Over the last decade sophisticated mapping has moved out of the realm of the world of pricey, complex Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and down to consumer level. I’m sure there are still some things that professional systems can do that low end systems can’t deliver but I really can’t think of what those might be …
Over the last decade sophisticated mapping has moved out of the realm of the world of pricey, complex Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and down to consumer level. I’m sure there are still some things that professional systems can do that low-end systems can’t deliver but I really can’t think of what those might be …
But here’s the remarkable thing about how mapping has changed: For most purposes, you can build really sophisticated and complex maps using free tools and even the paid-for tools are orders of magnitude cheaper than the top-end GIS offerings.
Obviously Google Maps and Google Earth are two of the premier free resources in this area.
In particular the ability to create 3D models in Google’s SketchUp puts a whole new spin on conveying geo-located content (if you haven’t looked into what you can do with scripting SketchUp using the Ruby programming language with SketchUp you’ll be impressed).
Anyway, my focus today is a mapping service called Zeemaps which takes your data and creates customized interactive maps using Google Maps as the underlying service – in other words Zeemaps is a mashup of Zeemaps’ front end services and backend data management with Google maps as the core of the presentation layer.
What makes Zeemaps really powerful is its ability to map your bulk data; you can upload your data in a comma separated variable file (CSV) or directly from a Google spreadsheet.
You can place markers, highlight states and countries, create collaborative wiki-maps for multiple users to update, and export the results as PDF files or JPEG images. Zeemaps can also automatically add the location of Web site visitors to a map by geo-locating the visitor’s IP address.
Maps created using Zeemaps can be embedded in Web pages or viewed on the Zeemaps Web site. You can assign users to be admins which allows them to change map properties and add, modify, or delete map entries, members who can add, view, and optionally modify map entry details, or viewers who can view the details of map entries but can’t make additions or modifications.
Free maps on Zeemaps show the Zeemaps logo and advertising while premium accounts remove ads on a per map basis; $11.85 for three months, $17.70 for six months, or $24 for one year (yes, that is oddly over-complicated). Another (somewhat complicated) scheme allows you to publish Zeemaps maps without advertisements for all maps on a Web site for $59.70 for six months or $102 for a whole year.
There’s also a pricing scheme for advanced facilities that includes deleting multiple markers at the same time and making bulk changes to multiple markers using a grid view in the browser.
The most complex part of Zeemaps pricing is for creating map images where the pricing is determined by image resolution and whether the map perimeter is less than or greater than 25 inches! And if you want the markers on a map image numbered Zeemaps will charge you an additional $9.95 while having your own branding on your maps instead of Zeemaps’ logo will cost you another $24.95!
Despite its labyrinthine pricing Zeemaps is a very and useful clever service and its core value is that you can do some really powerful and flexible mapping without having to wrestle with the Google Maps API.
