Website For You

Mapping is a huge and growing sector, from social maps for sharing with friends, to mashing up Google Maps in every possible way. Trawling through all the mapping sites out there, we’ve compiled a list of the most interesting online mapping tools that some are referring to as “Maps 2.0″.

Customizable And Collaborative Maps

Click2Map.com - Create custom Google Maps, manage your markers, publish and share your creations.
ClustrMaps.com - Get a visual representation of all the visitors to your website.
Geotag it - Add geo tags to Flickr and Del.icio.us posts and see where other links and photos come from.
MapBuilder.net - Uses Google Maps to help you build a custom tagged map you can add to your own website.
Mapicurious.com - Mark vacation spots, restaurants, bars, just about any place you would recommend.
Mappr.com - Another site allowing you to geo tag your Flickr photos to allow people to see them on a map.
Maptales.com - Tales of trips and more sorted on to a Google Map.
Maptrot.com - Create maps of interesting locales such as Route 66 or major sports stadiums, share them with the world.
Mkmap.com - Collaborative map that allows users to add things such as transit services and restaurants.
OpenStreetMap.org - A user editable map of the world to be worked on in collaboration.
Pixagogo.com - Add your own photos to a Google Map, give people a real feel for your neighborhood or vacation.
Planiglobe.com - Customize a map and download PostScript and Illustrator versions.
Quikmaps.com - Doodle on a Google Map, pass it around, embed in your site, or download it to your GPS.
Tagmaps - A way to visualize text on geographic maps, then can be used on your site.
Traffic.com - Check out traffic for your area on a map.
Trippermap.com - Tag your Flickr photos with a location; they get added to a flash based map for your website.
Useamap.com - Helps you publish a map for your event, provides a short url for easy use.
Wayfaring.com - Create and share maps, explore ones made by others.
Wayki.com - Tag locations and share with others, explore tags others have left.
YourGMap.com - Customizable and embeddable Google Maps with content you choose.



Transit Mapping

goDCgo.com - Look up Washington DC-specific information such as traffic, special events and car pooling.
IamCaltrain.com - Interactive map of the San Francisco metro area trains.
onNYturf.com - Interactive subway map of New York City.
Seattle Bus Monster - Plan your bus routes in the Seattle, WA area.



Subject Specific Mapping

DaylightMap.com - See where the sun is shining currently on this map.
Feedmap.net - Add a geo-code to your blog so people can look blogs up by location. You can also browse for areas that would interest you.
FlightAware.com - See how many planes are currently in the air and where they are.
Gruvr.com - Place to look up local music and add tour info.
HealthMap.org - A global disease outbreak map. For general interest or to suggest places you may wish to avoid.
Hotpotr.com - Map of Wi-Fi cafes and hotspots.
Incident1.com - Interactive map of 911 calls from around the United States.
Mailboxmap.com - Enter an address, get the locations of USPS mailboxes nearby.
Map-Runner.com - You can create a run route and assign a difficulty rating and a safety rating; it will be available to all runners using map runner, and they can rate it.
MAPLight.org - Shows geographical connections between congressional voting and money donations.
MapMyRun.com - Plot out your running course, indicate where water and bathrooms are, calculate your workout. They also have MapMyHike.com, MapMyRide.com, MapMyTri.com, and MapMyWalk.com.
MappyHour.com - Click anywhere on the map to display nearby bars and their happy hour specials.
MapWii.com - Enter your Wii number and see other players online to setup games all from a geographic map.
Moremap.com - Uses Google Maps as a basis to show earthquake activity, traffic reports, radio stations, and numerous other functions.
Platial.com - Add content from video, photos, stories, feeds and add it to your website.
PublicRoutes.com - A global map of mass-transit systems.
SignalMap.com - Find or add your own reports on cell strength to various locations and by carrier.
Tornado Paths - Visual history of tornado paths on a map.
VirtualVideoMap.com - Shows a Google Map with YouTube videos sorted by locations.



Popular Mapping Services

Ask.com Maps - Ask.com’s driving directions solution.
Google Mars - Google’s interactive map of the fourth planet of our solar system, Mars.
Google Maps - Get directions, look up your house with satellite photos. The basis of many websites.
Mapquest.com - Look up local businesses, get driving directions.
Poly9 FreeEarth - A free, online interactive 3D globe with various layers you can apply.
Windows Live Local - Microsoft’s entrant in to the mapping game.
Worldmapper - Maps of the world resized based on various subjects such as land mass and population.
Yahoo! Local Maps - Get driving directions, find businesses and much more.

