News from CyberArtisans Web Developers

A mashup is a programmer's term for software that uses another program to do something useful. In this case the other program is Google Maps. Google wanted to encourage developers to find new and interesting ways to use Google Maps without allowing these same developers to muck around in Google's code, make a mess of their system, or steal their ideas.

Google did this by creating an "API" for its Google Maps service. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is simply the connection rules -- you can tweak this by doing this, you can't touch that, etc. To say that they have succeeded in encouraging developers would be a gross understatement. The world of maps is exploding, with new uses popping up daily.

We're not going to try to describe any of this technical stuff -- you don't want to know it anyway. Instead, we will provide one fun example and a few pointers to where you can find more information. The important point to remember is that, while you may not have the stomach to figure out how this stuff works, we do. If you'd like to use a map on your website, contact us.

OK, let's do the fun example first. We ran a few errands with a GPS Velcro'd on the dash. We then downloaded the data from the GPS, uploaded it to GPSVisualizer, a Google Maps mashup that generates maps of GPS tracks, and finally moved the map to our website.

Here's a link to the map. Notice that this is not a simple, passive map -- it's a live Google map. This means you can zoom in or out, move the map's focus, or change from a map view to a satellite view, just as you can with a regular Google map.

For the record, we'd like to emphasize that the points on the track where we appear to have gone into the Charles River, ridden on the sidewalk, or driven through buildings, reflect anomalies of the GPS, not the driver. That also accounts for the parts of the track that appear to show us wandering around the intersection while waiting for the light to change.

If you zoom in to the top-right of the map, you will see that we appear to have driven across "Victory Field." No, we did not accidentally drive onto a soccer field. If you change to the satellite view you will see that Victory Field is really a parking lot, and closer examination will even show which parking place we used, although again, the GPS errors make it appear that we moved our vehicle over a parking barrier between the time we shut down and started up again.

The point of all this is that you can have a lot of fun with Google maps. Our example was extremely simple. To see some really interesting examples, go to the Google Maps API page on Programmable Web. This is a list of 1,088 (at last count) mashups -- everything from a map of the latest crimes in New York City to maps of free wifi spots throughout the country.

Our two favorites are PackageMapping.com, which lets you track a package on UPS, Fed Ex and other carriers as it crosses the country, and WeatherBonk.com, which determines your location from your internet connection (although you can request another location) and gives you live local weather, local traffic cameras, and a detailed forecast, all on one page.

And if you really want to research the Google Maps API, you can read Google's documentation.

Every time there is a big news story about some disaster, the sorry dregs of humanity who think it's fun, interesting, or profitable to create computer security problems for victims of tragedies come out of the woodwork. The latest example of this was an email concerning the recent Brazilian plane crash.

This email was written in Portuguese and provided a link to a site that purported to provide more information about the flight, the names of victims, and other things that people affected by the tragedy might want. The "information" it provided, of course, was publicly available in places like the airline's website. Unfortunately, in addition to providing useless information, the website loaded spyware onto a visitor's system.

Sadly, this is not uncommon. If you are affected, directly or otherwise, by a well-publicized incident, be especially careful about email received immediately after the occurrence. It's easy, in times of grief or shock, to grab at something that looks like it might be helpful. Too often it will hurt you further.

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