BlurbBits

BlurbBits (an introduction)

2010-06-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Sharing your travel adventures can be a time consuming experience. Writing updates, journals, editing/organizing and selecting photos/videos, adding captions, mapping locations, tracking your travels and then formatting them all for a website, blog or email can sometimes become overwhelming. We've been Sailing for 5 years and have over 25,000 photos, 30,000 miles of GPS tracks, blogs, websites and videos, so we understand the need/importance of easy to use methods for sharing your travel adventures.

BlurbBits is a FREE set of utilities designed to help ease the entire process, while providing easy to share viewing/mapping options even while you are disconnected from the internet (95% of our Sailing Blog posts were emailed). We are trying to revolutionize self published Travel Blogs, Sailing Blogs, and Photo blogs by using existing best in class functionality (Blogger, Google Maps, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube etc).

Spend your time sharing the moments, not formatting them.

BlurbBit Examples

We've designed our geoblogging process around a simple (but performance optimized) BlurbBit that can be used to add a map of your location or a map and photos in a single step instead of adding photos/captions and maps one by one.

Mapping Options

Once we have the location you can extract your current location, track your travels, create a Blog Album, and build an interactive map, all views will be automatically updated as you continue to share your travels.

Extracted BlurbBit Examples

BlurbBits can be added to a website, blog post or sidebar and emailed or linked into existing sites and social networks to optimize your sharing options.

To see BlurbBits in action visit svbillabong.blogspot.com. To learn more check out BlurbBits basics, our getting started overview or if you are already familiar with Blogger, the geoblogging process, if you can send an email.. you can blog and map!! Update: the easiest way to get started with Blogger is to add the Dynamic GeoBlog gadget and add Lat/lng text to the Blog posts you want to map, we'll take care of the rest. Check out our utilties and other examples.

Sharing Your Travels (without Internet)

Most travelers don't have the luxury of constant or high speed internet access to manage a blog/website and photos. You enjoy the experience, take some photos/notes and then the work begins. If you use Blogger you may already know about the Mail-To-Blogger interface. We write 95% of our blogs this way. We use a lat/lng string to define our location and can even send a small (250x250) photo if the email utility supports attachments (this gives people an update, a location map and optional photo). We edit/tag and caption our Photos in Picasa remotely while traveling or at sea/anchor. When we get connected again, we upload our favorites to either Picasa or Flickr and add a BlurbBit (with map) to the remotely emailed blog posts (since developing BlurbBits we've starting adding more photos to our blogs). Since a BlurbBit is a single widget, it can also be easily added after the fact.. write first, then edit/caption/organize your photos and add them when you are ready OR you can highlight photos along with any thoughts/reflections you've had to create a new trip summary. All of the extracted views and maps will be automatically updated with new entries or changes.

If you use Picasa or Flickr, you know about free online photo sharing websites. They manage the disk space, backups & organization and allow users to search photos by albums, sets and/or tags. BlurbBits uses this data to extract a collection of photos that can be added directly to your blog or website (or emailed etc). If changes are made to the photos or more are added, they will automatically appear in your BlurbBit (on your webpage). Adding a location, adds a map along with the photos AND defines the blog posts location so we can map it all!!

If you have another website, a blog is an easy way to keep people updated on your most recent travels without falling behind. If you have your content scattered around the web it can be hard for your readers to find it all and follow your adventures. You can still keep your existing site, in fact you can combine all your sites together into an interactive navigation map that allows it ALL to be viewed on a persistent map along with your travel track (actual or estimated). We manage the map and flip through the pages on your blog/sites. You can even generate a Blog Album to add to your existing site.

If you are simply not into blogging you can keep a simple travel log that allows mapping from a text file (interactive version) you maintain on your computer (it must be uploaded to Google Spreadsheets to gain web access). If you don't know your exact location or zoom level leave it blank, it is the Mapr scratchpad format so you can load it and easily map/adjust your locations there.

We will constantly be adding new functionality and notes, so keep checking this blog.

Traveling Tips

We also run creative-cruising.com with lots of helpful Travel/Sailing tips about what works for us out here including Computers@Sea (backups, utilities, supplies AND using Google Earth without internet) and for you cruisers some Sailboat specific fishing tips!!

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Defining Blog Positions within the Text

2009-12-28T07:33:00.000-08:00

Benefits

Adding your location to a blog post makes it easy for other readers to discover the location you are describing. Other tools can extract this information and automatically build maps like on our sailing blog (both in-blog and interactive). Friends can see where you are and fellow cruisers will be able to use your blog as a personal cruising guide.

Blurbbits can extract a lat/lng position from the entry text or the first BlurbBit (with an llz position) and the first photo for each Blog entry . The text option is necessary when using email posting services which don't support html without rich text emails (not available through most remote email services).

Latitude and Longitude

The lat/lng text format is DD MM.MM[N|S] DDD MM.MM[E|W] (with no extra characters i.e. 36 17.63 N 30 08.98 E). The separator between lat/lng can be a space, comma or /.

example
Position: 36 17.63 N 30 08.98 E
Location: Finike, Turkey

adding the position: makes it easier to find blogs with position details via our Cruising Blogs Search

llz parameter

The llz= parameter can also be added as a string (llz=[-]DD.DDD,[-]DDD.DDD,Zoom i.e. llz=36.2938,30.1497,14) where - is used for South and West and zoom is optional but should be used if changing between remote locations (middle of ocean, zoom = 8) and street/anchorage maps (zoom=15). The zoom parameter is important if you want to highlight (or zoom in to) specific details.

example
Location: Finike, Turkey llz=36.2938,30.1497,14

Note: The lat/lng text MUST be on the same line with no Extra characters.

We have been extracting this data from text for a couple of years now and user error contributes to a LOT of inconsistencies and errors. Please double check your positions and text input (the llz= seems to be less error prone). If you are connected to the internet you can search and preview locations and zoom levels using the BlurbBits Mapr.

If you are describing an anchorage, a general description of the depth and holding including any important details about approach or shore facilities could help those following in your wake!!

Sharing options

Please consider sharing your favorite content on our community cruising blog and adding your blog to our Cruising Blogs Search engine.