If you're looking for more search engine customization, then building your own search engine is something you'll want to look into. Here are five different services that offer you the ability to personalize your own seaarch engine, customized to your unique preferences.

1. Topicle
Topicle is simple to get started with; just click on "Create Engine", name your search engine, add a few of your favorite sites to search within, and you're all set. More sites can be added later as you find them. Topicle also offers you the option of searching in other Topicle user-created search engines, as well as voting up or down URL's that you approve of.

2. Eurekster Swicki
The Swicki has been around for a while now and offers searchers many options when creating their own customized search engine, including the option to choose multimedia content, customize the look and feel of your Swicki, and more.

3. Rollyo
Rollyo offers you the ability to search through the content of any websites you want, and since the sites are ones you already know and trust, the results will (hopefully) more relevant and informative for you.

4. Google Custom Search Engine
With Google's Custom Search engine, you've got a lot of options. You can include as many (or as few) web sites in your search engine as you want, you can host your search engine on your own site or blog, and you can search through other people's custom search engines (check it out at Google Custom Search Engines).

5. Live Search Macros
Live Search Macros is from Microsoft, and is a great simple way to get started on your own search engine. You'll go through a simple creation wizard to help you make your first search engine, and it only takes a few seconds to create. One caveat: you''ll need to have a MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger, or Passport account to finish the process.

There are PLENTY of places on the Web where you can find free educational videos. Here are my picks for some of the best free educational videos and education video sites online.

Free Educational Videos

What do you need to hand code (X)HTML? That is easy! For Windows PC users, Notepad will do nicely. You should already find Notepad installed. Look under Start>Program Files>Accessories>Notepad.

Notepad will work similarly to a word processor, but it doesn’t come with a lot of fancy formatting buttons and tools.

An option I find very helpful is the "word wrap" feature. Choose Format>Word Wrap. This automatically will wrap your html code to fit nicely in the window.

Format>Font will allow you to change the font used to code your page. I suggest keeping a monospace font (like Courier) to keep your characters in order. But feel free to enlarge or reduce the font size. It will have no effect on what is viewed on your own Web page, it only changes the look of your code in Notepad.

Newer versions of Notepad also include the Find and Replace feature, along with the ability to insert the Date and Time into your page. You will find both these options on the Edit menu.

Notepad is a very basic text editor (about as basic as it gets,) but there are a few other choices that are a little more "user-friendly" than Notepad.

Other text/ascii editors:

(Please read the terms of use for any programs you download.)

For Mac OS 9 users, you have a great basic text editor named SimpleText. It can be also accessed if you have OS X, but you also need Classic mode (not available in newer MacTel systems.) In Mac OS X, SimpleText can be found by choosing Hard drive>Applications(Mac OS 9)

Have plans on decorating your home to make it look new? Some sort of experimenting to add some art to it. A painting that will hang on a barren wall could do the trick. But I’m not talking about just any ordinary painting. 1st-art-gallery.com brags that they offer handmade, oil on canvas reproductions of the most famous works of art. And they mean that because they have with them a bunch of experienced artists that work the same way like the famous Da Vinci, Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Pissaro! They work in a creative haven where they produce works of art each day!

Actually, If you want a hand-made, reproduction of an amazing piece of art, or if you’re looking to turn a photograph into an original painting, 1st Art Gallery is the best, most affordable gallery around. Their painters are experienced, their turnaround time is quick and their prices are low. In fact, you’ll get a painting for what some of our competitors charge for a print.

Creating a great piece of art requires time, resources, equipment and most of all, an exceptional artist. At the 1st Art Gallery, you’ll find a team of some of the finest reproduction artists in the world. Every day, the team create works of art that measure up to the standards of the artists that originally painted them centuries ago. Using only the finest oil paints and canvases, their artists can create a 1st Art Gallery painting in 10-18 days. This investment in time and attention to detail make their paintings truly one of a kind.

They developed a creative panel to ensure that our high standards they met with every piece that leaves their gallery. Each painting is vetted by the panel of their most experienced artists through every step of the painting process. They work with the artists to make sure their reproductions match the color, expression and character of the original. And when the artist is creating a new piece, they help ensure that they’ve captured every detail of their customer’s request and of our customer’s photography.

This is a business that’s driven by customer recommendations. If you’re merely happy with the work you receive, you may tell a friend. If your expectations are exceeded, you’ll tell everyone about 1st Art Gallery. That’s why, from the materials they use to the artists they employ to the selection they offer, they’re driven to be the best.