Stickymap Blog

Forms in Internet Explorer

July 23rd, 2007

For all you web developers who may be out there and interested – I’m working hard to ensure that the next version of Stickymap has greater cross-browser support. Today I found that the <form> element of HTML works differently in Internet Explorer than from other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox.

On IE, a lot of blank space is left above and below the form. On Firefox, the form is treated like any other block element.

In order to fix the IE spacing problems with forms and to make it behave more like Firefox, I just added the following lines to my style sheet:

form {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

Posted in Web Development Tips | 3 Comments »

Integration with Yahoo Local Search

July 16th, 2007

Stickymap currently makes use of the Yahoo Local Search API, but we can do better. Right now, Yahoo Local is one of the three search options, and it’s a feature that’s very detached from the rest of the site. Markers are rarely created from Yahoo’s database.

We’re hoping to change this with the next release. Stickymap search results are going to be merged with the Yahoo results, to create a universal and customizable search. Yahoo results and Stickymap results should be able to mix as seamlessly as possible.

Posted in Local search, Marker creation, Yahoo Local API | 4 Comments »

Stickymap wins Yale Entrepreneurship Executive Summary competition

July 9th, 2007

Neighborhood Resources LLC is proud to announce that the Stickymap project won 3rd place in Yale Entrepreneurial Society’s Executive Summary Competition (Y2K), Social Entrepreneurship category. We prepared the executive summary over the course of several months with the help of two Yale undergraduate interns who are currently studying economics. We are particularly pleased with this success; not only does it validate our plan to help communities grow and succeed, but it also suggests that there is a strong need for our map tools. We also believe that this award is another reason for community groups, non-profits, and associations to trust our technology and support our efforts. If community groups want to share their neighborhoods, we want to be their first choice.

You can see the Yale announcement here: http://www.yesatyale.org/y2k.php
Dan

Posted in Development updates | 3 Comments »

Stickymap hires a graphic designer

July 7th, 2007

Neighborhood Resources LLC is very excited to announce the hiring of a graphic designer to help improve the design of the website. In the next few days, we’ll hopefully be able to replace some of the simple placeholder images with high quality material. So that you can take a look at his graphics portfolio, we’ll try to post a link to his website as well as feature some of his work within the blog. Right now, he’s creating a new Stickymap logo.

We’re looking to expand our graphics team and have just made a few positions available to summer interns. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to join Stickymap’s graphics team.

Dan

Posted in Graphics, Interface, Press releases | 48 Comments »

Share and create personal maps on Stickymap

July 5th, 2007

We’ve recently implemented a really cool tool that allows every user to create his own maps and share them with friends. To create a map with locations of your choice just follow a few easy steps.

First, find the marker that you would like to place in your map. If the marker already exists, then move to step two. If the marker does not exist, then you’ll have to create it. Just use the marker creation tool to quickly create the marker.

Second, tag the marker with an appropriate description. If you’re having trouble understanding the tagging system, think of the tags as categories. Just place the marker in a category that best describes the marker.

Third, go to your Stickymap personal profile page and create a personal map of the markers that you tagged. Please understand that the tagging feature is only available to users who are registered.

Let us know if you have any questions or trouble creating your maps.

Dan

Posted in Development updates, Interface, Marker creation | 3 Comments »

Marker Creation Update

July 3rd, 2007

This week we continue working on marker creation. The new marker creation app is going to be a lot more user friendly than the old. Here I describe a few of the changes we’ll be making. Keep your suggestions coming!

1) We’re going to make good use of the infowindows in Google Maps. These are bubbles that appear above the markers. They will be positioned correctly, so we don’t have to worry about them hiding the view of the actual marker.

2) The interface will include our new and improved icon selector, which will appear on a redesigned, dynamic sidebar and/or in an infowindow.

3) Google Map’s marker dragging feature will allow users place the marker just where they want it. It smooth and must easier to use and understand.

4) The FCK editor – which is the fancy text area used for marker descriptions – will be loaded only when it is needed. This means it will no longer have to be loaded when first going to stickymap.com, which will improve our load times.

Posted in Google Maps API, Interface, Marker creation, Usability | 68 Comments »

New Google Maps Features

June 30th, 2007

When we first started Stickymap in December 2005, the Google Maps API did not have all of the features that it has today. This led us to skip over some desired functionality and in some cases come up with complex workarounds. Now that we’re once again revising the site, we’re going to include some of these new Google features. Here are three examples:

1) Scroll-wheel Zoom. On Google Maps, users can use their scroll wheel to quickly zoom in and out of the map. This makes Stickymap difficult to use for Google Maps users, because their scroll wheel does not work. In our latest version, users will be able to use their scroll wheel to zoom in and out of the map.

2) Google geocoding. Geocoding is the act of taking a string representing an address, city, or zip code and turning it into latitude and longitude coordinates which we need for searching and placing markers on the map. Now that Google has it’s own geocoding routine, we’re going to use it.

3) Marker Dragging. Google now allows markers to be draggable. This is going to be very useful (and more user friendly) when creating and moving markers. We’ll be exploring use of the dragging feature.

Max

Posted in Google Maps API, Interface | No Comments »

Article in the Knoxville News Sentinel

June 27th, 2007

Kevin Saylor wrote about Stickymap.com this week in his Web Watch column in the Knoxville News Sentinel. Saylor emphasized the unique openness of our site that allows users to post any reasonable information related to a geographic location. He writes, “It’s sort of like graffiti, only it’s legal, it’s on the Internet, and you won’t accidentally get spray paint on your pants”.

As a result of this article, our hit count has grown considerably in the state of Tennessee. Saylor also went on to described our main features.

“Even if you don’t care about expanding technology, you’ll enjoy adding your favorite stores and neighborhoods to the map. Using the site’s database, you can search through Yahoo’s yellow pages and address locator. Or you can view markers by their different types. Or just use it like a regular map, if you want to be boring about it.”

Those features are a very important part of our integrated technology, and I can’t wait until we give these features a makeover in the next couple of months and they become a lot easier and seamless for the average user. The full article is located here:

Kevin Saylor’s Web Watch: Stickymap.com

Max

Posted in In the news | 46 Comments »

Beta testing our Community Group tool

June 26th, 2007

In January of 2006, we announced that Neighborhood Resources LLC was going to be launching a new feature, the Community Group tool; a utility that helps groups of all types (foundations, non profits, associations, religious groups, development associations, clubs, etc) create interactive maps for their communities. Last week, we started our beta tests with several groups in the New Haven area. While at first, the groups ran into several bugs, they have all bared with us and have begun to create maps of their neighborhoods. We realize that we are fortunate to find groups that are willing to take the time to help us develop and refine this feature, which we believe will be a useful tool in building communities. Please let us know if you would like to volunteer to Beta test the Community Group feature, which we expect will be available to the public around October.

Dan

Posted in Development updates, Interface | 46 Comments »

Rethinking Marker Creation

June 25th, 2007

With the new icon selector up, our attention has turned to the marker creation process. It certainly could be made easier to post markers. Some options are confusing and slow the user’s momentum.

We’ve been internally discussing possible improvements. The marker creation box currently appears over the map, and sometimes it obstructs the view of the location of the desired post. That’s certainly an unnecessary speed bump.

What we have found is that these changes may require a whole reworking of the sidebar. We’re also looking into an interface where once the marker is created, a “bubble” pops up over the marker where you can input the rest of the information like title, description, photos, and tags. I invite the readers of this blog to share their thoughts on how marker creation should work.

Max

Posted in Interface, Marker creation, Usability | 1 Comment »