Google Maps Engine issue

If you use Google's new maps engine, you need to be aware of a problem in using the "share" button.

When you do, it produces a link like this:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?mid=zPZH3TAj6XZQ.knDBdB (That's not a complete link because it goes to a student's work in progress.)

The problem is that "viewer" in the URL. If you click on it and are not signed into Google, you get nothing. Not very good for sharing stuff with the general public - or with your professor for grading (grin).

The solution is to substitute "embed" for "viewer."

You'll find more details here:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/maps-engine/issues-and-troubleshooting/8YU8YVj36yA

Let's hope Google recodes that button.

Google maps - intersting new developments and training course

Lots of interesting things at Google maps.

First, Google just finished offering an online course on how to use its maps - very useful for journalists. Though the course officially ended June 24, the link is still up, and Google tends to leave these up for a while.

Second, you really should check out Google's new Maps Engine Lite. I suspect this may eventually take the place of Fusion Tables (officially still in "experimental" stage) for making maps. It allows you to create map layers, import data, draw shapes, stylize the icons and labels, etc.

Meanwhile, if you're using Fusion Tables to create maps, here's the link to Google's hard-to-find post on the codes for creating various map icos (more than you will probably ever use) http://bit.ly/googlemapicons.

Google's power searching course

I am having fun this week taking Google's online power searching course.

Some of it is very familiar for anyone who does a lot of searching, but there is some mind-widening stuff in here, too. For instance, I hadn't thought about using the color filter on images to narrow down specific types of things (the black and white option, for instance, will pull out charts and graphs that tend to be in B&W).

There's also the ability to find KML data using the "filetype" filter and feed that link back into Google maps to quickly create a useful map.

I'd recommend that most journalists and journalism students take this. It's six classes with five or so lessons per class. All are on video, but you can download the documentation from Google Docs to have a hard copy.

Editing lesson - why Goog is not enough

Here's a lesson for your editing classes - or for any journalist, for that matter - as to why relying on Google (or any other single source, especially in these days of ubiquitous data that also contains easily propagated errors).

I gave my editing class a simple car-train accident story the other day. It happened on Bonhomme Richard Drive in Lexington County. But many students went into a tizzy because it was listed differently on Google:

Now, those of us who've been around awhile probably have some sense that Goog was in error. If you have a sense of French, you know it's Bonhomme Richard, or maybe stuck back in the corners of the brain is the factoid that several U.S. warships have had that name.

But these days it is easy - and imperative - to check multiple sources. In the editing room, we have paper maps on the wall (I know, how quaint, except Google does not list county boundaries or subdivisions, both important for a local journalist.)

A quick run over to Mapquest shows this (which is also on that paper map):

And just running "Bonhomme Richard Lexington" through a Google and Bing search pulls up numerous real estate listings with the correct name.

Of course, preponderance of the evidence is not good enough in journalism, so my students should have checked with us, which some did. But the disappointment was that they were relying only on Google. What if I had put "Richard Bonhomme" in the copy? They most likely never would have asked.

Anyhow, victory is ours! OK, too much caffeine there so early in the morning. But Goog did confirm the error once I pointed it out.

I hope you'll find this useful as an example you can use in class and elsewhere.

Google Maps to developers: Prepare to pay up

Google is enforcing limits on maps called through its API -- 2,500 loads a day for a styled map (available sice May 2010) or 25,000 a day for regular maps.

It doesn't affect our little corner of the world at Dateline Carolina - we just link to a "mymap" and have low usage. But it does have the development community atwitter.