subject: New Maps Mashup Creates Forum For Local Discussion And News [print this page] Today a new service called Webtomap was launched. Webtomap lets users post their photos, videos and articles on a public Google map. Users can view all content posted by themselves and others. Users are also able to rate posts and comment on content posted on the map. To search for specific subjects, the category structure and search function can be used. Large amounts of posts can be placed on the map because the posts are clustered . Signing up is easy because you can create an account with Facebook, Twitter and Google. Webtomap is a Mashup that uses among others: Twitter and Facebook connect , Wordpress and Google maps. The website is still in beta, but new users are welcome to sign up and use the service. The maximum number of post a user can post is three a day to preserve the quality of posts.
How users are going to use the service still has to be seen. It may be that users are going to use it as a local discussion forum or as a local news service. It is also possible to create maps with certain tags to start an interactive map around specific topics. Articles videos and photo's can be placed on the map given they are related to the location where they are posted. Users can suggest third party services like video sites and other widgets to be integrated within Webtomap. If users find spam or other low quality content, they can report it with a mouse click and the post will be reviewed. All maps and articles on the website are easy to share on all major social networks.
Webtomap is different from Google maps, because people can post about virtually anything and can discuss it with other users. Other location services like Foursquare build their product around a specific niche. Since the site has just launched, the number of posts and tags in use is still very small, but when more people start using the service, this experiment might turn into a comprehensive database of geographically ragged content. With Bing using geo RSS data in its search engine and the growing use of GPS enabled devices, Webtomap may be in the right spot.
