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The revolution will be mapped
I cannot imagine life before online maps. I can't believe there was a time when people gave me directions over the phone; I scribbled them on discarded envelopes and such, then tried to read my scribbled instructions ("L on MLK/51st to 80 E") while weaving dangerously across the road. OK, everyone in California weaves dangerously across the road, but you get my point. Anyway, much as I've come to depend on online maps to save my life and get me to Point B and back, I never thought I'd find them particularly cool, interesting, or, you know, see them as the rich and vibrant harbingers of the next phase of online life. Yet here we are.
I think we're all aware that the Web is evolving. That was the plan all along. Tim Berners-Lee saw the next step of the Web as the semantic Web. In that vision, data wouldn't be restricted to specific Web sites or even to HTML--it'd be shared across Web sites, filtered and edited by Web users, and layered with nearly infinite strata of other data.
Now, when it comes to the semantic Web as a project, there's a ton of arguing about whether it's a pie-in-the-sky vision and a pipe dream, and whether it should rely on the XML- and URI-based RDF, and that sort of thing--bound to arise whenever a lot of too-smart people start arguing about the future. But as the natural evolution of the Web, the semantic vision is happening.
This article on the semantic Web predicts a future filled with context-aware links, collaborative filtering, editable Web sites, and much more. I give you, for example, Trillian 3.0, whose instant lookup feature underlines words as you type or receive them in instant messages and lets you hover over them for definitions: context-aware links. Wiki technology lets you create Web pages that can be edited by anyone, and the massive-scale, collaborative Wikipedia project puts knowledge in the hands of everyone on the Web and trusts that we won't screw it up. So far, we haven't--at least not too badly, and as for collaborative filtering, you can easily dispute articles or information you find in that public database.
Then you've got mapping. On further reflection, I guess it makes sense that mapping would evolve into some of the richest content on the Web. There's nothing so fundamental as "where we are," whether you're talking about physical location or the act of searching for information. So mapping Web sites and software have now smacked both of those things together, along with a little collaboration, digital photography, satellite appropriation, and engineering, to give us an amazing range of things to play with. A few examples:
Spydr_cl remarks:
Shameless plug department
Before I took over as your happy host, I briefly departed CNET to try my hand at editing books for O'Reilly. Before I left there to return to CNET, I was offered a chance to work on their then-nascent magazine, Make. I'm happy to report that they soldiered on without me, and Make is now a very cool reality. It's hardly fair to call it a magazine--they've dubbed it a "mook," or magazine-book. It comes out quarterly and costs $14.95 per issue or $34.95 per year, and my first flip through it nearly filled me with regret. The current issue shows you how to do such simple, everyday tasks as building your own linear accelerator (necessary items: magnets, wooden ruler, plastic tape, and nine steel balls), attach a camera to a kite, make your own magstripe reader, and a bunch more things. Check it out.
By Molly Wood, senior editor, CNET.com
Thursday, February 17, 2005
I cannot imagine life before online maps. I can't believe there was a time when people gave me directions over the phone; I scribbled them on discarded envelopes and such, then tried to read my scribbled instructions ("L on MLK/51st to 80 E") while weaving dangerously across the road. OK, everyone in California weaves dangerously across the road, but you get my point. Anyway, much as I've come to depend on online maps to save my life and get me to Point B and back, I never thought I'd find them particularly cool, interesting, or, you know, see them as the rich and vibrant harbingers of the next phase of online life. Yet here we are.I think we're all aware that the Web is evolving. That was the plan all along. Tim Berners-Lee saw the next step of the Web as the semantic Web. In that vision, data wouldn't be restricted to specific Web sites or even to HTML--it'd be shared across Web sites, filtered and edited by Web users, and layered with nearly infinite strata of other data.
Did I miss any cool maps, or are you still on the browser thing? Tell me about it!
