Major improvements in mapping data
Written by Jason on September 19, 2012We're pleased to introduce a number of new mapping capabilities that dramatically enhance both functionality and "curb appeal". If you ask us, the functionality improvement is as big a jump as from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0.
We'll detail all of the changes in a moment, but to start, let's just take a look at the "before" and "after" screenshots:
BEFORE
AFTER
The map enhancements include:
- Improving the display for large numbers of points with optional clustering (as shown above)
- Accelerating the drawing speed with large numbers of points by up to 100x (using clustering)
- Enabling custom icons for each and every single point (we kept it simple above and used different-colored pins)
- Geolocating and zooming for the user
- Setting the tooltip message (when a user hovers over a point) separately from the contents of the information window (when a user clicks on a point)
- Providing style options for the information windows
- Customizing which user controls are shown (e.g., street view, scale, map vs. satellite)
These enhancements apply to maps that use Latitude/Longitude coordinate pairs as well as those that use street addresses.
