blog@ongmap.com

Table of contents

• What is ONGMAP.COM? What can I do with it?
• What can I find at ONGMAP.COM?
• How do I use ONGMAP.COM?
• FAQ

* English version has been written with great support from Nick May of diddlefinger.com

* Updated 2007/10/14

What is ONGMAP.COM? What can I do with it?

ONGMAP collects a vast range of information about what is at a given location and makes it easily locatable on a map of the world.

At ONGMAP you don’t even need a keyboard - a mouse is enough. Just….

Locate the area you are interested in on the map
Select the type of information you want to see from the menu

ONGMAP doesn’t just use data from its own database - it goes and finds any data relating to that area from a wide range of external data sources.

What is the difference between the original Google Map and ONGMAP?

If you know what to look for, but don’t know where it is - Google Map is great. Type in the address of a shop or restaurant and Google Map will show you where it is

But what if you know where you are going, but are not sure not what is there? That’s where ONGMAP comes in….

In summary:

• Google Map :　You know what to look for → Search for it → Locate on the map
• ONGMAP :　　　You know where to search → Select what to sort of thin to look for →Display on the map

What can I find at ONGMAP.COM?

As of 2007-09-06, you can find 30 types of data at ONGMAP.COM. This includes data we have compiled ourselves as well as that provided by external web sites through their public web api’s.

Since ONGMAP.COM is based in Japan, we are currently rich in data for Japan. However, we have an ever increasing array of information about areas outside Japan:

• Weather forecasts (worldwide)
• Elevation (worldwide)
• Countries/Regions/Cities of the world (worldwide)
• WiFi spots (FON is available worldwide. Other spots are in Japan only)
• Photos (worldwide)
• Videos (worldwide)
• Hotels (worldwide)
• Local news/blogs (worldwide)
• Local events (worldwide)
• Wikipedia articles (worldwide)
• Travel and geology books (worldwide)
• Airports (worldwide)
• UNESCO World Heritage (worldwide)

• Restaurants (U.S. and Japan only)
• Schools (U.S. and Japan only)
• ATM (U.S. and Japan only)
• Convenience stores (U.S. and Japan only)
• Supermarkets(U.S. and Japan only)
• Beauty salons (U.S. and Japan only)
• Hospitals (U.S. and Japan only)
• Speed cameras (Europe only)

• Train stations (Japan only)
• Japanese prefectures/cities (Japan only)
• Best 100 beaches in Japan (Japan only)
• Edy shops (Japan only)
• McDonalds (Japan only)
• MOS Burger (Japan only)
• TSUTAYA (Japan only)
• Tully’s Coffee (Japan only)
• Domestic airlines (Japan only)

Since we are short in resources, time, and language skills, we are compiling information outside Japan and U.S. We always welcome your help finding data sources in Asia, Europe, South America , Middle East, Oceania, and Africa (e.g restaurants, coffee shops, train stations, etc)

Mapmark your point of interests

A “Mapmark” is similar to a Bookmark - it is a way of marking places for a later visit.

Although you need to register as a user and log in to create mapmarks, registration only requires a valid email address for verification. So, if you found some interesting spots on the map and want to share with your friends or the rest of the world, go ahead and register with us, and start mapmarking!

If you can enjoy yourself just browsing the map (like I do), you can close all the menus and have fun with Google Maps!

How do I use ONGMAP.COM?

ONGMAP consists of 5 parts

• Map
• Top menu
• Side menu
• Data area
• News/blogs area

Opening and closing of parts

The side menu, data area and news/blogs area can be opened and closed by clicking on the icon shown in the image below.

Map

If you know how to use Google Map, you know how to use the map part of ONGMAP:

• Dragging the mouse > Pan
• Double-clicking left mouse button > Zoom-in
• Double-clicking right mouse button > Zoom-out

The above three actions are the basic ones you need to know when dealing with a map. In addition, if you have a mouse with a wheel, you can zoom-in/out by spinning your wheel. You can also change zoom level via the slide bar shown on the left side of map.

You can change map mode by clicking on the Map/Satellite/Hybrid buttons on the top-right corner.

Here is a quick and convenient way of getting started with ONGMAP
Right click on the map to access shortcut menu


From this shortcut menu, you can easily access the main functions/data of ONGMAP . (Mac users: if your mouse has only one button, try “Ctrl Click”)

Top menu

The top menu contains the icon bar and the “go to” field. Here you can do things like “sign in”, set your preferred language, toggle between auto update and manual update of data on the map, type the name of a city to be taken to, and so on. There is a full explanation of each icon below. (Note - the order the icons on the image below may differ slightly from what you see on ONGMAP.)

Put your mouse pointer over an icon and it will display a tooltip, with a basic reminder about what it does.

About icons:

Saves current map as your home map (together with zoom-level, map mode, and language setting). By saving a home map, you can go back to that map by clicking on the home button from anywhere in the world (if you have disabled cookies in your browser, this functionality won’t work).