Free Upgrade Options

When we first left we managed our own website and gradually migrated to blogs and online photo sharing utilities. Not only has this improved our ability to easily update our site (via email), but it provides online backup of our travel memories.

We use posterous and Blogger for blogs and Picasa and Flickr for photos (all are FREE) and provide additional sharing and mapping/viewing options via their RSS feeds. You can even update your facebook page (via your blog) from the middle of the Ocean.

In the end we combined all of our sites into a single interactive map that allows readers to navigate our online content via a persistent map. To see what others have done check out our examples.

Please Contact Us if you need help setting up your blog or mapping your existing content.

New Dynamic GeoBlog Functionality

2009-02-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

Update: The dynamic functionality is highly configurable for other options that allow javascript. Positions can be extracted from text and geo microformats. We easily configured it to provide maps for our Cruising Blogs Search.

We've been playing around with some new dynamic GeoBlog functionality to help further improve your blogs performance and flexibility.

BlurbBit links to dynamic popups

Now we can convert a BlurbBit link into a dynamic in blog popup. We search your blog page for BlurbBit links and dynamically change them into a popup version of the BlurbBit that opens on the same page.

Any Map (Our Current location View BlurbBit w/Location)
The "original" link - unmodified View BlurbBit w/Location
From the Galley Blog Album (View BlurbBit)
use Notes (sidemenu) for a blog post summary

This gives you the benefits of viewing BlurbBit maps, photos, and extracted data directly in your blog and it further increases performance because the BlurbBit is only loaded when the user clicks the link. Now you can easily add multiple maps/albums to help detail your blog (check out our Snaps360 photo blog for examples of how we show the map of our photos location). You can even add content to the sidebar without slowing down your page load (read gadget overload).

The same rules still apply.. the first BlurbBit will define the post's location. You can use either of the link publishing options, however make sure you don't use the (+Graphic) version before the first photo in the blog post. Don't worry we'll also add the (if it's missing) to help highlight it, you can even add them to the SideBar (check out our examples).

Expandable Post Summaries

Blogger has supported expandable post summaries for a while now. There are a couple of issues that prevented us from using them

It only hides the rest of the post.
The page still loads any photos, slideshows, and BlurbBits even though the user can't see them (using display:none). Try adding a "broken" BlurbBit (make it point to a non existing album..) you'll still see the time out after 30 seconds, hmm.. not faster!!
You'll get "Read more.." even if there isn't any more!!
The "Read More" link always appears and if you don't use the <span class="fullpost"></span> within the post, you don't really get more when you click it. Since we publish our blogs via plain text email (where html formatting is impossible) this made it unusable with our blogs.

Since we were doing all this other stuff, we figured we could clean up expandable posts as well. If we find a fullpost (with display:none) we remove it (from the DOM) so the slower portions won't delay the page loading and we clean up the Read more links if there really isn't any more to read.

We also search the fullpost text for BlurbBits and add a popup map of the location to the summary page so you can see "where's that?" without requiring the full BlurbBit. This allows readers to preview the summary text and location map prior to clicking on the Read More link. We suggest you put slower loading content within the fullpost span so it will appear only on the Full page (after the reader is focused onto the page).

Check out our Sailing Blog for an example .. Not only do you get a faster loading, easier to navigate title page (and search/archive pages), it also helps you (as the blog designer) figure out exactly what content people are reading (see below). If you have your comment block set to Embedded below post, your readers will have a place to add comments immediately. You can even set up reactions to appear only on the post page.

Go to Dynamic GeoBlogs to add the Gadget which automatically supports both. You must follow the expandable post summaries instructions to enable expandable posts.

It's Unobtrusive

We use unobtrusive javascript to accomplish the above fuctionality. We quickly parse the document and modify the links into a custom designed popup. If javascript is disabled the links will remain a standard link, AND the standard links will appear in the feed (where javascript isn't available). You can also add a note to the Read More link so people will realize they are on their own if it is disabled!!

If you are manually adding BlurbBit links make sure you add class="blurbbit bblink" into your link so we can find what we are looking for without having to search EVERY link on the page, and don't forget the width and height parameters!!

What did they really read?

If you use Google Analytics you know that it can help track which pages people visit on your site/blog. One of the problems with blogs is the title page content continually changes. If people JUST read your main page you'll never really know exactly what they were reading. By adding the Summary posts and Read More links you'll get a much better content overview breakdown. We've highlighted the title page below..

No Read More Links

Different Blog with Read More Links

Benefits

+ all the benefits of the base GeoBlogs
Automatic Mapping of remotely published posts
GeoBlog summary maps
Unobtrusive - easy to add gadget
Increased performance
Faster blog load times
Option to add any slow loading data onto the fullpost only
Add additional content to keep readers on your site
Links to remote pages make content harder to navigate/find
add photos, videos, extracted maps etc
Easier to browse/search/filter multiple posts
Post summary vs Full post
Improved traceability
Increased flexibility for both blog writers and their readers
Better fallback for non-javascript environments
RSS feeds and Mobile platforms

Go to Dynamic GeoBlogs to try it.. you can always remove the gadget.

No GeoBlogs Found

We've added a couple of configuration options .

After adding the Dynamic GeoBlogs find the gadget in the side bar and edit the HTML.

You can add default content (ie. if javascript is disabled) to the GeoBlogs on this Page space by adding a content or a correctly sized image into the geomap div:

<div id="geomap" style="width:220px;height:200px;background-gt; Add your content here</div>.

By default, this content will be replaced with a geoblog map even if no geoblogs are found. You can keep the content during empty geoblogs by defining it within a div of class "gbsempty"..
<div class="gbsempty"><img src="http://.../svbillabong-blogspot-routemap-sm.jpg"/></div>.

You can see this on our first blog post (we didn't add a location). We use a BlurbBit Screenshot of our route, it meets Google's attribution guidelines for sharing their map screenshots.

