Friday, June 5, 2009

Thing 25: Google Maps

It's impossible to use the Web very much and not run into Google Maps in various places, which I suppose is a measure of how useful it is. And of course I'd used it from time to time myself, but hadn't really delved into the possibilities much.

So, looking at the various parts of this assignment -

1445 K St. 68509 is (of course) the Nebraska State Capitol, and yes, in satellite view it's possible to see the color of the parked cars. (For driving directions, though, I'd prefer to use map view. Satellite view has other unexpected possibilities, though; for example, starting from Carhenge, zoom out a few levels to see the cool patterns resulting from center-pivot irrigation.) Looking at the street views you linked to was interesting, but it's surprising that there are not more of these for Lincoln.

I corrected the location of the marker for Bennett Martin Public Library; the information included was OK, if rather basic. Claiming our library locations would be a good idea, but it probably shouldn't be tied to my Google account, so I didn't try to do that - it would need some coordinating with our administrators.

Here's where it started to get interesting: I created a custom map showing all the Lincoln City Libraries locations, and embedded it in our Web site (after first trying it out in a test page). I tweaked the embed code to give a better zoom level (for both the embedded map and the larger breakout version) and re-centered it (which involved using this site - also partly based on Google Maps - to determine the exact latitude and longitude for BMPL, which I wanted as the map's center). Finally, I filled in more detailed information (addresses, phone numbers, hours) and added photos for each of the library locations.

I'm pleased with the result. We'd had something similar a while back, based on Google Maps but via the intermediary Community Walk site. But Community Walk seemed a little unreliable (i.e., it seemed to be down a lot, which made our page behave oddly), so I removed it. It's nice to have the map back again. I'm sure we can find other uses for Google Maps in the future.