Nice Blog Mention

Jeff Barr is a guy I've known for 20 years in the software biz, he's now working at Amazon evangelizing their services.

He wrote a nice blog entry about MapTrot, Available Here

thanks Jeff!

Disclaimer... Nope, we're not using the amazon services here, but ya know, they are pretty darn cool, and I've definitely looked at them with an interested eye!

Check it out: Amazon Web Services Page

Create a Map, win a $40 Amazon.com Gift Certificate!

How do we know if MapTrot is useful (and bug free) if we don't have lots of people using it?

To encourage more users, more map creation, and to celebrate all the new KML functionality (see next post), we're giving away a $40 Amazon.com gift certifcate!

Just create a map in May, publish it, and send the url to your friends, family, workmates, email lists, and anyone who might be interested. Make a map (which can include layers, of course!) about something topical, interesting, or just plain fun, and get the word out so people can see it.

With the new Digg/Reddit/Netscape/Delicio.us/StubleUpon submission buttons at the top of every map, it's easy to submit your maps to those services for other people to check out and comment on.

It's fun, but it helps us shake out the system, find bugs, see what people really create (and view) and let's us figure out what's working and what's not.

Whoever creates the map with the most views at the end of May, will win a $40 Amazon.com Gift Certificate.

Good Luck!

If You Can't Beat Em - Join Em! Maptrot Now Supports KML/GeoRSS (MyMaps, et al)

When I started building MapTrot, there were no other 'create your own map' sites. Now there are a bunch of them. Google did not have MyMaps, either, and now they do.

So what's an aspiring Map creation site to do? Be inclusive!

MapTrot now supports adding any number of "Layers" to a created map. These layers can be a KML or a GeoRSS URL. What does that mean? It means you can create a map anywhere that supports KML or GeoRSS, and include that map in a MapTrot map. You can, of course, still add additional locations to the map as well, just as before.

How cool is that? Very.

You can find some related maps and put them together on the same map page.

For instance, here's a combination of 3 KML map files (Ontario Parks, US National Parks, and North Carolina Parks), plus one location I added for Rocky Mountain National Park:

Link To Full Map
Note that, as above, you can link to or embed your mashed up maps.

Here's another example, this list of the 10 best places just came out for singles, families, retirees, etc. I created each list seperately as a Google MyMap map, and then combined them all in one MapTrot Map:
Top Ten Places

Note that you can check/uncheck the layers to turn then off or on.

Now it's your turn! Find some cool KML or GeoRss files out there, and add em to your maps. Combine em and make new maps! The possibilities are endless!

BUT WAIT, that's not all... you can also export your published maps to KML (click the KML icon at the top)! This allows you to view your MapTrot created map locations in Google Earth or any tool that reads KML. What about using a MapTrot map as a layer in another MapTrot map?? Yup, you can do that.

The KML exports just the Locations you've created on a map, though, it doesn't export the information from any layers you've created.

Happy Mapping!