Week 5: Find Your Way Home

                Thing #11: Google Maps

GOOGLE MAPS

                http://maps.google.com/maps

                Are you constantly getting lost on the road? Well, sometimes that’s fun, but other times you end up in a fight at a biker bar and then you wish you’d just printed a map! Google is currently in the process of taking over the world, and they’re doing it by getting into every possible avenue of the Internet – from searching to blogging to calendars, translating foreign languages, posting photos, creating personal websites – you name it, they do it!

The Google Maps feature has 3 different helpful map views: regular, satellite, and street. Let’s take a look at each of them. Use the search box to look up “32 maple street marcellus ny” and we’ll pull up the directions to the library.

In the traditional map view, you’ll see a map with a pin in it that marks the location, as well as a slider on the left side of the map that allows you to zoom in or out. You can also click and drag on the map in order to navigate through it. On the left side of the page, you’ll sometimes see a photograph of the location, and you can click “Directions” in order to get specific directions to this location. Google will usually give you the directions a few different ways: one that shows the easiest route, one that shows the fastest route, and one route that avoids highways.

                In the top right corner of the map, you can switch to satellite view. This works similarly to the regular map, except you get the actual satellite picture of the location and can zoom in or out and see the surrounding area.

                The last map view is Street View. This has been a little controversial, as it involves Google sending people out in cars every few months and photographing streets, houses, cars, and sometimes people. However, people’s faces are always blurred out, as are house numbers and license plates. Street View is a wonderful tool, especially if you’re constantly lost on the road (and remember you want to avoid those biker bars – or maybe you want to find them . . . ), because you are taking a virtual stroll down the street, so you can see exactly what it looks like before you go there. In order to see street view, find the little orange man (or it could be a lady, I’m not exactly sure) above the zoom in/zoom out slider on the left side of the map. Now just click on the orange person, drag it down over the map and drop it onto the location you want to see. Once you are in Street View, you can double-click on a building to advance to it, or click on the street to “walk down” it. You can also click and drag the mouse around the location to see all around it. Not all locations are available in Street View yet, but you'll be able to tell because when you drag the orange person over the map, the streets will highlight blue if Street View is available.

                Thing #12: Foursquare

FOURSQUARE

                https://foursquare.com/

                Foursquare is sometimes called a stalker app . . . . but, like all social networks, it’s entirely voluntary! You use this particular program to “check in” at different places around town and earn badges for the ones you visit most (for example, you might earn the Book Badge because you visited the library 5 times in a week). Sometimes your favorite restaurant might offer rewards for checking in a certain number of times per week, like 10% off your next meal or a free drink. Libraries use Foursquare to offer discounted book sale books or coupons for library fine reduction. The best part of Foursquare? If you have a superiority complex, you can become “Mayor” of a location after a certain amount of check-ins, then sometimes you can start fights with other people around town who try to wrestle the title from you! For example, I was once mayor of this location: https://foursquare.com/v/dewitt-community-library/4bc894598b7c9c74296638cf, but sadly I have been deposed L

                Foursquare is a Web 2.0 tool that tries to make the real world into a kind of game. You can leave reviews (called “tips”) for the different places you visit, and when you check in at a location, you can find out which other Foursquare users are already there – and anyone looking at Foursquare for that location can tell you’re there, with or without an account – hence the stalker reputation!

                Hey, did you know the MFL has a Foursquare page, and a Mayor? Check it out: https://foursquare.com/v/marcellus-free-library/4e39505018a8d2fcc62a0c8f. It’s sometimes fun for library staff to set up accounts and check in when they come to work, in order to leave tips about programming and book recommendations. Unfortunately, though you can leave a tip from any Internet computer, you can only check in from your smart phone.

______________________________________

 

GO TO WEEK #6