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Archive for October, 2009

Earthware help Rovster launch a new type of property website

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Earthware are delighted to have been invited by Gary McCausland (from BBC1’s “Axe the Agent” to do the web design, web development, interactive mapping and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for his new venture Rovster.

Rovster allows a property owner who wants to “sell my house privately” to sign up and advertise online with a free property listing.  Whether you have flats to rent, property to rent or you want to buy a property in … or sell my house in …. then Rovster is seeking to debunk the property market.

We are delighted that not only did Gary decide to integrate Earthware interactive property mapping but also to use our sister, The Technology Studio to do the web design and development.

We wish Gary every success with Rovster!

The Earthware team

Posted in ASP.Net, Bing Maps, Company News, General Mapping, Uncategorized, Web Development, homepage news | No Comments »

Great Example of Using Overlays and Heat Maps in Microsoft Bing Maps

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

At Earthware we are always on the lookout for Microsoft Bing Maps (formally Microsoft Virtual Earth) implementations that use mapping to display useful information in a really intuitive way.  We are especially keen to see overlays (or heat maps) being used in Bing Maps.
 
We came across a good example the other day that uses Bing Maps to plot crime statistics for the UK. Please take a look at http://maps.police.uk/.
 
Our view is that the interface is simple enough and we like the subtle use of a gun sight for showing you where the centre of the map is. If we had any suggestions it might be that the polygons can get a bit ropey at the lowest zoom levels and the use of shaded grey rather than two tones is not as visually differentiated as it could be. We might also suggest adding the ability to see crime statistics for neighbouring counties when you are close to a border.
 
However, great idea, nicely implemented – congratulations to those involved in the project.
 
As always, if you are reading this article and are interested in creating heat maps in any mapping API (Bing Maps, Silverlight, Google Maps, Multimap, MapPoint etc.) or just want to see how you could use interactive mapping to display your information then please drop me a line at neil@earthware.co.uk.

Posted in Bing Maps, General Mapping, Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Multimap, Silverlight, homepage news | No Comments »