This button takes you back to the home map you have saved.(If you haven’t saved a home map yet, it will take you to the map ONGMAP initially decided you were closest to when it geolocated your IP address on first visit)

It may be a little hard to differentiate between these two icons, the left one is for “sign-in” and the right one is for “sign-out”. Once you have successfully signed-up (it’s free), you can sign-in to ONGMAP.

With this button is toggled, “auto-update” mode is enabled. In manual mode, you go to an area and select the data you want to display, when you pan or zoom the map, you should manually update the data shown. If you are looking at a large amount of data, this is the the fastest way to do things.

Auto-update mode does an automatic update each time the map is panned or scrolled. Auto update is most
useful if for example, you are searching for photographs, as it lets you scan (”search”) wide areas of the map. Which to choose? The map constantly updating can slow things down, but if you use manual mode you have to remember to update the map (click the link for the data you want) after you pan/zoom…

We disable auo-update initially, as updates occur with even a slight pan of the map.

Display side menu at left side of the window

Display news/blogs area at right side of the window

Close everything (side menu, news/blogs area and data area) to maximize map area

Display a window with some information about current map (latitudes and longitudes of center and top-right/bottom-left corners, span of north-south and east-west, and URL of the current map (You can send this URL to a friend and they will come back to the map area you are looking at.))

Change language mode (currently Japanese and English modes are available). Note - this only changes the language of the interface - it can’t translate our Japanese data into English.

A link to the BBS about ONGMAP.COM. Your comments, reports about bugs, suggestions etc. help us improve.

When you click on this button, a bubble with a message “Maximize Me!” will show up on the map. If you click on “+” on top-right corner of that bubble, a list of API and data sources of ONGMAP.COM will be displayed.

Only shown when you are signed-in. This is for changing your password.

Side menu (Control panel)

Side menu is the “control-panel” from which you can access all the data at ONGMAP

The side-menu consists of seven independent “panels”, each of which can be expanded or collapsed to suit your needs. Expanding and collapsing can be controlled by clicking on the icons shown on the right of each panel, and the icon changes based on the status of panel:

This icon appears when panel is collapsed. If you click it, panel expands and the icon will change to the one below.

This icon appears when panel is expanded but “not “pinned”. This status can be a bit confusing beacause if you expand another panel this panel collapses automatically. If you want to keep this panel expanded, you need to click on the icon to make this panel “pinned”, and icon will change to the one below. If you click on the title of this panel not on the icon, panel collapses and icon changes back to the one above.

This icon appears when panel is expaneded and “pinned”. Collapsing other panels will not affect this panel. If you click on the title of panel, nothing will happen. You need to click on the icon to collapse the panel and go back to the initial status.

Now, I will explain about each panel:

Search from Map

The most important panel and where you will probably spend most of you time (other than map). You will find all the links to the information and functions that ONGMAP has to offer

If you are coming from the Windows world and have used Explorer, this will be a familiar interface, but since not everyone uses Windows, I’ll briefly go over how it works.
You can expand and collapse folder icons by clicking on “+” or “-” icons next to them.
If you keep digging down folder trees, you will reach a point where a document icon appears.
Clicking on document icon will initiate functions linked to those icons. In other words - they are the bits to click to DO things. Note that if auto-update is not on, you should click them again each time you scroll the map.

Here, we have collected (and are still collecting) data which is available from external web sites throught their public APIs.

Some data is for Japan or the US only, but we have a lot available world wide (A good place to start is by trying Photos, Books, Wikipedia, or Hotels.)

As I said above, the way to use ONGMAP is to

• Locate and display a map of the area of interest
• Select the type of info you want to browse from the menu

If you have auto-update mode enabled, ONGMAP will autoatically search again when you pan the map or change zoom level.

Search results will be shown as markers on the map, and as a table in the data area which slides up from the bottom of your screen.

You can look at detailed (if there is any detail) information by clicking on the marker or the row of the table in data area.

* When there is more than one piece of information at the same longitude/latitude, markers on the map will overlap and you can click only the top marker. You can see the details of others by selecting
the link from the table in the data area

I’ll briefly explain 5 of the top-level folders:

00User Added Data

At “User Added Data”(UAD), you will find data which users of ONGMAP have added. There are two types of UAD, namely, Mapmark and Google Earth files.

A Mapmark is like a bookmark on the map that marks a location for a later visit. Any user can see “shared” mapmarks or random tracks of others at ONGMAP, but only signed-up users can create mapmarks. You don’t have to share your mapmarks of course…

Signed-up users can also “track back” through their paths at ONGMAP.

To create a mapmark, select “Create new mapmark” from shortcut menu after you have signed-in.

