Hate maps, love Birds Eye

Posted on July 28, 2008, 10:07 am, by admin, under Multimap, Virtual Earth, Web Mapping.

One of the more popular features in Multimap and Virtual Earth is the Birds Eye (oblique) imagery.  The coverage of Birds Eye is now awesome and it can provide great context information.  for example if you are booking a hotel you can check out the neighbourhood and see if it is next to a busy road to see beyond any ‘spin’ in the brochure.  Many implementations of the  Multimap API and Virtual Earth in the travel sector allow users to navigate a map and switch to Birds Eye view.

However the snag is that many web site users are not really into maps and some figures suggest that only 20% of users ever interact with an AjAx map (e.g. by panning).  But wouldn’t all these people who hate maps still not find a bird’s eye view of their hotel useful?  It is only a photo after all….

I think Active Hotels have come up with a great solution for this.  On the brochure pages for hotels, as well as a user being able to use a map, there is also a simple link for users to click on to see a Birds Eye photo:

This link simply opens up a birds eye view of the hotel (using the Multimap API behind the scenes).  It’s that simple, and therefore a brilliant idea.

Using the Multimap API you can do the same (and even remove all the controls for a clean look).  For example here is a simple picture of Big Ben.

image

Here is the JavaScript you need:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://clients.multimap.com/API/maps/[api_key]"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" type="JavaScript ">
         var mapviewer;

         function onLoad()
         {
           //Add the map 
           mapviewer = MMFactory.createViewer(document.getElementById('mapviewer'));

            mapviewer.setMapType( MM_WORLD_BEHYBRID );

                mapviewer.goToPosition( new MMLatLon( 51.50064,-0.12453 ) );
         }

      MMAttachEvent( window, 'load', onLoad );

         </script>
And the associated HTML:
<body>
  <!-- The Multimap Map-->
  <div id="mapviewer" style="position : absolute;top : 0;left : 0;width : 700px; height : 700px;"></div>
</body>

You can also use the API to check that there is BE coverage for a location.

So if you hate maps you can still use bird’s eye views!

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3 Comments

  1. Nick says:
    August 12, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    This is all very good though I much prefer the Viamichelin API opposed to Google or Multimap or bing etc.

    The clarity of the map is better with more detail and you can also use satellite imagery

  2. admin says:
    August 12, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    Nick,

    Thanks for the feedback.

    You can use satelite (and high resolution aerial imager)y in the Bing Maps, Multimap and Google APIs too.

    Tim

  3. John Issacs says:
    May 28, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Google API solution gets outperformed by Mapping specialist

    I am a web developer and had a 2 month project testing both solutions after reading the outcome of the IMFA regarding European business mapping providers.

    I noted that the free Google solution took twice as long to develop, had only basic Geocoding and everything else had to be developed from scratch I.e. criteria search, database management. Still Google business customers both paid (up to £7800) a year and free (if the solution will not be re sold (i.e. vehicle tracking) have no access to the UK postcode data from the royal mail as Google are no licensed (hence the often appalling accuracy) with only 4 digit postcode verification.

    In a positive, Google is a pretty basic platform and for the most part is free to use and widely available and recognised.

    The API platform from ViaMichelin (used a mixture of javascript skills) was offered to me on a free trial for 45 days and took only a few weeks to complete, Geocoding for address verification was included (so ideal for store finder, reserve and collect, etc and gave me access to live human support (to see what else I could do with their api). They provided me a platform with full Europe coverage and geocoded Ireland which Google could not offer for a price cheaper than the Google enterprise and premier.

    Bing fell behind when it came to customer support as it was non existent and the former multimap owned company owned by microsoft took just over the 2 months to get back to me.

    Like for like, The new ViaMichelin API solution wins, For a basic solution use Google, for business’s looking for real quality use Viamichelin

    I still want to see speed bumps and low bridge notification on maps as a option.

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