hobolog :: Maps

If you have a blog that refers to outdoor places, my map site theoutdoormap.com has something new to offer: automatic links back to your blog posts. Take a second to consider it.

We often name outdoor places when we write. Maybe we link the name to one of a great number of web sites relevant to the place. I think we could reap many benefits by sending these links to the location pages of The Outdoor Map:

• If your link comes from a blog with an RSS feed, The Outdoor Map will scan the feed and attempt to add a link back to your post from the location page. (Here’s an example). This will create a chronological list of blog posts relevant to the location, including yours. All it takes to accomplish this is:
  1. Search The Outdoor Map to find the location.
  2. Copy the URL for the location’s detail page.
  3. Use the URL in your post to link the location name.

  That’s it – you don’t even have to have an account at The Outdoor Map.

• I’m committed to gathering the best online resources for outdoor locations available for every location.
• If you are a member, you can add relevant links to the location detail page, and rate existing links.

That’s a brief summary. There’s more there, and I’m always working to improve it. You can help me just by using it. If something is preventing you, please tell me what it is. Thanks!

Ok, you can’t actually look at any maps yet, but I couldn’t resist the idea of hiking maps of Mars. They’re just talking about the first topo maps of the red planet, of course.

A mashup of outdoor routes for “rock and ice climbing, caving, canyoning, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking”. Most of the points are in Europe currently. I like the idea of quick map access to route diagrams, but none of the “route diagram” links I tried actually contained any diagrams. Maybe it will get better.

This is a travel map mashup for Australia that lets you add your own markers and notes.

An index of schnazzy new web sites, including many mapping sites.

The American Canoe Associations hosts an online database of water trails. No maps or anything, but the first resource I’ve seen for paddlers.

(Via The Adventure Blog)

This makes for a nice way to browse outdoor locations. That would be a good layer to have for the Outdoor Map.

(Via Google Maps Mania)

This is another “share your trip” site. The interface seems to offer a lot, but after playing with it a bit I’m not really sure what it delivers. Not intuitive. It does have one distinction, though – it’s a completely open-source project, hosted on SourceForge. It will be interesting to see which tactics win out in the end.

A site that aggregates information from individual traveler’s blogs, among other traveler features. There’s a new mapping feature as well – not sure if this creates a map automatically from your blog’s geoRSS feed, but that would be cool. I think blog aggregration is a technique that’s going to start popping up everywhere.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been fiddling my own outdoor website called The Outdoor Map for almost a year now. My vision for it has changed, but I still use it all the time myself for finding places, keeping notes and links for them, and general map investigation. I had hoped that the site would support itself through advertising, but I never promoted it, and now the hosting bill is coming around. So, even though I still have many unrealized plans for it, I invite you play with the site a bit and see if you find it as useful as I do. Any comments you may have would be welcome.

Another online trail site joins the pack: trailchaser.com. It has a nice looking interface. Tracks, photos, waypoints, and elevation profiles are done well, but some key features like topo maps and printing are missing. One thing it does have that others don’t is the ability to draw a trail if you don’t have a GPX file.

A new outdoor map-sharing website hits the scene: EveryTrail.com. This one looks like it has some money behind it. At first glance it seems to have many desirable features covered: topos, elevation profiles, markers, photos, GPX import & editing, map embedding for your blog, Google Earth interface. It may be lacking good printing and search options, but there’s definitely enough there that I’ll be playing with it some more.

(Via Two-Heel Drive)

This is a nice simple mashup of Google Maps and YouTube. See videos of places around the world.

(Via Progammable Web)

Another online trail mapping site, tracegps.com, has hit the scene. It’s a French site, which I don’t speak, but some clicking around revealed tracks and elevation profiles, but no maps. Maybe you have to sign up.

(Via Programmable Web)

A new Google Maps mashup for sharing outdoor photo locations.

(Via Progammable Web)

I suppose local outdoor mashup sites like this will continue popping up until a really good global wiki makes the scene. This one has some Google maps, but they weren’t working for me.

(Via Programmable Web)

A tool for adding a Google-map-based community to your own website. I’m sure some outdoor sites will want to give this a try.

(Via Google Maps Mania

Along with lots of details about how it was done. Is the seed for public-domain topos of the world in here somewhere?

(Via The Map Room)

If you’ve wondered how Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! online maps compare but haven’t had time to try them all, you can play with all three at once here. They’re synced up so each map shows the same area.

(Via ProgrammableWeb)

libremap.org is now in business with free hi-res topo map downloads for many US states. Cheers to all who made this happen!