Week 6: Google Maps and Mashups

Today I began working on week 6 of the blog which is Google maps and mashups. Using Google maps is something that is not new to me as I have the I-phone which uses Google maps as its navigator. I am always using Google maps to find my way around to places which I have never been before, especially when I am playing soccer at a ground which I have never been to before. Although I have used Google maps to find directions to places, I have never actually used it to create my own map and from the moment I saw our task of creating a map of holiday destinations I had been to, I knew it would be exciting.
Only coming back from Macedonia in Europe just under a month ago I already knew this was going to be the destination of my map and I found it an exciting activity being able to show everyone where I had been in Macedonia and the things there is to do at each of the different cities.

Above I have just put a small video for those interested in seeing a few quick snaps of what Macedonia looks like; it’s a quick commercial that plays on television in Europe advertising Macedonia to other countries.

This is a screenshot of my Google map of Macedonia, it shows all the locations which I went to, the distance from one to another and also a description of what I did at each place.

For those of you who want to see my actual map with the descriptions, you can view my map in Google Maps at the following link: http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114102124882797332041.00048f04de15e6093c46d&ll=41.557922,21.362915&spn=1.428352,2.458191&z=9

Now going across to mashups, before actually having to read up about mashups today I’ll be honest I didn’t know what they were nor had I heard of the expression before. After reading up and watching some videos about mashups I was able to establish that a mashup is simply and application or webpage that uses a combination of two or more sources to create a new application. Once looking through all the different types of mashups that were available out there I established that the one that would be most relevant to me and that I would use is ‘MapYourBuddies’, it’s a combination of Facebook, Google Maps and Amazon which are three sites that I frequently visit. Although after actually using it, like the guy in the video said I don’t see how it uses Amazon but it was exciting to see an application which could map all your Facebook friends’ locations on one map. Exploring a bit more into mashups I found that to actually create your own you need to know extensive program coding which is a skill that I only have basic knowledge of and could not create something so intense.

All in all creating my own Google map was very exciting and is something that I will continue to do. On the other hand reading up about mashups and its future prospects was exciting but to be honest I do not see myself using something like this until further down the track when more development has been established. All in all this activity was quite adventurous ;)

This is a scrrenshot of the ‘MapYourBuddies’  the mashup which I further explored and one that I believe may be useful to me. As you can see above when you click on the perons name in the side panel, their location is showed on the map. Just to let you know I only explored the demo version of this and didn't actualy register because it is not something that I want to use until further development into mashups has been made. For anyone interested in viewing the 'MapYourBuddies' mashup that I explored, it can be found at the following link: http://people.emich.edu/mchiang4/MapYourBuddies/