Interesting: Google Maps + My Maps.

Google recently added a new feature to the already outstanding Google Maps: My Maps. I spent some time playing around with it for purely self-serving reasons: to note exactly where the heck we went on our Japan trip, before I forget.

Here’s the map we’re putting together: Webomatica’s Japan Trip

Anyhow, if you’ve played around with Google Maps, adding your own markers is just another layer of interaction. Using the some simple drawing tools, you can add markers, lines, shapes, and descriptions including pictures and links using standard HTML.

After you login, under the My Maps tab, click “Create new map”. You’re presented with a blank map of the Earth. You can add a marker by searching Google Maps for a location. Click on a resulting marker, and there will be a link in the word balloon saying “Save to My Maps”. That’s all you need to do to add a marker to your map. You can also add a marker to your map by clicking and dragging from the marker button.

From the word balloon, you can edit a marker’s title, description (which supports HTML), and icon. There’s also a delete link. You can also drag a marker around the map to place it.

Using the line tool is similarly intuitive. You click once to determine the start point, and subsequent clicks on the map define new points. A double click ends the line. As with a marker, you can add a title, edit the description, and change the color, width, and opacity of the line. This tool is useful for noting a driving route or walking tour.

The shape tool is for defining closed areas. You can edit a shape’s title, description, and color.

Now for the cool stuff: All the objects created on the map show up in the left column. Anybody checking out your map can easily jump to any element you’ve created by clicking on the list.

Next, you can elect to make your map public or unlisted. Public maps will show up in Google search results. Unlisted maps (the default) can still be linked to - the URL is at “Link to this Page” in the upper right corner.

As you can see on the Webomatica’s Japan Trip map, I was able to get a couple of locations added pretty quickly, including particular icons for the location’s purpose, and adding some small photographs using standard HTML.

That said, there were a few things I couldn’t figure out:

• A way to move a whole line as one unit.
• How to move a shape as one unit after it’s drawn.
• How to change the order of the items in the list on the left.

But there are tons of possibilities. I can imagine collaborative map editing. Or pulling in an RSS feed and creating markers for all the locations contained within.

There’s one application that would totally kick tail: A GPS enabled camera, that automatically adds location as meta data to your photographs. Then, after uploading all your photos, some service uses that location data plus time to create a Google My Maps trail. Holy crap, that would be awesome.

Additional Reading: Search Engine Journal, Cyber Net, Techdirt, ArsTechnica

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