Advanced Configuration

The dynamic options are configured via this portion: blurbBits({oid:"geomap",..,pw:500,ph:300});

To disable GeoBlog summary maps: change geomap above to nomap, or remove the geomap div.
To disable BlurbBit link expansion add noexp:"noexp" to the options ie. blurbBits({oid:"geomap",..,pw:500,ph:300,noexp:"noexp"});
To disable search for maps add nomaps:"nomaps" to the options ie. blurbBits({oid:"geomap",..,pw:500,ph:300,nomaps:"nomaps"});

Testing Performance

This stopwatch utility is a good way to check/monitor load performance. Note: It does not take into account images that are loaded after initial page load (by slideshows/gadgets etc). Now that we are back in the states this doesn't seem to be an issue, but they dramatically effect page interaction on the slow connections we find while cruising (imagine sucking cottage cheese through a coffee stirrer .. a bad visual but you get the idea). On Firefox you'll see the images continually load, with Internet Explorer they leave you in the dark about what's happening (as usual).

Also make sure you follow the disable caching hints to see how first time users will view your site and/or content loaded for the first time (your content will almost always be in your cache because you built the pages).

Example Sites, Blogs, and Photos

2009-02-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

We've searched the web for data and examples of other lat/long geo-tagged sites. We wanted to show that nothing special is needed in order to map sites or photos.. in fact all of these sites had no idea we were even doing it (ie. it's not that hard). If you want to see how we use BlurbBits, check out our sites (the menu at the top of this page). If you would like your Blog or Photos removed from our examples please contact us.

The easiest way to get started is by adding the Dynamic GeoBlogs to your Blogger blog and then add the lat/lng text in the correct format to each post you want mapped. Remember it's easy to do it one by one but harder to go back and do them all!! We've also noticed that some Bloggers don't take advantage of Mail-To-Blogger posting option (see MoBlogging), 95% of our blogs were emailed from sea. Some of the posts are just simple status updates: with a location (and map), a quick blurb, and a small photo that helps describe our trip (see our Red Sea Blog Album or recent wanderings in the sidebar). All are easily extracted from our blogs with a defined category.

You can also map your Free Picasa Web Albums, and use Picasa to edit your photos while you are disconnected from the internet (see Remote Editing). We support other online photo options (including Flickr) and extract data from various sources (blogger, most georss/rss feeds, google spreadsheet, winlink). The interactive map views also includes Wikipedia and Panoramio photos, available under the Map Type/Options Pulldown menu.

Zac Sunderland

This was the first blog we started tracking during our development.. we've been tracking Zac since July 2008. You can follow Zacs trip through a Trip BlurbBit or through an Interactive Tracking map.

Update July 3rd: Zac is almost done with only 700 nM to go (after completing over 24,000 nM) that's more than 27,500 miles to you landlubbers!! All at a little over 5 mph. The best way to Track his trip is though the slightly custom TrackZac interactive map (it adds a days at sea and to go counter which is off by 500nM). I really wish I could get them to add the dynamic geoblog maps like on our Sailing blog. It's really helpful to see where we were in a certain year, month, or by label (ie. Indian Ocean). Add the automatic popup maps within the post help the reader answer "where is that?".

Roz Savage

Roz is rowing across the Pacific (after already crossing the Atlantic). She just started blogging on Blogspot (since Hawaii) but she does all the right stuff to make our geoblogs and post location extraction work.

Examples: The Trip Tracking BlurbBit or through an Interactive Tracking map. The Where's Roz (full) and Where's Roz (sidebar), isn't that exciting (because she's in the middle of no where) but it can easily be installed on a blog and it points to her latest post at the bottom (open the link in a new window and click i for details). I could do one like I'm Tracking Zac but I'll wait until someone asks for it.

Update 8/27: Roz is still struggling, now header for Tuvalu. I pull the location information directly from the Blog text so it is subject to Human error (or syntax changes). The last couple of posts had syntax issues that prevent correct extraction), I could fix the data externally but I can't update Roz's blog.

Update 8/01: You can see her latest struggles to cross the equator here (map of last 20 posts). She is torn between two Route Options, Tuvalu to the South or Kiribati to the north (the final leg will start next year from her destination). Up to now she has been rowing with the NE tradewinds mostly behind her , as she heads into the South Pacific the winds will turn East and then the SE tradewinds will fill in and move towards her bow pushing her off course instead of helping (Winds are shown as yellow lines on the map). One of our toughest sailing legs was the 1800 nM from Majuro to Fiji along a similar route.. We have a six foot keel and will keep moving when one of us sleeps (Roz doesn't).

Cruising World- Alvah Simon's Blogs

View a BlurbBit Summary Map or interactive Blog Map.

The flexibility of BlurbBits and our interactive BlurbsViewr maps allows us to map existing pages without changing anything on the original site. It's also a great way to tie together multiple sites (and data) if you decide to add a new blog to your site (and why wouldn't you?).

Virgin Global Row

Here's one for ya.. This guy is trying to row around Antarctica and I thought sailing was hard (at least we get to lay there AND move forward).

BlurbBit Blog Map or an Interactve Blog map. (extracted from GeoRSS).

17 days with ONLY 305 miles covered (18,000 nM is the predicted distance and it is expected to take 18-22 months). This will be one to follow.

Google just announced it yesterday (The rowboat and the cloud) and you can follow it on Google Earth.

You can also get the latest position and blog link through a Where? BlurbBit. You can install it on your own blog/website (click i for Info). Add &mi=in to initialize with the in View. You can also view a Blog Album and see the photos, location map and summary of the blog (some photos appear empty ??).

Sandpiper38

Sandpiper uses a modified version of Lat/Lng text so the map will be automatically updated when they add new posts ( View BlurbBit). Sandpiper uses the same technique we use on our blogs.. both quick status updates and full blog posts are combined in the same blog.

BlurbBit Blog Map or the Interactive Blog map

We did find some incorrectly defined lat/lngs that we've manually adjusted, hey when you can't check them how do you know!!

Sailing with Matsu

Matsu uses a Lat/Lng string to define their post location so the map will be automatically updated when they add new posts ( View BlurbBit).

BlurbBit Blog Map or the Interactive Blog map

They also use Picasa albums. Adding a location to each album would allow them to include the albums on their map, along with their blogs.

Yacht Doris

BlurbBit Blog/Albums Map or the Interactive Blog/Albums map including travel track.

