Google has added a new feature to Google Maps called MyMaps, which makes it possible, with no programming experience, to create a map with detail. You can place pushpins by just right-clicking on the map, write descriptions on them, even add HTML to include pictures, and save the whole thing to send to a friend. It even had drawing tools for drawing lines or complex areas. I did a simple mashup, listing some favorite places in New York, in a matter of minutes:
Click here to visit it in Google Maps. You won’t learn much, except a few places I like to shop and where I met my wife, but hopefully you’ll see how easy it is to make one of these.
These collections can be shared, and the first time you visit the MyMaps tab in Google Maps you get a list of featured collections. I can’t seem to find a way to see these featured collections once I’ve created my, own, which is a shame, especially since some of them were good. There doesn’t appear to be any way to view public collections, and they don’t show up yet in search results, despite what O’Reilly says.
Windows Live Maps also has this feature, and they’ve got a website (collections.live.com) that displays all of these collections, categorized and easy to find. You can vote on the best collections, save it to your favorites, and even subscribe to an RSS feed of the collection to get updates on it (making it a sort of free geo-blog) thanks to a recent update. Google’s release is great out of the gate, and their right-click and drawing tools work wonders, but don’t try to convince yourself they invented this, or that their implementation is even the best. Still, a great addition to Google Maps.
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