Google Maps have popularised the idea that you cannot get lost anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access and know how to use online maps. Now, a Maltese software programmer has come up with the idea of exploiting Google Maps to provide a location service for the Maltese islands, making it even easier to locate businesses, public services, historical sites, entertainment locations and other important landmarks.
The Malta Street Map service can be optimised and made available to individual businesses that want to provide potential clients with easy directions to their locations.
"I am a solo programmer and started work on this project last spring while I was staying in Malta," Roger Mifsud, a Maltese living in California, told iTech. "This technology is widely available in the US and elsewhere and I wanted to contribute to Malta by adding a street search feature. Case in point is that in Malta we usually communicate by saying we would meet up at a landmark or a church, for example. Or we give directions to a store by saying it is behind or around the corner from a large business outlet, for instance. So I wanted to bring the GPS capability to the everyday Joe that does not have a car GPS, for instance."
An interesting feature about this service is that once you locate the street the map is populated with nearby businesses, restaurants, hotels, pharmacies, DVD rental shops, speed cameras, non-business organisations etc. These place marks appear on the map and the sidebar giving you the approximate distance from your location to the place marks. You can also interactively drag and drop a yellow marker. New place marks closest to where you drop the marker are then generated. You will have instant access to their phone number, location, e-mail and website.
Users can download these place marks to their phone or any other GPS-capable device. Right now only the speed camera points are available for download.
Another website feature is the Malta street map directory. This is where the registered end users compose their business advertisements. They have a map interface similar to the street map whereby they drag the marker to their business location and enter their particulars. The service is entirely free of charge.
"The idea is to saturate the map with all the businesses, everyone is invited," added Mr Mifsud. "All our members will benefit from added hits to their websites, and higher ranking on search engines. We hope to keep the service free by placing Google ads to help fund the expenses."
Malta Street Map is now featuring a calendar map with venues and events happening in Malta and Gozo. Events include live concerts, feasts, clubbing, cinema, theatre, sports, dance and fund raising events. For example the Malta Arts Festival being organised right now is well covered.
"The toughest part of the project was actually building an application to enter some 5,000 plus streets and alleys in Malta and Gozo. Basically geo-coding each street into a database," admitted Mr Mifsud. "Another aspect in the street search is the keyword recognition. We are adding more intelligence to the searches by adding English language translations of the streets that are currently only in Maltese. Sliema is the first locality that is getting this makeover."
Five live streaming webcams were recently added to the website. A fresh webcam frame is displayed on location when you refresh or enter the map. To get the streaming video webcam users need to click on the place mark. Richer multimedia content such as virtual tours and videos are in the pipeline.
Online maps for Malta are nothing new but are not so comprehensive. The map server at the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority is a rich source of different types of maps for the Maltese islands, used especially for professional services.
Last year i-Tech ran a story with insights on this map server, which is updated regularly by Mepa to provide the latest detail in the ever-changing Maltese landscape.
Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth have also mapped the Maltese islands by satellite. Travellers who want to locate places in the Maltese islands before coming over as tourists or business travellers seek these services. The Maltese do the same when going abroad.
Local agents of satellite navigation devices to carry around in cars do provide detailed maps of the Maltese islands in terms of street names and important landmarks such as hospitals and petrol stations, but lack details such as a comprehensive list of bank ATM machines, restaurants etc.
One of the reasons is that inclusion of commercial entities in the maps is against payment.
www.maltastreetmap.com