Simon investigated sailing as a interest in 2007, bought a new boat in Feb 08 and took off in the Fall .. and sailed Single handed across the Atlantic. wow..

Simon already has a map on his blog but it doesn't change as you navigate the pages so we pay a performance penalty with no gain (a link would be better, BlurbBits dynamic geoblogs would be the best). He also uses Picasa albums to add photos to each post, sometimes the slide shows plays automatically and slows down the blog. We would recommend he changes his Lat/Lng format slightly (move N and W to the end of each section) so we can automatically map the posts. If he adds the location to the picasa albums we can automatically map those and I would switch the slideshows to BlurbBits and/or more them to the read more section with the new Dynamic GeoBlog functionality.

Ohana Kai

BlurbBit Blog Map or the Interactive Blog map

They actually have three sites including two blogs.. the two blogs are combined above. They only seem to use the blog to track their adventures while at sea (like we did originally) but their latest post shows where they finished their Atlantic Crossing. We've found it much easier to match our Picasa and Flickr photos to our blog content and have started to add more photos to our blog since using BlurbBits. A picture is worth a thousand words but sometimes it helps to have some blog text to back up the photos (like our snaps360 blog).

Dick and Libby Tarwathie

Dick and Libby use the same lat/lng format (for recent posts).. so we can automatically update the map based on their latest blog posts.

BlurbBit Blog/Album Map or the Interactive Blog/Album map

More BlurbBits: Recent Blog Posts, Picasa Albums (mapped)
A Picasa Album (from a mapped Picasa Web album)
Winlink Latest Position last 15 reports

We've been working with Dick on some timeout issues that sometimes occur (with slow connections and larger pages?). I would suggest using the new Dynamic geoblog features to highlight the locations since it requires much less bandwidth and no dependence on external feeds (like photos or tracking maps). I would also recommend adding BlurbBits as links (to get dynamic popups) and/or adding them to the fullpost section along with standard Picasa album links for those readers who want to go straight to the Larger size photos (and have a great internet connection). It's a great way to keep the performance optimized and provide in blog maps and photos.

Sunshine

Geotagged photos with optional track overview and last location.
Geotagged albums Click Open link to view photos in album.

Interactive maps

Blogs/Albums and Track
The blogs have D M S so the positions might be slightly off..
Geotagged Photos and Track
Most people don't take the time to geotag each photo (we do), but the resulting map is a good tracking method. The geotag becomes part of the file and can be re-used in all programs that read the data.

We would move the slideshow to a post and add a link (or even a popup BlurbBit). Wanna talk about small world.. I was checking out their Blog (testing this) and saw my buddies boat (it's the nice Tri), who just stopped by while driving it cross country!!

SV Rachel

BlurbBit Blog Map or the Interactive Blog map

In order to map their blog locations they just need to adjust the location of the N and W to conform to our format (DD MM.MMM [N|S] DDD MM.MMM [E|W]) hey we have to choose one. Even using this syntax we've found positions that don't map correctly in other blogs (extra characters, no spaces, multiple W etc). It may be easier to use the llz=dd.ddd,dd.ddd,zoom format.

They could also add our winlink blurbbit to the sidebar.

Winlink BlurbBit latest and recent positions

SV Mary Elizabeth

Picasa Photos albums with optional route summary.

BlurbBit Album Map or the Interactive Album map with route and additional track points.

Some suggestions.. I would remove the photos, the map and the slideshow from the sidebar, and move them to posts (with links) or popup BlurbBits. See gadget overload for more details/reasons. When testing performance make sure you clear your browsers cache before reloading (see Dynamic GeoBlogs), this will reload photos in your cache and give you a true sense of the loading speed people will experience the first time they visit (or see new data).

SoggyPaws

BlurbBit Blog/Albums Map or the Interactive Blog/Albums map

Soggy Paws maintains a couple of custom BlogSpot template blogs. The position format must be changed slightly (change - to space) to make the above maps automatic.

Wordpress

Wordpress doesn't allow javascript or iframes within WordPress but you can still map blogs if you put the correct lat/lng format.

Last Location or the BlurbBit Blog Map or the Interactive Blog map.

Wordpress does not support dynamic configurable feed lengths, so you'll only get the number of posts set by the user.

Mapped Picasa Albums..

Picasa allows you to map your photo albums, it's a good way to let people know where the photos were taken (without having to do them all). We like to geotagged all our albums and photos so they appear on maps no matter how we filter them.

Click the BlurbBit link below to get our Albums. Clicking on the Geo-Photos button (top left) will show the album locations. The selected albums location can be seen via the Location Map button (side menu). The album summary is available via Notes and the photos IN the album can be seen via the open link button. Since we load the content from Picasa, any changes and updates automatically appear in the Widget, it's the best way to add all you albums to the side bar.

SailBillabong (ie. Us) BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map with travel track enabled.

Each album (Red Sea Album w/Location) can also be added to a blog entry AND photos can be filtered by tags to match content or highlight your favorites. Tag a new favorite and it will automatically appear in your BlurbBit (and your Blog). Check out Using Online Photos for all of the available options including Flickr. Visit our Sailing Blog to see how we use BlurbBits for our Flickr Photos, or our Photo Blog to see how we add maps to highlight our standard photos. You can also generate a Blog Album which summarizes your blog photos and locations (click Note to read a Blog Summary).

Here's a collection of some albums we've found.

juliemays BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

cruzingmurphs BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

jaramanpotter BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

svenvy BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

svtaipan BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map

Ascension BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

svtweed geotagged photos of Andaman Ilands. BlurbBit Picasa Photos or the Interactive Picasa Photos map.

svsilverfin BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

svcrystalblues BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

kestertonm BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

largostar BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

travellerkelly BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

Martin.Schaerer BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

chmonkey BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

nancymeridian BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

hsalvenmoser BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

dylangv BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

scrivin BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

mhbscv BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

johng100 BlurbBit Picasa Album Map or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.

Balvenie Picasa:BlurbBit Picasa Albums or the Interactive Picasa Albums map.
Balvenie Blogs: BlurbBit Blog Map or the Interactive Blog map.

