ArcGIS Online via Google Search - Myth Busted!

Recently someone told me that items shared on ArcGIS Online could not be discovered via a Google search - but exactly the opposite is true. Anything shared publicly in ArcGIS Online is searchable using popular search engines like Google and Bing, though depending on how results are ranked your match mileage may vary.

For example, searching for usa tapestry segmentation will currently show the first ArcGIS Online matches at 4th and 5th in the search results:

The URL endpoint for shared ArcGIS Online items is actually from the arcgis.com website. The surefire way to search for publicly shared items is to use the site: keyword that Google search supports. Entering something like site: arcgis.com followed by a search string will search for that specific string at arcgis.com and return the publicly shared ArcGIS Online items that match:

Google search will typically only return a subset of what you can find directly via an ArcGIS.com search. Why? I'm not entirely sure. So for best results go directly to ArcGIS.com, but clearly the myth that public ArcGIS Online items can't be searched via Google is busted!

Kentucky's ArcGIS Online Map Portal

Kentucky's geospatial data clearinghouse, Kygeonet, is a great example of a geographic information mart, offering a wide variety of data and maps as downloads or online applications. Recently KyGovMaps published a new page on the the site, one that leverages ArcGIS Online as a platform for delivering maps and apps, including iPhone/iPad apps. Here's the KyGovMaps site:

The site leverages the ArcGIS.com map viewer - a free, hosted application that's built into ArcGIS.com - and it's used to enable anyone to view a variety of layers from farmer's markets to landuse. It also leverages some of the template applications from the map viewer's template gallery.

I recently posted on the ArcGIS Online blog about how organizations can leverage ArcGIS Online as a platform for their map publishing and viewing needs. There's a number of things in the works that will be announced at the 2011 Esri International User Conference that will really make a difference for organizations, and potentially change the landscape of how people use maps and publish geographic information.

ArcGIS Explorer Desktop Release History

A new version of ArcGIS Explorer desktop was released earlier this afternoon, marking the 12th public iteration of what is arguably the best and most popular GIS viewer on the planet (and free to boot!).

Explorer releases occur on an independent release schedule (different than ArcGIS Desktop and Server) and rather than go by versions Explorer is tagged by its build number. The goal here is to simply have everyone install the latest, and never mind the version. But the build number helps to differentiate between releases and the functionality delivered, and for those organizations that need to verify enterprise-wide installations it serves as a useful tag.

Every now and then I'm asked when the first release occurred, and I came across an old slide that I've updated to include the most recent releases (shown below).

You'll see that the very first release was at the tail end of 2006, with more frequent releases in the early going as the product rapidly evolved, then slowing down as Explorer matured.

For an overview of this latest release see the What's New in ArcGIS Explorer Desktop (build 1700) blog post.

Adding CSV Files To The ArcGIS.com Map Viewer (coming soon!)

Here's a sneak peek at something that we've been working on and will release very soon. It's the ability to drag and drop a CSV file onto your ArcGIS Online webmap.

This capability is already supported via one of the JavaScript sample applications (check it out) and will be part of the next round of updates to the webmap spec, meaning that it's supported in the ArcGIS.com map viewer and also ArcGIS Explorer Online. Your saved maps using CSV data can also be opened on your iPhone or iPad, and can be embedded in any website.

Here's our CSV file - it's a spreadsheet containing traffic cam locations with links to traffic cam snapshots that are updated every few minutes in Lincoln, Nebraska. Note that we've got the latitude and longitude for each cam, as well as the URL link to the latest cam snapshot.

To add the CSV file to the map, just drag and drop it:

The coordinates are automatically read from the CSV file, and instantly we have the locations on our map with the ability to click each of them to view other data from the CSV. This includes the link (the More info link shown in the pop-up) to the cam snapshot.

Configuring the pop-up window properties in the map viewer we can improve on the default. Below we've changed the symbols and also configured the pop-up window to display the current webcam snapshot directly in the pop-up.

And we can do everything else we can do with our map, including share it via a link,use it in an app template, or embed it in a website or blog post as shown below:

The above screenshots were made using the current development version of the map viewer, scheduled for public release prior to the upcoming Esri User Conference in early July. There's many other new features and capabilities which we'll cover on the ArcGIS Online blog and perhaps provide more previews of here.

Using ArcGIS Explorer Desktop for KML Spatial Query

Here's another sneak peek at some soon-to-be-released functionality that will be delivered with ArcGIS Explorer desktop, build 1700, due out in about a month.

Below we've added a KML showing NOAA Snotel gauging stations to Explorer. We also created a 20-mile buffer around the peak of Redtop Mountain, just north of Crater Lake. The buffered area (shown in orange) was used in a spatial query to select the NOAA Snotel gauging stations in the KML falling within the buffer distance.

The results of the query can be added to your map as notes, and saved as layer packages for use in ArcGIS Desktop. ArcGIS Explorer Desktop can already export any KML as a layer package, and can also convert any layer package to KML.

Testing New GPS Tools in ArcGIS Explorer Desktop

We've been working on a new release of ArcGIS Explorer Desktop (which will be labeled build 1700 - to be released sometime at the end of May) for a while now, and one of the new features that we'll be adding is direct GPS support. We don't often post about futures on the official Esri ArcGIS Explorer Desktop blog, and I had such a fun time this evening driving around and exercising this new capability, so I thought I'd share the results here, unofficially.

I took the long way home using a USB GPS receiver I borrowed from a colleague (only $18) and ArcGIS Explorer in disconnected mode on my laptop which I placed on the seat next to me. Once the GPS receiver was plugged in, I could begin receiving locations and could capture waypoints at the click of a button, or set Explorer to capture waypoints, tracks, or both at regular intervals automatically.

