E-Media Tidbits

Recently on this blog I've highlighted some innovative uses of the Google Maps API to create classified-ad related Web features that tie Google's satellite maps with ad data. But now let's look at how this new capability can be applied to editorial content.

My colleague Larry Larsen, multimedia editor at the Poynter Institute, (with assistance from Jared Cosulich) has developed a mock-up of what a Google Maps-driven news feature might look like. (This is a concept he's been promoting for years -- well before Google Maps came on the scene.) He's used the (Poynter-owned) St. Petersburg Times' website as an example, but this is not the real sptimes.com homepage; it's a demo page.
Balloons on the map when clicked pop up a text-and-image balloon with headline, blurb, and thumbnail photo. You can click a "more..." link to go to the full story (though that's not enabled yet on Larsen's demo). Click on the thumbnails in the two sample news balloons and you'll see a short video and a brief slide show. Just as with any Google map, you can zoom in or out on the map, and click-drag your mouse to move around. And you can switch between line-map and satellite views.

The concept is truly useful, I think. Imagine a news website's local-news or neighborhood pages that include a map pinpointing where recent news events took place. Imagine a calendar page that isn't just text listings, but also a map showing the locations of events.

Google permits any Web publisher to tap into the Google Maps API as long as the websites "are generally accessible to consumers without charge," according to its terms of use. You'll want to read this over carefully, of course. And note that Google retains the right to include advertising in the maps in the future.

The larger issues for publishers wishing to try out the concept Larsen demonstrates will be in adding location meta-data to editorial content. You should read his earlier thoughts on that topic on this blog.