Setup Help

2009-02-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

Update: A New Blog should NOT be difficult to setup (for modern templates, screen sizes). We have been investigating Posterous and have created a community blog and a technology blog. Posterous is an dead-simple email based service that also allows auto posting to facebook, twitter and other services.. a key part to any successful blog.

Please Contact Us for the latest setup options and service, including social media and community integration.

We can help

For a $50 fee (via paypal.. fully refundable) you get..

Your own blog (if you don't already have one) with..

Custom Blog template

Automatic GeoBlogs Map and expandable posts
Custom Two sidebar layout
Optimized for both small (1024x768) & large (1680x1050) displays.
Most current templates are designed ONLY for small displays and leave too much blank space. With our template, the outer sidebar should be considered a "bonus", but is available for both display sizes (smaller requires scroll).
Subscribe To Links, Blog Archive, Labels and Latest Updates links
Menu bar with Default About Us and Our Link Pages
See Post Pages for Blogger instructions
Comments ~~and Reactions~~ setup on Full Post view

Additional Features

Configure default post template (for expandable post text and lat/lng formatting)
Setup/test Mobile Blogging option (Blog Send)
Optimize Comments (turn on comment moderation and Registered users)

If you want to try before you buy, contact us and we'll give you an email link to our sample blog (which is also an example of what you'll get).

Additional Options

We can also discuss custom options including combining your new blog with existing sites, custom maps and analytics, adsense or feedburner setup however it will be on a case by case quoted basis.

We can also map existing trip summary data (winlink, pangolin etc) or by a date, location basis, or add custom backgrounds and photos. We can even map existing GPS or chart data.

What we can't do..

If you look at this site (and our others at the top of this page) you'll realize we spend too much time helping others (at no charge). We cannot be a consulting service for Blogger questions/issues when there is plenty of help available online.

Whatever you read, blogging is not a get rich quick scheme, nor do we treat it that way. We offer our help and support freely, not as a money making venture. The sites above represent literally thousands of hours of our efforts, and to date we have made less than $500. This doesn't even cover our web hosting services, We hope you understand!!

If you do feel like contributing, please visit our travel store for some options.

Contact us for more details.

We are also available for consulting on various aspects of the cruising lifestyle. Getting yourself ready, boat/equipment preparation, route planning etc. We also have lot's of free tips at creative-cruising.com.

Blogger Blog Basics

2009-02-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

People transitioning from a website (or group email list) have asked.. What's a Blog? I know it seems crazy but yes some people are still wondering.

A blog is a collection of written text (called posts in Blogger) displayed in reverse-chronological order. When someone visits your Blog site they'll see the most recent entries on the main page but can also search through your archives. Take Blogger's Tour to get the full scoop or view their features list (remember it's all free).

How does it compare to a email?

What does your inbox look like? Full right.. The best thing about Blogger is you can email your Blog content and it will automatically post it and archive it for you. No more searching through email folders or trying to resend old emails to new friends you've just met or old friends who lost your latest update. With a blog they get the collection of your stories, highlights and BlurbBit maps all in one place.

Check our Sailing Blog.. 95% of those posts were made using only email!! If you're worried no one will read your blog, readers can subscribe to your blog via email and it will get sent automatically every time you add new content. You can handle your existing group email list and automatically email them (they'll never even know you're a blogger). Just think of it as a graphical email archiving system, with maps, photos, comments and feedback.

How does it compare to a WebSite?

One of the first things you'll notice is how easy it is to format. Just type and go.. all of the page navigation, searching, archiving and Web feeds are taken care of for you. You can also add tags to allow readers to filter posts based of location, your favorites or anything else you can think of and you can receive comments and reactions based on your content. With Blogger layout, javascript support, and the thousands of gadgets that are available, you can do almost anything you can think of. Look at BlurbBits, we enable you to map your blogs with dynamic popup maps AND interactive blog navigation maps all from a simple email.

A Blog Post

Each post has the main post content, and allows optional labels and Date/Time, but one of the most common transition complaints is there is that there is no central navigation structure like on a typical website. If enabled, each post is created as a post page. Once published this page URL does not change so you can easily link to it to create a menu bar like on the top of this page. We usually create a post for our main pages (like about us, contact us, our favorites, trip summary etc) and set the post date to an older date. We can then add a link to those to the sidebar (or menubar if you have one). The sidebar and title setup surrounding the post text remains the same for each blog post page.

Remember users can search by label, date (via the archives), post text, and view the latest updates (optional), so there are plenty of ways to navigate your blog. With our free interactive maps you can even navigate your posts on an interactive map. Check out our Blog. Click on a label to see all the blogs from a location, check out our latest updates to see what we've been changing/adding or search the blog archive. You can even search for text in the upper left hand corner (try billabong if your stuck). Use the interactive map links (under the title) to check out mapped versions (automatic if you add a location to each post). The All Sites interactive map combines our existing website with our latest blog posts automatically, so readers can navigate both sites seamlessly from a single map (blogs, journals, photo albums, videos etc).

Expandable

Imagine 1000's of people trying to help make your website better by adding new functionality, that's what happens with a flexible environment like Blogger. With feeds you can add your Blog content to existing websites and social networks.. automatically. You can focus on your content.. not your formatting.

If you know about our creative-cruising.com site or have met us in person, you know that we spend a lot of time researching and testing ideas/solutions before we recommend them to others. We've been blogging since June 05 and have developed free utilities and a process that make sharing your adventures and mapping your blogs easy. Check our Blogs on the top of this page.. it would be impossible to maintain them all as individual websites instead of blogs.

Getting Started

Sign up for your free Blogger Blog and add the Dynamic GeoBlog Gadget via the link above. You'll also need to setup email and other options to get the full functionality.

If you need help setting up the basic blog please contact us and we can set it all up for you (for a nominal fee).

Getting Started - BlurbBits Utilities Overview

2009-01-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

We've been adding a lot of new functionality and documentation so it's time to try to answer the question: What is the best way to get started with BlurbBits?

First make sure you've read our introduction or the BlurbBits Basics to get a high level understanding of our basic capabilities and concepts. It also helps to understand how to create a BlurbBit (url parameters, our interactive examples and publishing options). Remember our goal is to reuse as much information as possible, so check out our data extraction parameters before you start. We even document a complete geoblogging process but it helps if you understand the high level summary first..

