friends organized by geography! Those in the area are at the top of the list for sharing. He points to an area for improvement: adding a new business not yet in the rankings.
Greg Serling at Search Engine Watch writes "Conceptually I like what MapQuest is doing although the first “iteration” isn’t necessarily going to win a lot of converts from Google Maps." Sterlings like the UI, maps and images of the neighborhoods and the browsing focus rather than a search one (that's yet to come). He notes that unlike other hyperlocal efforts (including EveryBlock) MapQuest doesn't really need a business model save driving traffic to/from its other properties. " MapQuest also expects neighborhood-related queries on Google to generate direct traffic as well. MapQuest will also leverage Patch as a content source and potentially integrate MQ Vibe into Patch sites in the future. There are many interesting possibilities."
Programmable Web notes that the API is not yet formally available, but it's there. There are already developers using it!
All the other coverage I read simply rehashed what MapQuest said in its press release or on the website. I read about 20 articles on it. I found exaclty one comment. Twitter has been rather quiet, too.
by Adena Schutzberg on 10/18 at 03:00 AM |
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