Part 6: Google Maps

For those of you who haven't discovered this newest gem from Google, you are in for a treat and something that can help you personally and professionally. If you have already used different Internet web sites to create a map to help you get somewhere, parts of maps.google.com will seem very familiar. Some parts will seem very different.

To begin with, the dialogue box where you put the address of where you want a map of is at the top with this map of North America below it. You can put in an address, city, state and click on the search button, or just the zip code to get the town.
OR you can just click on the map to zoom in to the town you want a map of.
This can also have it's uses - particularly if you want a map to show different approaches to a certain location.

The other day, my co-worker wanted a map to get to a certain location. Instead of just the address, I put in the business name, address, city, state and hit the Enter key on my keyboard.
Not only was there a map, but a red pin on the exact location on the map and a bubble above it with the name, address, phone number, website or the business and a link for 8 more businesses like it.

The links for creating a map "To here" or "From here" would let me know exactly how to get there if I had never been to that part of town before.

So far, this is not that different from Mapquest or maps.yahoo.com (my former favorite map site). The difference starts in the local search option on the search bar. The example they use is to type the word "pizza" and you see red pins for all the pizza places near the location I first looked up.

It is for business, however, that this feature really takes off. If I was making a sales call on a location, all I have to do is type what I want to find and when I click, bingo!, a list of 10 businesses show up each with a dot and a listing on the right with names and phone numbers. This example is for retirement centers, which might be helpful if someone wanted to "shop around" but stay in the same general area.

The listing feature is not new - Mapquest and Yahoo each do that, but seeing where they are in relation to where I am going anyway is a BIG bonus.

There is a small problem in that it only shows the first 10 matches. Sometimes this means that not all of what you're looking for will be listed - or the map will expand to some matches 32 miles away from the center of the map or more.

In the case of "schools", I noticed that I had to be more specific with "elementary school" (1.7 mile radius filled my quota of 10), "high school" (3 miles away), just the word "school" (8 miles away and ranged from Contractor State License School to Early Care - daycare), "middle school" (between 4 miles and 8 miles away), "private school" (which gave one result 40 miles away), etc.

In other words, the map zoom out to fit all 10 matches. You can still zoom in, though, by pulling up the slider on the left of the map or clicking on the + button.

Like the other map websites, you can double click anywhere on the map to re-center your map.

 

You can still use it for finding a new pizza place closer to home, of course. Or if you just need to find an Apple Computer store, or even computer clubs.

 

 

Michael Shalkey

Part 1 Email Maintenance
Part 2 Protect your Computer from Viruses and Spyware
Part 3 Update Windows and your programs
Part 4 Cleanup in preparation for Backup
Part 5 Backup (and Restore)
Part 7 Cleaning Cache and Cookies from your Browser

 

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