The Social Software Weblog http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com The Social Software Weblog http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/media/feedlogo.gif The Social Software Weblog http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Yahoo Maps adds global satellite imageryhttp://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/04/13/yahoo-maps-adds-global-satelite-imagery/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/04/13/yahoo-maps-adds-global-satelite-imagery/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/04/13/yahoo-maps-adds-global-satelite-imagery/#commentsFiled under: , ,

You tell me which you'd prefer if looking up Accra, Ghana - for example:

Yahoo's Beta version
or
Google Maps

Not including city locations in places like Africa makes Google Maps look bad.  Now that Yahoo Maps includes satellite imagery of the whole globe- I'm really liking it a lot.  Think Google Maps will win because of its API?  Check out for example what Chris Messina, Cal Henderson and Luke Dorny did with yahoo maps API (and Flickr's API too) in IamCalTrain.
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]]>gmapsGooglegoogle mapsGoogleMapsYahooMarshall Kirkpatrick2006-04-13T15:54:00+00:00Community Walk redesign makes Google map more attractive and functionalhttp://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/18/community-walk-redesign-makes-google-map-more-attractive-and-fun/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/18/community-walk-redesign-makes-google-map-more-attractive-and-fun/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/18/community-walk-redesign-makes-google-map-more-attractive-and-fun/#commentsFiled under: ,

Emily Chang (of eHub fame) and her design firm Ideacodes have done it again, taking what was a good idea for a service that used the Google Maps API and turning it into something more beautiful and functional than I could have imagined.  CommunityWalk is a service that lets a map creator place flags on a Google Map and attach text and images to each flag.  It's different from other services where the agency behind creating the map lies with either users, or a group, or there are different features. 

Check out the beautiful new design, tag cloud and search that's available at Explore Community Walk.  Very impressive.

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]]>communitywalkeHubEmilyChangGoogleMapsmapMarshall Kirkpatrick2006-03-18T11:44:00+00:00The floodgates have opened: APIs and the race to collaboratehttp://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/07/the-floodgates-have-opened-apis-and-the-race-to-collaborate/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/07/the-floodgates-have-opened-apis-and-the-race-to-collaborate/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/07/the-floodgates-have-opened-apis-and-the-race-to-collaborate/#commentsFiled under:

The week's eTech conference has been the occasion for a wide variety of announcements, but many of the biggest players are moving in the same direction.  The value of opening at least parts of your software's code for collaboration with outside developers is now undeniable.  The only question now is who will offer the most compelling opportunities for collaboration, the best collaborative software ("mash-ups") and leverage this success through effective business models.

Over the last 48 hours alone:
Some observers have guessed that this type of openness would be monetized by charging a fee for advanced use of APIs, but it appears that openness for the sake of leveraging a body of developers wider than the companies' employees to create features that will win over more users is the strategy being employed.
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]]>AOLAPIcollaborationIMSalesforce.comYahooMarshall Kirkpatrick2006-03-07T16:29:00+00:00Tagzania = maps tagshttp://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2005/07/24/tagzania-maps-tags/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2005/07/24/tagzania-maps-tags/http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2005/07/24/tagzania-maps-tags/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , ,

Tagzania

It only seems logical there would be a collaborative effort to add a folksonomy component to world mapping - enter Tagzania. Whereas 43places is more travel-oriented, focused on photos and user experience and stories of places, Tagzania makes use of the Google maps API to actually add tags to the maps themselves - so you can set a waypoint and tag it up. Each waypoint then becomes a "page" with an RSS feed, to track what other users add over time. All content submitted becomes open content under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license.

[Via Smartmobs]

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]]>mapping, map mashups, geo, Google maps, social software, CreativMapping,MapMashups,Geo,GoogleMaps,SocialSoftware,CreativeCommonsBarb Dybwad2005-07-24T22:53:00+00:00