Collaborative Google maps...

A while back, I was playing with Google maps, and found that there is a “My Maps” feature. If you have a Google login, you can create your own maps to share publically or privately. I thought this was pretty cool. It was especially useful when the San Diego wildfires were raging… some helpful person created a map and kept it up to date with various fire lines and safe areas and stuff.

The first thing I thought of was that it would be fun to create a communal map. I thought it would be neat to make a map where friends could add favorite places to eat, neat things to see, etc. The problem was that the first round of My Maps only allowed the owner to edit the map.

But now that’s changed. I just happened to be playing around with Google Maps recently, and noticed that there is now a “Collaborate” button when you create a map. You can still set the map as “Public” or “Unlisted” (in which case you can only view the map if you know the direct link to it), and for each setting, you can have the map be updateable either by collaborators you invite, or by anyone who can view it.

That’s pretty cool.

The only problem I have now is that it feels like a solution waiting for a problem. I want to make a cool, useful, fun map, but I don’t have any grand ideas.

On a whim, I created a Publically viewable, publically editable map called San Diego Beaches, with the idea that people could add their favorite beach spots. I wonder if anyone will update it.

Even if I don’t have any great ideas, I still love the concept.


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Click on the "view larger map" link to see a full view (there's not much there now...)