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June 09, 2005
More on Google Maps
I just found on CNN.com an article about non-Google programmers 'tinkering' with Google Maps, allowing them to create fancy overlays of outside data onto the maps Google draws. Apparently the Google Maps API is quite open, and this has resulted in significantly more valuable visualizations of multiple data sources. For example, i was recently searching for hotels in Chicago. But each time i found one, i had to go to Google Maps, type in the address, and see where it was (because the hotel sites' map program was so awful). Imagine if the two could be combined -- that hotel locations would be automatically overlaid on Google Maps? That's exactly what this article talks about -- one guy even combined Google Maps and CraigsList! :)
Example site: Housing Maps.
CNN article citation: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/06/09/google.map.hacks.ap/index.html
Posted by MaTT at 01:12 PM | Comments (2)
June 05, 2005
Google Maps Slightly Miss the Point
Update: Google Maps does draw a single pushpin if a user specifies the exact address, such as '123 Sesame St., Philadelphia, PA'. (This is what i'm asking for, but in more general single searches.)
First, before my UX (user experience) critique, three cheers to the magical coders of Google Maps. Despite being a 'beta' version (in classical Google form), Google Maps achieves what no other known web map program does, and with wonderfully simple finesse -- it allows continuous scrolling without full page reloading. I cannot say how fantastic this is. (And if you haven't yet, check out the Satellite option, using the recently acquired Keyhole software).
But anyway, back to the critique. Like all good map programs, Google Maps offers direction mapping, where the user may type starting and ending addresses, and Google marks out a suggested route between them. The start and ending points are marked with obvious red and green 'pushpins'. This i have no gripe about, and in fact I applaud a very good first effort. However, these useful pushpins are nowhere to be seen if a user simply types in a single location (say, Ann Arbor, MI).
In the single location situation, Google Maps draws the area, at appropriate viewing distance, and centers the screen on the desired location. However, if the user zooms out, the specific location can be easily lost amid larger scale items such as highways and major city locations. At even 1/4 zoom, any reference points to Ann Arbor completely disappear from the map, showing only highways and nearby Detroit. A user unfamiliar with the area then has no idea where Ann Arbor is: is it below US-94, east or west of US-23? Moving one's eyes around on the map while scrolling just increases the chances of losing where the specific location is.
Why, oh why, Google, do you not use your little pushpin to highlight where a [general] single location is? This way, a user could zoom in or out, without losing the exact point of their desired location. I don't want to have to memorize the areas in all four cardinal directions so i can successfully locate my city when i zoom out. The program excels in every way except this -- please Google, add a pushpin to your single location map search!
Posted by MaTT at 01:25 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2005
Will the Real Tech Nerdy Please Stand Up?
Ever hear of Moore's Law, the statement that the number of transistors on a microchip will double every 18 (or 24) months? Yeah, that was uttered by Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world.
But did you ever wonder who the other co-founder of Intel was? Everything always reads "Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel." There must be somebody else...
Enter Robert Noyce, who actually invented the integrated circuit in 1959 at Fairchild Semiconductor and was Intel's first CEO. He apparently was also a brilliant businessman, pioneering many of the Silicon Valley practices currently in use.
Credit this revelation to PC Magazine's EiC Michael J. Miller (6/28/05). Also check out Noyce's book.
This story sounds alot like the double-Steves of Apple: Steve Jobs * is the Mac/iMac 'Renaissance Man' poster-boy, but Steve Wozniak was actually the inventor of the original Apple I computer. Just goes to show that the obvious history is not always the whole truth.
* Ironically, Noyce was Jobs' mentor during the early Apple days...
Posted by MaTT at 01:32 AM | Comments (2)