BlurbBits - summary

BlurbBits are performance optimized map and photo sharing solutions for your blog or website. Standalone BlurbBits define a map and/or set of photos for a specific location or topic (the bits). Instead of adding photos one by one (a major hassle) and/or linking to a separate map or photo album, BlurbBits can be used to quickly add all the photos/map into a blog or website. Photos and maps are viewed directly within the BlurbBit on your page without forcing users to other sites or pages. Extract BlurbBits summarize data from various sources into overview maps and/or albums depending on the parameters.

Quick customized maps (standalone)
You can adjust markers, zoom levels, location, travel path, map type and initial view. These parameters are also used to customize extracted maps. Location maps (&llz) also define a blog post's location when added to an individual blog post.
Online photos (picasa or flickr)
Manages multiple photos from Albums or sets, with or without geotagged data from a user, group or other public data (does NOT define a blog post location). Changes made to the online photos will be seen when the BlurbBit is reloaded, automatically keeping your blog photos up to date.
Combined Maps and Photos
The parameters from the sections above can be combined into a single BlurbBit which shows photos and defines a blog post's location. This can be used to manage all the photos and map for your blog post in a single utility (ie. widget/gadget) while allowing us to map your blog posts.
Summarize Data
Create summary maps/photos from existing data using extraction options. Note: extracted data cannot be used to define a blog post's location, it must be defined using the LLZ map parameter (or via the mapr).
Publishing Options
BlurbBits can be added to your blog (post or sidebar), website or emailed and linked using our publishing options. Use the Embedded Options (and Blogger BlogThis) to add a BlurbBit into a blog or website. Links can also be used in sites/blogs that don't support javascript. Our Gadget overload post might help you understand our thoughts on post vs sidebar publishing.

Utilities & Tools

BlurbBit Interactive Examples (in this Blog)

The interactive examples of the various sections can be used to learn about a specific set of BlurbBit features. Click on the icon to see the BlurbBit. Text entered in the textbox will be passed as the BlubBits URL parameters. Most parameters can be combined with other section parameters.

Design Mode (within a BlurbBit)

A BlurbBit in design mode displays the publishing options for the i (info) menu button instead of the standard info/sharing options. The interactive examples and the BlurbBits Mapr automatically enable design mode. Url parameters can be manually appended to the BlurbBit Url and published using this mode.

Dynamic GeoBlog Maps

Blog Before Dynamic Maps

Blog After - with Popup Map Displayed

Dynamic Geoblog Maps are created on the fly based on a specific pages content. A popup map (within the page) is created for each geo-located post along with a dynamic GeoBlog summary map for the pages content. Update: we've added some new functionality which will enhance your blog's performance even further.

BlurbBits Mapr

The BlurbBits Mapr has two purposes; to create & position multiple standalone BlurbBits and extract & position existing data via RSS feeds or the scratchpad. Existing online content can be extracted using Url parameters and the interactive examples can be easily added to a location to map it (using the extras dialog box). Scratchpad data can be published to the web via Google Spreadsheets and extracted into BlurbBits (a quick summary) and the BlurbsViewr (interactive navigation map).

BlurbsViewr

The BlurbsViewr uses the Url parameters (photos and extracted) to display objects on an interactive map. The map stays persistant while pages are opened below, making it a perfect tool to navigate your geo-referenced data. Use the Scratchpad/Google Spreadsheet to define your own data or combine multiple sources.

GeoBlogging Process

All of the above functionality can be used as a complete geoblogging process that supports remote posting, post centered photos/maps, and interactive Blog map, Dynamics maps and mapping of historical data combined with other websites (for a Travel blog, geotagged photo blog, any geospacial data-- geoblog). With Blogger you have a lot of mapping options that are great for combining with existing sites. Best of all it's free.. try it today!!

Start by playing with the interactive examples to see what standalone BlurbBits you can add (they are the fastest way to improve your site and see what data you already have). Get a basic understanding of the Mapr and the geoblogging process before you go too crazy.

What data do you have?

Photos in Flickr or Picasa work best with albums/sets and can be filtered further using tags to match content or location. Captions will automatically be added if available and remember you don't have to add/edit EVERY photo, they can become just like gadget overload if you are not careful. The mapr is the easiest way to combine photos with a map (to define a post location). If you use Picasa Web Albums, map them in Picasa first and use the Mapr to build a BlurbBit map Album.

If you just want to build an interactive map of your website/blog use the Mapr ScratchPad, at some point you'll need to define each location. If you have existing data you can reuse it by supplying the correct extraction parameters to the Mapr. The scratchpad is just that, so make sure you save the data so you can reuse it later. Try mapping a couple of locations and working through the process before you do them all.

Create a Travel Log

You can easily map your travels by building an electronic travel log in a Notepad text file (like this). Use the BlurbBits Mapr to Load the Scratchpad data (cut & paste your text), If you don't know your location, leave it blank, you can find it using the Mapr Find a Location features. Adjust the positions and set your zoom levels to highlight the correct area (zoom=8 middle of the ocean zoom=12 or 15 for anchorages with good maps). You'll need to upload the file into a Google Spreadsheet in order to map it in the BlurbsViewr.

Later, if you want, you can add photos and links to other pages, like your online photos, your website, wikipedia, or combine it with your Blogs (like this). Creating a BlurbBits enabled blog is the most automatic way of tracking your travels but using the travel log is a great start and it sure beats entering position after position into dialog boxes.

Blogger GeoBlogging Process

2009-01-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

Blogs, photos and maps are a great way to share your experiences and map your geoblogs to track your travels. With Blogger and BlurbBits you have access to one of the most flexible and powerful geo-blogging environments available. You can easily add photos and/or maps while sitting at home, an internet cafe, the middle of the ocean (via Email) or directly from your Mobile phone.

The flexibility of BlurbBits combined with Blogger's various posting options and the information that is available through existing blogs and photos sometimes makes it difficult to understand exactly how use BlurbBits with your blog.

