Keep On Googlin'
April 5, 2007 11:07 AM Subscribe
Mother Roads. You can now customize Google maps to add commentary, photos, audio, and video. creating your own annotated maps. The linked example is a collection of oral histories of Route 66; look around for Olympic Host Cities, Monster Sightings, and more.
Eep, you can't chage the order of entries after you create them?
posted by DU at 11:33 AM on April 5, 2007
posted by DU at 11:33 AM on April 5, 2007
It will spawn endless "trip journals". Although it lacks narrative when you can click anywhere, so is not particularly compelling for story telling.
Perhaps used in conjunction with a literary work, mapping out literature, would be interesting, as an adjunct to other works.
posted by stbalbach at 11:33 AM on April 5, 2007
Perhaps used in conjunction with a literary work, mapping out literature, would be interesting, as an adjunct to other works.
posted by stbalbach at 11:33 AM on April 5, 2007
This is a pretty cool blog about all things Route 66 run by an editor at the Tulsa World.
posted by timsteil at 11:33 AM on April 5, 2007
posted by timsteil at 11:33 AM on April 5, 2007
Click anywhere? The points are all listed in order on the left and you can add text to them. That's narrative potential right there. Granted, a person *can* click them out of order, but a person *can* read the pages of a book out of order too.
posted by DU at 11:34 AM on April 5, 2007
posted by DU at 11:34 AM on April 5, 2007
Hmm.. the points listed on the left are not in order, at least not on the Rt.66 example, and on something more complex than a straight road, there is no way to know the right order.
posted by stbalbach at 11:43 AM on April 5, 2007
posted by stbalbach at 11:43 AM on April 5, 2007
..although it is possible to add lines that link points together.
posted by stbalbach at 11:46 AM on April 5, 2007
posted by stbalbach at 11:46 AM on April 5, 2007
The "right order" is whatever order they are in. Just because it doesn't progress down the road monotonically doesn't mean they are random. Maybe they are grouped thematically.
That said, there doesn't seem to be a way for even the author to re-order points, so maybe it's just the order they happened to type them in.
posted by DU at 11:50 AM on April 5, 2007
That said, there doesn't seem to be a way for even the author to re-order points, so maybe it's just the order they happened to type them in.
posted by DU at 11:50 AM on April 5, 2007
I don't know if this has been remarked on before on MetaFilter, but see what happens when you get directions on GoogleMaps between places in Europe and America. Here's an example, how to get from Paris to Providence.
posted by Kattullus at 12:01 PM on April 5, 2007
posted by Kattullus at 12:01 PM on April 5, 2007
Sadly it is somewhat limited. It would be better if you could have multiple maps active at one time. That way if you are traveling you could have a map called "City - Bookstores" and City - Wifi" or some such thing. Turn both on and see what are found close to each other in that area.
If you have access to a web server, you are still better off with doing fancy stuff in Google Earth and then saving the KMZ file online. When opened in Google Maps you loose some of the fancy elements like pretty pushpins, but you have a lot more control over the map you are presented with.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 12:42 PM on April 5, 2007
If you have access to a web server, you are still better off with doing fancy stuff in Google Earth and then saving the KMZ file online. When opened in Google Maps you loose some of the fancy elements like pretty pushpins, but you have a lot more control over the map you are presented with.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 12:42 PM on April 5, 2007
As exciting as this is, the best thing about this post is the Chooglin' reference.
posted by Roman Graves at 1:19 PM on April 5, 2007
posted by Roman Graves at 1:19 PM on April 5, 2007
As inclined as I am to blurt "yawn, yet another Google post." I must say this is very neat. It is the next logical step in a mapping program; online or local.
Razzle - couldn't you do that with FF tabs or am I off the mark?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:42 PM on April 5, 2007
Razzle - couldn't you do that with FF tabs or am I off the mark?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:42 PM on April 5, 2007
Yeah - normally I am not the type to throw parties for new Google applications, but I heard about this through a folklore listserv, and I agree with what people there were saying: that it's a pretty great tool for folk cultural documentation, heritage tourism, and stuff like that.
The interface definitely still needs improvement so that the editing/arranging powers are easier.
But for something like an oral history collection, which you can access at any point and get the same degree of sense from it, it works fine as it is.
posted by Miko at 1:49 PM on April 5, 2007
The interface definitely still needs improvement so that the editing/arranging powers are easier.
But for something like an oral history collection, which you can access at any point and get the same degree of sense from it, it works fine as it is.
posted by Miko at 1:49 PM on April 5, 2007
KevinS - No, what I am referring to is plotting multiple maps at the same time in the same map window. Tabs would just mean a different map open in each tab.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 1:56 PM on April 5, 2007
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 1:56 PM on April 5, 2007
Heh. No sooner had I posted that than this new map appeared on my list, created by one of the primary researchers working on the Follow the Drinking Gourd myth, a topic posted here a few months ago.
posted by Miko at 1:57 PM on April 5, 2007
posted by Miko at 1:57 PM on April 5, 2007
Can it plot a course between points or do you have to draw the lines manually?
