New maps in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore
February 25th, 2008
The keen eyed among you may have noticed that we recently updated our maps in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. As these maps are supplied by our friends at Tele Atlas, they are also available within our Open API as part of Tele Atlas’s donation to the Open API community.
Chinese maps on the menu
January 15th, 2008
Which way to Quanjude, the home of Peking Duck?
China is a booming business and tourist destination, and a huge domestic market. It has also been, until now, a new frontier for online mapping in Chinese, let alone English. We are very happy to announce that that is all changing, as we have partnered with MapABC, the premier local mapping company, to pioneer bilingual Chinese mapping.
Treasure maps
December 14th, 2007
Users of multimap.com may have noticed that, if you are in London, you have a choice of map styles. The good people from Harper Collins provide the local street maps that many Londoners are familiar with, while our friends at Tele Atlas provide many of the maps for much of the world that you see on multimap.com.
Business as usual
December 13th, 2007
You may be aware that yesterday was a rather important day for us all at Multimap, as we announced that Multimap is being acquired by Microsoft.
A lot has been written about the deal so I won’t add to that here, other than to say that while we are all very excited by the new possibilities that come from being part of the Microsoft family, it is still very much business as usual here at Multimap. We still pronounce our name mult-ee-map (rather than mult-eye-map!), and we’re still committed to offering our users and our customers the same great service, great products and great functionality you’ve come to expect from Multimap.
Speaking of great functionality, why not have a look at our new Wikipedia layer?
Announcing Static Maps. No, seriously…
November 30th, 2007
You will have done well to miss the evolution of online mapping to use AJAX technology in recent years. Draggable (or slippy) maps have become the norm for users, and websites and the user experience are all the richer for it.
A strange time, then, to release new – wait for it – non-draggable maps? Maps that don’t move no matter hard you drag them? Maps that need pan and zoom buttons to move? So, why have we just released new API functionality that does just that?
Read the rest of this entry »
New London Tube & Paris Metro maps
November 16th, 2007
The London Tube system is an essential transport link for many, including most of us in Multimap, who use it to commute to the office, and to get around London. Many new lines and stations have been added since the first services starting running on 10 January 1863. To get a feel of the scale of the network, it consist of 275 stations and runs over 253 miles of rail line!
Knowing how important the Tube is for our users, we set out to create a London Tube map that goes beyond the standard, static view. First, we’ve added a simple 1-click button above the map to allow users to bring up the Tube map when looking at maps in the Greater London area.
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Remember, remember the Fifth of November…
October 31st, 2007
Most of us in the UK have heard or read about Guy Fawkes and his accomplices in the Gunpowder Plot. Generations later, people come together on the 5th November to celebrate the day when the plot was foiled. Fireworks events have become an essential part to the celebrations and we at Multimap are also big fans.
This year, we’ve collected a list of events around Britain and share them with our users. To find your nearest fireworks events, enter your location in the “fireworks event finder” on our homepage or go to http://www.multimap.com/events/2007/fireworks/. You can also filter the events based on the radius to your location or dates from 1st November to 17th November.
Open API UK data update
September 21st, 2007
At Multimap we’re very proud of the wide range of local and global mapping data available on our website and through our API, and are committed to providing as much of this data via the Open API as we can. To that end, we’re very pleased to announce the availability of Ordnance Survey Landranger maps (at 1:50000 scale across zoom levels 13, 14 and 15) through the Open API.
About GeoNames
September 13th, 2007
When you enter an address on multimap.com, we use a variety of sources of data, known as gazetteers, to try to locate what you are looking for.
“Commercial” gazetteers, such as those provided by our friends at Tele Atlas and Harper Collins, are great at providing “official” data, such as street names, postal codes and administrative areas. “Downing Street“, “90210” and “1er Arrondissement” are good examples of “official” data. The data is sourced, verified and released sometimes up to 4 times per year.
Many people search for common places of interest, such as “Big Ben“. There are also many searches for places that are not “official” administrative areas. “Bloomsbury“, “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Back Bay” are great examples of these. For all their strengths, commercial gazetteers sometimes don’t cater well for these types of searches.
Why are we telling you this? Well, we have now integrated GeoNames as an additional data source for address look-ups. You can see it in action not only on multimap.com, but also in the Multimap Open API.
MapAction - Preparing for Hurricane Dean
August 20th, 2007
A while back, Nigel from MapAction visited our London offices to talk to us about the great work that they do.
Imagine…you’re a relief worker with a truck full of emergency supplies, trying to find those most in need. But which roads are open? Which hospitals are still standing? How do you reach the people needing help?
MapAction reaches a disaster area within hours. There we deliver vital information, in the form of situation maps updated hour-by-hour in the field, that enable aid agencies to do their job of delivering assistance where it can save lives and relieve suffering.
Needless to say, we were all very humbled by Nigel’s speech.
A MapAction team was put on standby to fly to Jamaica, in the path of Hurricane Dean on Friday. They are scheduled to leave the UK today.
Everyone at Multimap would like to send our best wishes to all the MapAction team, and encourage everybody to spend a few moments learning about the valuable work they perform. You can also make a donation online, and UK taxpayers can use the Gift Aid scheme to add 28% to the value of your donation without it costing you a penny more.