You can also load and create links to Google Earth files (those with .kmz and .kml extensions) (select “Display Google Earth file” to load and “Create a link to Google Earth file” to save a link from shortcut menu)

01Offline Spots (Hotels etc)

Here you can search for spots like restaurants, hotels, wifi spots etc which exist within the area currently displayed

02Online Data (Photos etc)

Here you can search for data like photos, videos, local news etc which are related to the area currently displayed

03Timeline Data

Here you can view timeline data like earthquake (where it happened and when) and visitors to ONGMAP (where they came from and when) in a Twittervision-like interface. You just need to sit back and watch the map.

04Countries/Cities

We have prepared a set of countries and cities around the world so that you don’t have to drag your mouse all the way to the destination. Find a country or city you want to go to by digging down the folder tree, and clicking it.

Keyword Search

If you don’t feel like diggin down the folder tree all the way, you can search for address/locations/photos/videos by typing in keywords here (for address/locations, you can search not only by address but also by names of places or building, or postal/ZIP code)

Map URL

Here you can find the specific URL for the map currently displayed. You can copy this URL and send it to your friends to share the map with them.

Weather/Approx. Address/Approx. Elevation/Area Keywords

These panels fetch and show you the information based on latitude and longitude of the center of map.
If you keep these panels open, information will be updated automatically when you pan the map or change zoom-level.
Area keywords, fetched from Wikipedia, list a maximum of 5 keywords within a current map. If you move your mouse cursor over those keywords, a marker will show up at the corresponding location on the map.

Create tag for embed

Google Map has recently released an option to generate an HTML tag for users to embed in their blogs or web sites. At ONGMAP, we have created a more flexible tool to generate such HTML tags. Please refer to the link below and give it a try:
Google map embed tag generator

World Map

Double-clicking on any point of this small map will pan the main map to that point. A shortcut for moving around the world easily.

Data area (collapsed by default)

Search results show up as a table in this area. There are two types of results and they will be displayed in different styles:

• With images (photos, videos, books)
• Without images (others)

With images

To keep performance at a reasonable level, a maximum of 15 results are retrieved from the data set and shown at once for data like photos and videos.
If you want to see other results, click on “Prev” or “Next” buttons to display another batchof 15. The total number of results is displayed on the top-left corner of data area.
If results have locations, markers will be shown on the map. You can click on those markers or thumbnails in data area to see larger images or flash videos. If you move your mouse cursor over a marker, a red square will show up around the corresponding thumbnail, and vice versa.
If results have no specific locations (e.g. books results have no locations. but they are related to the area), an image viewer shows up when you click on a thumbnail.

Without images

Maximum of 20~50 results will be shown at one time for those items.

The total number of results (and pages) will be displayed on the bottom of the table. Click on page buttons to see other pages of the results

If results have locations, markers will be shown on the map. You can click on those markers or rows in data area to see details. You can also select a row of table by arrow keys - it’s a fast way to navigate!

News/blogs area (collapsed by default)

Local news and blogs are shown in this area, not on the data area

ONGMAP searches for news and blogs which may be related to the area in the map. Results will be displayed in tabs (2~3 tabs depending on which area you are looking)

If articles have locations, markers will be shown on the map like other data.
If you double-click on the article, the source web site will be displayed in a new window.

FAQ

- What is the url of the current map?

- What are latitude/longitude of current map?

Select “Lat/Lng/Url information” from shortcut menu, or click on this button on top menu. A window with latitudes, longitudes, and URL of current map will appear.

 

- What web services/APIs do you use at ONGMAP.COM?

Click on this button on top menu.

 

- ONGMAP is not finding me any results

Try again after changing zoom level or panning current map slightly. For some data, certain zoom levels return no results. Try toggling “auto update” to “on” and pan around the area.

 

- I want the initial map around where I live

Locate the place you want to see as your default map (and also zoom level, map mode, and language), and click on this button in top menu.

If you have disabled browser cookies, you cannnot use this functionality. Also, if you have erased our cookie, you will need to set the home map again unless you are a signed-up user.

 

- I want to read an article which I found in the news/blogs search

Double-click on the article in table to go you to the web site of news source

 

- How do I change the zoom level of the map?

There are three ways you can change zoom level

1. Double-click the left button of mouse (zoom-in), double-click the right button of mouse (zoom-out)
2. Spin the wheel of your mouse if it has one to zoom-in/out
3. Click or drag the slider bar on the left of the map

- ONGMAP does not offer the kind of information I am looking for!

Let us know what you are interested in via email (info at ongmap dot com) or drop a comment at our BBS

 

- The information seems to be wrong or outdated

Let us know via email (info at ongmap dot com) or drop a comment at out BBS. We will take care of it as soon as possible.

 

- Why am I required to input my email address to sign-up?

As part of the signup process, we need to send you a link for you to click. This verifies you are not a spammer, that someone is not trying to sign you up against your wishes, etc. It is basic security for you and for ONGMAP. We will not use that email address to contact you (unless you contact us) or provide information about you to third parties. On request by you, we will erase your record from our database immediately.

 

- I can’t do anything because the “loading…” message doesn’t disappear

Please reload (page refresh) to restart the program, and also please let us know how it happened at our BBS.

開発日誌