In “The Introduction to Web Mapping”, Jim Detwiler provides a history of web mapping, how it evolved throughout the years, and also provides details of each category of web maps. By doing so, Detwiler’s ultimate goal is to teach others how to build mapping mashups which initiated once Google took advantage of the new technology Ajax in order to launch Google Maps. It was really interesting to read about how Google Maps came about because it is such a popular and useful tool that is integrated into the most widely used search engine. Through Google Maps, hackers were then able to figure out how to layer other useful information on top of the maps. This practice, which Detwiler calls “mashup”, caused an explosion of custom mapping applications. This knowledge sparked my curiosity as I wondered about all the different possibilities and ideas that can go into using maps to serve various services and not just to use them to figure out where to go.
If you visit http://taxiwiz.com/?lang=en, you can figure out how much a taxi ride is going to cost by plotting your route from “A” to “B”. I thought that this was really cool because transportation is a big issue these days especially in big cities like Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Moreover, there are many smartphone apps that you can use to call cabs over to pick you up such as Uber so TaxiWiz can potentially be of great use because we can figure out if our trip to our destination is worth the price.
After doing a search of google map mashups, I was able to see so many different ideas that people came up that utilized maps to serve many different functions. One example was HousingMaps, which popularized the idea that apartment or house finding was best done through online maps. HousingingMaps, layered open apartments and houses on a map of U.S. cities for searchers to browse easily. Craigslist took this idea and implemented their own version and popularized it as a result. Another mashup that I found to be interesting was Pothole Season. This map shows you where all the potholes are for certain cities or areas and also provides driving directions so that you can avoid them. Users can report the location of unmapped potholes. Pothole Season is also available as a smartphone app. This app would be especially useful for motorcyclists and people who ride scooters because potholes can be devastating to their vehicles.