Post your comment hereThis article on the semantic Web predicts a future filled with context-aware links, collaborative filtering, editable Web sites, and much more. I give you, for example, Trillian 3.0, whose instant lookup feature underlines words as you type or receive them in instant messages and lets you hover over them for definitions: context-aware links. Wiki technology lets you create Web pages that can be edited by anyone, and the massive-scale, collaborative Wikipedia project puts knowledge in the hands of everyone on the Web and trusts that we won't screw it up. So far, we haven't--at least not too badly, and as for collaborative filtering, you can easily dispute articles or information you find in that public database.
Then you've got mapping. On further reflection, I guess it makes sense that mapping would evolve into some of the richest content on the Web. There's nothing so fundamental as "where we are," whether you're talking about physical location or the act of searching for information. So mapping Web sites and software have now smacked both of those things together, along with a little collaboration, digital photography, satellite appropriation, and engineering, to give us an amazing range of things to play with. A few examples:
- A9 Yellow Pages
Amazon's new search engine, A9, offers a location search that includes contributed photos of the block where your restaurant, guitar store, coffee shop, or tailor is located. So far, the search engine is hard to use, and not every result includes a photo--and not every photo is on point. But if you've never been to College Ave. in Oakland, and you really need to find Suzy Q Korean BBQ, you'll feel right at home once you get to the right street. - Google Maps
No pictures here, but Google Maps is just plain nice. Once you enter your location, you can interact with the map, clicking and dragging to various locations, and looking up to-and-from directions on the fly. Knowing Google, I'm hoping for some fast improvements to this site, too. Why not let us click the address, say, and bring up search results for the location, such as reviews, photos, news stories ("didn't I hear that restaurant burned down?") and the like? I'll be waiting. - GeoURL
The new site is scheduled to launch today, and I hope it does. GeoURL is a geographic search engine that essentially links the location of Web sites using GPS coordinates. You could find out, for example, if your favorite blogger lives anywhere near you--OK, I admit, that seemed to be its most promising feature. Still, bloggers have to find each other somehow, and there are probably other uses that have yet to be discovered. - Zip Decode
I think this site's getting a bit too much attention lately, because it's behaving a bit slowly, but Ben Fry's Zip Decode site has mapped all the zip codes in the United States. Type in numbers (make sure you turn on zoom!) and watch the map dynamically narrow itself down to a specific location. Use: unknown. Coolness: extreme. - Baby Name Wizard
I don't care if you're having a baby, had a baby, don't ever want to have a baby, or haven't ever seen a real baby in person. If you have a name, you should see this site, which graphs the popularity of certain names over time, and which lets you troll various decades just to find out the most interesting names. Hours of fun.
- Tsunami Disaster Mapping
This interactive, open-source map is designed to focus Indian Basin disaster relief where it's most needed, by integrating data about the tsunami and earthquake with mapping. It provides information on deaths in affected areas and proximity to the earthquake's epicenter. The project's creators hope workers in the affected area will contribute data to make the application even richer.
Spydr_cl remarks:
"I don't agree that the war will be over. This is just the start, and it will be very interesting to see how Firefox reacts. After all it's not a start-up but rather has an incredibly talented team behind it. And if it was able to nip away at Explorer's share with version 1, what will it do with version 7?"
Actually, there were so many PWTs from Wednesday's column, I don't even know where to start. I think maybe the entire Firefox market share reads AnchorDesk. Hey, like I say, I'm using it!Shameless plug department
Before I took over as your happy host, I briefly departed CNET to try my hand at editing books for O'Reilly. Before I left there to return to CNET, I was offered a chance to work on their then-nascent magazine, Make. I'm happy to report that they soldiered on without me, and Make is now a very cool reality. It's hardly fair to call it a magazine--they've dubbed it a "mook," or magazine-book. It comes out quarterly and costs $14.95 per issue or $34.95 per year, and my first flip through it nearly filled me with regret. The current issue shows you how to do such simple, everyday tasks as building your own linear accelerator (necessary items: magnets, wooden ruler, plastic tape, and nine steel balls), attach a camera to a kite, make your own magstripe reader, and a bunch more things. Check it out.