Below is the map in 2D, showing the waypoints and tracks collected along my drive. I set the collection to automatic, grabbing a location every 10 seconds. As I drove along I could view my current location as a blue dot, and could center the map as I moved.

Once captured, the GPS waypoints and tracks are stored as notes. The lat/long and elevation are automatically added to the note popup along with the date and time.

Below are my travels shown in 3D mode. The green flags are waypoints I collected via a click, and the yellow flags and tracks were collected automatically every 10 seconds.

I'm certain this will be a welcome new addition to ArcGIS Explorer.

Exploring Buildings Virtually (or Geodesign in Miniature)

I stumbled upon an application from FloorPlanOnline that targets the real estate market, but I think has potential applicability for many other domains. While doing some online house-hunting I came across a listing that included a great virtual real estate tour. The first thing that caught my eye was a map; actually a floor plan that showed the locations of photos taken at various places in the condo. I could click to see what things looked like from each location, and the icons changed color as I visited the photos; red was not viewed, green were those I had seen, and blue was the location of the current photo shown in the panel in the upper left.

I could also check how things looked when fully furnished by choosing objects from several menus with categories like bedroom, living room, kitchen, and also animals and garden objects. I could even drag and drop a golden lab in front of the fireplace (but somewhat disappointingly, could find no cats). Here was "GeoDesign" in miniature.

I've struggled to get similar floor plans and many other related kinds of maps into a GIS where I could manage objects that include links to photos, reports, and other media in a geodatabase. The struggle is that using a GIS all this works best if you georeference what you want to work with - a floor plan, a cave map, a site map for an archaeological dig - even if it makes no sense to do so, and your basemap is lower in resolution than the map you want to manage and (often by necessity) need to georeference.

I've evolved some workarounds to avoid the need to georeference maps of these types. But this is where I think GIS can take a lesson from CAD drawings - why can't we have a "paper space" projection that just treats scanned maps or vectorized diagrams in scaled page space, rather than UTM zone 12 or web mercator auxiliary sphere?

Most Popular Browser (subject to change)

Chrome has been my browser of choice for quite a while now, and a recent news item about the popularity of Firefox among Windows users still parked on Windows XP led me to an interesting link from netmarketshare.com which shows how things shake out today in terms of popularity.

As of today the current marketshare trend shows Internet Explorer decreasomg, Firefox holding steady, but Chrome coming on strong. We'll see how things shake out over time, but it seems I'm among a growing number of Chrome-o-philes.

The Most Popular Mobile Platform at the Esri DevSummit

Tom Brenneman, a colleague from Esri St. Louis, used a clever technique to judge the popularity of mobile platforms at the 2011 Esri DevSummit at the Palm Springs Convention Center today. He used an iPhone app that displays decibel levels, and had attendees cheer and applaud for the platform they were planning to use for mobile development. These were recorded during a session titled "Choosing a Mobile Deployment Platform."

Tom's website posted these snapshots independently but I thought it might be interesting to post them all at once in a column. You can judge for yourself which is the most popular mobile platform at this event.

Baseline level
(recording of maximum cheering and applause from the audience)

ArcGIS Mobile
(seems like it even trumped the baseline level)

iOS

Android

WinPhone

JavaScript

Flex

And the winner is... the developer who has so many great options!

My Feedly Succumbs to Paranoia

I like to stay tuned to a bunch of feeds, though I often forget to check them. After having tried a few ways to manage feeds over the last year I'm currently parked on Google Reader. That's certainly adequate for my needs, if not compelling.

Browsing through my Reader feeds I came across a suggestion to check out Feedly, and finally tonight I did. Visiting the Web site it seemed like it was getting rave reviews. Awesome!!!! said one. Brilliant!! said another. On the site I found some quotables from some notables:

I admit to listening to Leo Laporte when puttering in the garage on the occasional Sunday, already have the RWW on my Reader list, so those endorsements were on the plus side in my book. I wasn't quite so sure about the endorsement from Scoble since he seems enthusiastic over just about anything, and I usually raise an eyebrow on "really rocks" endorsements.

But the Big Hesitation came just as I was about to download Feedly. I saw sidebar with a note about what the app can do.

Clicking Learn more I learned more about the following:

Maybe it was the bank account part, or maybe it's the time of year (sounds like a song, almost), but that was the one caution that caused me to stick with Reader. I'm sure I've already crossed that line with other blind check-the-box-and-install apps I already use, but for some reason my paranoia threshold had been reached, and so Feedly remains the awesome (!!!!) app of choice for some folks, but not me (at least not tonight).

Did Real Estate Websites Really Trump Google?

I've been kicking the tires on the housing market for a while, and have been using Google maps to do so. Rather than visit real estate websites directly, I found it easier to turn on the real estate layer in Google maps and do my virtual home shopping from the comfort of my browser.

To heck with California, how
about a little Colorado Dreaming?

I loved this feature, and could let my imagination run wild with the possibilities. Search for an interesting place, pan, zoom, and dream a little. Let's see, a little bungalow in Aspen - ouch! Maybe a condo in Portland? Or how about some oceanfront property near Bellingham? It was easy and fun.

This evening I turned towards Google once again to check out a few things, but I could no longer find the the real estate layer in Google Maps - what happened? Well, as I soon discovered via a Google Lat Long blog post they've pulled the plug on it, saying:

In part due to low usage, the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites, and the infrastructure challenge posed by the impending retirement of the Google Base API (used by listing providers to submit listings), we’ve decided to discontinue the real estate feature within Google Maps on February 10, 2011.

Maybe it's the housing slump, or the API issue, or maybe there's something brewing behind the scenes. But I can hardly believe that real estate websites have trumped Google. Certainly the website my current realtor plugged me into doesn't even come close to its ease of virtual home browsing. I want my Google back!