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About BuddyMapping
Someone once told me that Web 2.0 was all about providing useful services for free. That person was right.
But Web 2.0 is also about making "sexy" applications that are as beautiful as they are functional. After
months of design, coding, and beta testing, I'm proud to announce a completely revamped version of BuddyMapping.
There are still a few kinks to be worked out, but I think you'll find it a step in the right direction.
- Ben Gotow
What is BuddyMapping?BuddyMapping allows you to create map-based guestbooks that you can post on your blog, your forum, or - wherever. Visitors to your site can visit the map and "sign" it, placing a dot over their location. They can leave comments and even attach pictures.BuddyMapping has tons of features. You can create custom fields on your map and collect information from your visitors. You can gather Myspace screennames, email addresses, anything! You can look at your map in Google Earth, or even from the Mac OS X Dashboard. See the features page for more!
Why is it free? Where's the catch?BuddyMapping is free, in the simplest sense of the word. When you create a map and publish it on your page, you drive traffic to BuddyMapping.com. There are Google Adwords scattered around the site, and occasionally one of your visitors will click on one. We don't make a lot off of them, but it's enough to cover the cost of running the site. We're not out to sell your information or assemble a diabolical army of orange dots. Promise.
What's the story here?Hey! My name is Ben Gotow. I'm a 19 year old Computer Engineering major at Vanderbilt University, and I'm the developer of BuddyMapping.com.The site was born over the summer of 2006. I was starting school in the fall, and was a member of a group of anxious freshman on Facebook. I thought it would be cool to make a map for the group, so that everyone could see where everyone else was from. I took a look at Frappr and was thorougly dissapointed. The basic idea was there, but had been buried beneath layers of registration, myspace-esqe community features and general mess. Disheartened but not defeated, I spent the afternoon learning to use the Google Maps API and created my own map for the group. It was a hit, and I decided there was more to be done. I spent the rest of the summer putting together a simple version of the site. There was no live-search, no tabs on the map, no beautiful AJAX - just a map and a form. Somehow a couple maps got on myspace, and before I knew it the site was getting thousands of hits a day. I rushed to finish it, and BuddyMapping 1.0 was born. The status quo was maintained for the next six months as I got used to the Nashville weather and my life at Vanderbilt. The site was growing fast, and I was tacking on features as people suggested them. After a while, there began to be problems. There's only so much "tacking on" you can do before things just get nasty. In December of 2006 the site got more than 300,000 hits, and I decided it was time for a makeover. Over the spring, I came up with a new design and rebuilt the site in Ruby on Rails - a beautiful, modern, web framework. That's pretty much where the story ends for now. I hope you enjoy using BuddyMapping! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me. Together, we can make BuddyMapping the best solution out there.
- Ben Gotow |
Quick Stats
Users: 33,701
Maps: 31,553 Orange Dots: 429,814 Top Maps:
ContactIf you are having a specific problem with a map you own, please login and use the contact button beneath the map list to submit a support request. If you're curious about BuddyMapping or have other questions, feel free to email me at admin@buddymapping.com
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| 2007 - BuddyMapping |  |