Apr 13

Written by: Matthew Hile
4/13/2007 10:01 AM

There has been a lot of discussion about the relative merits of Google's and Microsoft's saved maps. As this erupted I had just completed a saved Google Map for Missouri's Advancing Recovery project and thought that I would try the same thing on Microsoft's Live Maps.

The purpose of my map was to show the locations of all of the participants in Missouri's Advancing Recovery project. To do this I wanted to have the state highlighted and marks for the location of each of the participants. I had first thought to do this with an image in a paint program but thought a more interactive experience would be better. I had never used either of these sites to created a custom map so this is the review of a neophyte map maker.

Step 1: Highlight Missouri

Google

Microsoft

No obvious way to start this process. However, being an inveterate right-clicker I right clicked on the map and got the context sensitive menu. A started by Drawing a Shape. At click I placed a small square box and as I went along a helpful message "Double click to end this shape" followed my cursor. As a nice touch, after completing the shape I could click on any of the boxes and move them to a different location or right click to get to another context sensitive men to delete or add points. I was able to complete this step in one go.

Here the options were displayed on the screen and selecting the mark and area option allowed me to start clicking on the Missouri's border to create the highlighted shape. To finish a drawing you need to right click on the last location and select the "Finish drawing" option. Since my last click had been on top of my first one I moved off of that location before selecting the finish option. This added a final mark which ended up loosing Missouri a large v shaped chunk of territory to Iowa. It took me three tries to mark the map to display Missouri to my satisfaction. There is no apparent way to edit a shape once it is created or even to undo the last clicked location.

Advantage Google. The ability to edit a shape AFTER it has been initially created is clearly something that makes the job easier. It is possible that Microsoft has this feature but I was unable to discover it. However, neither system was able to automatically highlight the state. It would seem like a logical feature to be able to automatically highlight some geographic feature (e.g., city, state, country, ...).

Step 2: Add locations

Google

Microsoft

Search for a location on the map the information bubble has a simple like "Save to My Maps." You can then edit title, location add links, and so on. Simple and easy to understand. In my search Google had difficulty locating one location.

Search for a location and a push pin is automatically added to the map. A left click on the pin then selecting "edit" provided this box. For my needs it required more work to use as I had to move the address into the Notes section then add the agency as a title. Also, while I did not need this, unlike Google you can not change the push pin image. In my searching the Microsoft site had difficulty locating two locations.

Both approaches worked well but I found Google's to be a bit easier and more flexible. However, because it allows you to enter html code there may be the possibility for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.

Step 3: Final touches

Google	Microsoft
Once the map is created it can be easily shared with a url. One difficulty I had was the the items were listed in the order in which they were entered and there was no way, other than deleting and re entering a location which I did, to change that order. Than final map in maps.google.	The order of items was easily adjusted by simply dragging them to a new location. The final map maps.live.

Closing thoughts

As a novice map maker I need to give Google the advantage. It was easier for me to use and had sufficient flexibility to meet my simple needs. In particular the ability to adjust the shape after it was created is a significant advantage if you are doing complex shapes, like the state of Missouri.

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