The obvious thing that is missing is the location for each blog post. The easiest way to add it is within the blog post text (36 17.63 N 30 08.98 E or llz=36.2938,30.1497,14 see Blogger extract) which gives us some viewing options for the resulting data.

If you do nothing else, we highly recommend that you add one of the above location types into your blog text (you'll thank us later).

Note: The Dynamic GeoBlog maps are necessary to view these maps within your blog post. Nothing is added directly to your blog post and readers following your blog (RSS Feeds) will only see the lat/lng string. BlurbBits can be used to visualize these location maps within your blog post and easily add/manage online photos for all your readers and followers. Update: we've enhanced the functionality and can convert BlurbBit links into dynamic popups (maps and photos). Add the gadget via the link above and start adding the lat/lng text format to the posts you want mapped, it's the easiest way to get started. We've also added support for post summaries which can be used to optimize your blogs performance and improves traceability.

Stand Alone BlurbBit Examples

It is important to understand that there are two parts; the standalone BlurbBit which allows a map or online photos (and both) to be added to a specific blog post/entry (or sidebar) and the extracted data which can then displayed in various utilities. Note: The goal of this post is to define a process and NOT the details/options of each utility which is used, detailed documentation is available though the additional links provided.

Extracted BlurbBit Examples

We will document a complete process that supports an interactive blog navigation map AND uses BlurbBits for photos and maps within the blog. We also provide options for mapping existing posts. Note: This process can be used for any geo-referenced data (news, travel blogs, photo blogs) where maps and/or photos help clarify a specific post topic or location.

Define a Post/Entry Location

First lets start by adding a location to an existing Blog post. A Blog location can be defined by a BlurbBits Map or by lat/lng text for Blogger's mobile options.

Basics: BlurbBits are created/customized via Url Parameters.

Map BlurbBit:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&mi=in

A map BlurbBit with initial view zoomed in.
Adjust the lat,lng,zoom parameter above if you feel comfortable (Map options)

Click theicon above to see the resulting BlurbBit. Click i (info) in the top BlurbBit menu to see the publishing options (see example results/options in a single blog post). You can also try adding the lat/lng string (make sure it is a different location so you'll it).

Add the BlurbBit to a Blog Post

Open a new Browser window, login to Blogger and create/edit a new post. Make sure the post editor is in Edit Html mode.

Go back to the BlurbBit info window and double click in the textbox under Embed in Website/Blog Entry (with feed) to highlight all the HTML code. Use a right mouse click (RMC)-Copy to copy the code, then switch to the Blogger editor window and RMC-Paste to paste it. Update: If you are using Dynamic GeoBlogs you can use the Add Text Link in Website/Blog option and we'll take care of the rest for you.

Notice that all the HTML code is contained within . Blog post text can be added before or after these BEGIN/END statements. If you want to change/delete the BlurbBit select all this HTML code and paste over it with the new HTML code or simply delete it.

Now publish your post and view your blog. The map you created should appear within your new post, if you have issues make sure you added the code in the Edit Html mode editor.

Extract a Map of Blog Entries:

That puts an quick map in your post but it also defines its location for other utilities. Before we go to far lets make sure we can extract the post location data. First find your BlogName or BlogId if you ftp publish your blog (parameters &blogger=BlogName:Number:Options)

BlogName is configurable portion of your Blogspot address
ex: use blurbbits for http://blurbbits.blogspot.com
BlogId is used to access the data for ftp published blogs
Create a new Post or Edit an existing post
you should see post-create.g?blogID=XXX or post-edit.g?blogID=xxx
ex: use the blogID value (XXX)

Note: by default we only extract the last 10 entries, use the :Number parameter to extract more.

Blog Map:

&blogger=svbillabong&width=220&height=200

A Blogger map for svbillabong.blogspot.com

&bloggerid=13526182&width=220&height=200

The same map accessed via BlogId

Adjust the example above to your BlogName (or BlogId) and click theicon to see the resulting BlurbBit map which is extracted from your blog. If a map does not appear check the Blogger extraction options and make sure your RSS feed and Blogger parameters are setup correctly.

A single blog post on a map is a little boring so lets find some more locations to add to another posts. Note: At this point you've done the basics, which allows you to map your blog posts and re-extract them into the other utilties (the blogger=xxx parameters can also be added to the BlurbsViewr and BlurbBits Mapr). The following are options which help you find your location, easily add photos and explain other utilties and viewing ideas. We'll also give you some options for your historical blogs and new post published via Mobile Options.

Finding a Location

Open the BlurbBits Mapr (new window). The map should center near your current location (it may use your internet service providers location or start at 0,0).

Basics: The BlurbBits setup map is designed around a right mouse click (RMC) context menu.

You can either:

Drag the map around to find an exact location
Enter your location in the Find a Location text box and click Go.
Enter your Lat/Lng in the Center Lat,Lng,Z: text box and click Move.

Adjust the zoom level with the slider on the left hand side of the map. The Center Lat,Lng,Z: textbox value is the &llz parameter we use to map a location.

For now highlight the Center value and use the RMC-Copy to copy it. Select 36.2938,30.1497,14 (or your value) in the Map BlurbBit example above and use RMC-Paste to replace the value.
Click theicon to see the new map. Repeat the Add to an existing post steps above with another blog post.

Reload the Map of Blog Entries and notice the new location on the Blog map. All utilities which use extracted data will be automatically updated with the latest available data when they are used or reloaded.

There are various ways to find the lat/lng of a location/address, but only you know the details and zoom level you want to highlight with your map. The easiest way to find a location and adjust/prototype a BlurbBits location is through the BlurbBits Mapr. You can even save all the results to the scratchpad so you can easily modify or combine the data later.

Adding Online Photos

After Selection

Blogs and maps are great but a picture is worth a 1000 words. Adding photos can be a real pain especially if you add more than one or you try to add them into previous posts (like those published remotely).

w/Photos Before

BlurbBits are designed to quickly add multiple photos to a blog post from online photo sharing sites and has advantages over traditional methods (including embedded slideshows). Online photos can be selected by a user, albums/sets, and/or a filtered by tags to match your blog post/entry content.

