My Maps Editor by Google
by n3rdg1rl
May 4, 2010 8:15 AM –
My Maps Editor by Google. With this application you can create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on your Android powered phone synchronized with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. It supports full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes, plus the ability to mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone.
Price: Free
AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:
I travel a lot in my line of business. A freelance computer technician rarely chooses where they’re going to work and when. One thing you always know is that you’re going to be, most likely, driving around in circles. That’s why, I thought, the My Maps Editor would be a great idea. I can create a map for each day I’m doing work so I have an idea of where I’m going. However, that’s not quite how this is working out. Why can’t I navigate using my map? It just plots points? That’s not very useful, to me at least! It would be useful to others though. What this really seems like is just a way to mark features. Say you have 10 locations for your company. You can use this app to map them all out and send it to your customers, or save it to upload later onto your website. For a more personal use, if you are going on vacation, you can map out everywhere you want to go while you’re visiting. I just don’t like the fact that you can’t navigate using this app. I guess that’s one of the many reasons they make patches and updates.
Features:
Besides the fact that it’s not the most useful app for me, it does have some good applications and features. Being able to plot points for your company or vacation can come in handy. For a company, you can set your map as public, which means it will be searchable in Google Maps. If you are plotting something for your family, you can set it private and it will only be visible to you when you’re logged into your Google account or through a link you can sent to others.
With one click you can mark your location, add a photo, add an address, add a marker, add a line, and add a shape. You can also jump to any point on your map. When you click on the points you can easily edit any information you’ve attached to it and add things like webpages, photos, and information like hours for a museum. Again, I’m upset that this doesn’t directly tie into Google and add information from Google itself.
Just like on Google Maps you can switch between satellite mode and standard map. You can drag the map to move to see what is around, however, at least on my HTC Eris running Android 2.1 there is no multi-touch support. To zoom in (since the maps starts out at world view) you must click on the map once to bring up the standard plus and minus buttons.
Not only does this application use your Internet connection (whether its wireless or 3G/2G/etc.) it also is using your GPS. You can of course turn any of this off, but just be aware that with the standard settings, this app is a huge drain on your battery.
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My Maps Editor Create Screen
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My Maps Editor Add Feature Screen
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My Maps Editor Add Main Screen
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My Maps Editor Add Menu Screen
Usefulness:
The most common use would be to plot points for tourist attractions while on vacation. For things like this, it is good… just good. I would give it a great or even a fabulous if it connected to Google directly so you can pull information about where you are headed.
Ease of Use:
For what it is meant for it is easy to use. Pictures on my Flicker account uploaded easily and plotting points and changing information is only a few clicks away. It does tie directly into the “My Maps” tab on Google Maps so you can do more editing or view the new map on your computer when you are done. This also makes it easy to share a map with non-Android users. (While you’re communicating with non-Android users, why don’t you send them a map of locations by their house where they can buy an Android phone? That would be a GREAT use for this app!)
Frequently Used:
I don’t see people using this app everyday. I know I won’t. I’m not sure who would need to plot points on a map everyday without a way to use it for navigation. It just doesn’t seem that useful overall.
Interface:
As I said for Ease of Use, for what it does, it is easy to use. If you create maps on Google Maps online, it should be comfortable and easy, just smaller. There are tweaks I’d like to see, such as multi-touch, but I’m assuming this is a work in progress since it is still listed under Google Labs on their website.