I was thinking that making vague Google Maps of where we go on ambulance runs would be kind of interesting.
posted by drstein at 2:12 PM on April 5, 2007
I was thinking that making vague Google Maps of where we go on ambulance runs would be kind of interesting.
posted by drstein at 2:12 PM on April 5, 2007
This would be ideal for showing places mentioned in a literary work, with relevant quotes linked to each.
posted by languagehat at 3:18 PM on April 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by languagehat at 3:18 PM on April 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
Can it plot a course between points or do you have to draw the lines manually?
Using the Google Maps API, you can... last time I tried this, it was labor intensive. You add pairs of (lat, long) to an array and the API will draw line segments between them.
I used it here, for a demo "follow the path of original CT route 8" page. The shaded overlay shows the original route. However, you can see where the line segments don't quite match the curved road.
(Also, Google Maps and the Google Maps API use different map bases... e.g. they'll disagree on which street a route number follows.)
Semi-OT: a GPS api would be neat: suppose you could download a notional .gps directions file from a history site, and follow along as you drive.
posted by kurumi at 4:39 PM on April 5, 2007
Using the Google Maps API, you can... last time I tried this, it was labor intensive. You add pairs of (lat, long) to an array and the API will draw line segments between them.
I used it here, for a demo "follow the path of original CT route 8" page. The shaded overlay shows the original route. However, you can see where the line segments don't quite match the curved road.
(Also, Google Maps and the Google Maps API use different map bases... e.g. they'll disagree on which street a route number follows.)
Semi-OT: a GPS api would be neat: suppose you could download a notional .gps directions file from a history site, and follow along as you drive.
posted by kurumi at 4:39 PM on April 5, 2007
Huh. Google's aura is amazing, and Microsoft's marketing really sucks. Unless I'm missing something, MS Local Live (or whatever they call it - their marketing sucks, remember) has had this functionality for a while now. Right click anywhere to add a pushpin. Add text, a url, a photo... Draw lines and shapes. Save the "collection" and share it with others.
For what it's worth, I actually like Microsoft's map website a lot more than Google's. Their directions are generally much better, mainly. They have fewer steps so they're much easier to follow, and you can easily customize the directions printout. Also, you can get directions to or from arbitrary points on the map (without knowing addresses) by right-clicking anywhere and selecting "directions to" or "directions from." That's extremely useful in foreign countries, for example. It's worth checking out if you haven't used it before.
posted by whatnotever at 5:23 PM on April 5, 2007
For what it's worth, I actually like Microsoft's map website a lot more than Google's. Their directions are generally much better, mainly. They have fewer steps so they're much easier to follow, and you can easily customize the directions printout. Also, you can get directions to or from arbitrary points on the map (without knowing addresses) by right-clicking anywhere and selecting "directions to" or "directions from." That's extremely useful in foreign countries, for example. It's worth checking out if you haven't used it before.
posted by whatnotever at 5:23 PM on April 5, 2007
If I go to MS Local Live beta using Safari, I get two search fields: What and Where; and a button marked Su with half the u cut off.
Putting an address into either field results in the error "Please type one or more search terms into the box and then click Search."
If I put something in the What field like "pizza," and my address in the Where field, I finally get two results plotted on a dinky little aliased map. So I choose one of the pizza places and click on Directions.
maps.msn.com opens in a new browser window.
Either we're not talking about the same website, or Microsoft has a whole lot of IE-specific features on MS Local Live (which is, I suppose, not that surprising).
posted by designbot at 6:26 AM on April 6, 2007
Putting an address into either field results in the error "Please type one or more search terms into the box and then click Search."
If I put something in the What field like "pizza," and my address in the Where field, I finally get two results plotted on a dinky little aliased map. So I choose one of the pizza places and click on Directions.
maps.msn.com opens in a new browser window.
Either we're not talking about the same website, or Microsoft has a whole lot of IE-specific features on MS Local Live (which is, I suppose, not that surprising).
posted by designbot at 6:26 AM on April 6, 2007
Whoa, yeah, designbot, we are talking about different websites. Your link goes to intl.local.live.com, which is just as crappy as you've described it. I'm guessing it doesn't like Safari. The "real" live.local.com works perfectly in Firefox on Linux for me.
posted by whatnotever at 10:33 AM on April 9, 2007
posted by whatnotever at 10:33 AM on April 9, 2007
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You can attach photos and other HTML to each point. The Google is Now.
posted by DU at 11:10 AM on April 5, 2007