&picasa=SailBillabong:Sailing2007

A Picasa Album

&flickr=25998359@N07:set=72157607010384141

A Flickr Set (use &flickrgeo for geotagged photos)

If you want to add your own photos, read the documentation for picasa or flickr photos and choose your filtering parameters (or use ours for now). Enter them in textbox above.

Click theicon to view your BlurbBit with the extracted photos. If the photos contain geotags, a Geo-Photos summary map will also appear. This map is dynamically extracted from data on the photo sharing site and therefore cannot be used to define the Blog post location within Blogger (without making the process unusably slow). Note: you can use the mapr to extract the position of your geotagged photos to use as LLZ parameter for a post. Mapped Picasa Albums build complete map/photo BlurbBits.

Add a Post Location Map to the Photos

Define the post location by appending &llz=36.2939,30.1496,14&mi=in (or another location) to the photo parameter textbox above. Click the icon to view the BlurbBit and notice the map which now appears along with the photo viewing options. When a BlurbBit is embedded on another website, we show a single highlight photo and wait to load the photos and map until the user selects a viewing option.

Select the Photo Strip menu button and then select a highlight photo (using the thumbnails) which best summarizes the collection of photos or the blog post topic you'll be writing about or adding the photos to.

Click i (info) in the top BlurbBit menu and add the BlurbBit to a post (refer to the section above if needed).

Note: The location definition MUST be added to photos in order to map the blog post in extracted utilities. The easiest way to accomplish both is to use the BlurbBits Mapr (with markers) to define the location and copy/paste the photo parameters into the extras textbox. If you use Picasa albums you can easily generate Mapped Picasa Albums.

BlurbBit Add Gadget

If the location you added is new, you'll also see it on the Extract a Map of Blog Posts BlurbBit above. You can use the Blogger Add Gadget publishing option to add this map to your sidebar. Make sure you read Gadget Overload post to understand the tradeoffs/options.

BlurbBit BlogThis

Now if you are deathly afraid of the HTML post editor or just want a quick way to create a new post for your BlurbBit, click the Blogger BlogThis button under the publishing options.

A Blog Your Bit popup will appear. If you are NOT already logged into Blogger, click the Login to access your Blogger account (you only need to do this once). Choose your Blog (if you have more than one) and then change the title, write the post text and add labels etc by following the notes above each section. The BlurbBit will replace the [BLURBBIT] tag, so feel free to add text before and/or after. Click Publish Post, the un-formatted blog will appear below as a preview. Select the link to navigate to the actual blog post (or view Our Sample result .. cheater).

If you only create new posts and are always connected to the internet when you blog, the BlogThis option is simplest solution for creating new blog posts with any BlurbBit (including photos, maps etc). We didn't start by showing you this option because we want you to be able to add BlurbBits to your posts using the post editor for existing posts and those posted remotely via email.

Remote Blogging

Did you know you can post blogs via email (moblogging)? It's great for keeping people updated, even from the middle of the ocean, and you don't get more remote than that!!

Most remote emailing systems (uuplus, winlink, skyfile) only support plain text emails, so HTML formatting is not supported. After you set up your Blogger account for posting via email, you should test that it is working by sending a simple test text (and optional attached photo) to your Mail-To-Blogger address (add 42 15.0N 70 52.9W to the email text to map it). Some remote email systems add end of line characters to outgoing mail so make sure you test it from your actual remote system before heading out (or your formatting will be terrible). You can also remove the additional text which gets appended to the end by some email systems, put #end at the end of your post. With skyfile, adjusting the email editting window size changes the location of the end of line characters.

Overview

So now you know how to define a posts location, add photos, a map or both to an existing or new Blog post, extract a Blog map (into a BlurbBit), find a location to map, blog remotely AND add BlurbBits to the sidebar. We have two mapping options that highlight blog post location data which could effect how you choose to map your existing blog posts.

BlurbsViewr Interactive Maps

If you only want to create an interactive Blog map, append the Map of Blog Posts Blogger specific parameters to the BlurbsViewr (new window) (ie. ?blogger=svbillabong). You can change the number of posts shown and even filter post for a specific trip or area by adjusting the Blogger extraction parameters. A map icon will appear for each blog post with a defined location.

This is a great way to navigate your blog but some people don't like to use interactive maps (can you believe that?). Plus people who follow your blog through a RSS feed can't choose the sidebar Show Interactive Blog Map because the sidebar doesn't exist in the feed view.

Dynamic GeoBlog Maps

Dynamic GeoBlog maps are the most flexible way to show your post locations within Blogger. These maps are created on the fly based on the content of each page: A popup map is added to each post which contains a location, (including those posted via remote blogging emails) and a summary GeoBlogs on this Page map if GeoBlogs are found. These dynamic maps only work within Blogger, not the Blogger feeds.

Mapping Existing Blog Posts

The easiest way to map a Blog post is to extract the Blogger data into the BlurbBits Mapr by appending the Map of Blog Posts Blogger specific parameters to the Url BlurbBits Mapr (new window). If a post location is defined, a icon will appear next to the blog post title. Clicking on the list (or map marker) will center the map at the stored lat/lng location AND zoom of the post (if available). Posts with the icon have no defined location.

Use the mouse to highlight (don't click yet) an undefined blog post entry. If needed, use the preview window (to the right) to refresh your memory of the posts content.

Use the Finding a Location methods above and choose a zoom level you want to map. Make sure the LLZ (Lat,Long,Zoom) Locator is centered by clicking Move next to the Center Lat,Lng,Z: text box.

Now select the post in the sidebar list and then click on the LLZ icon to set the posts location/zoom. While you are dragging the unplaced post marker, you can place it anywhere by clicking on the map (the BlurbBit will always center at the post location/zoom).

Once you have defined a blog post, you can preview it's BlurbBit Map by clicking the Preview BlurbBit button (for blog posts we suggest you disable the Use Label: toggle). You can add photos or customize the map (markers, paths etc) by adding parameters to the Extras textbox. Note: The first preview of a Object defines (and stores) the BlurbBit definition (within the Mapr), so make sure you set the Update toggle to make subsequent changes and unset it again before changing to a new post!!

NOTE: The BlurbBits Mapr does not modify your existing blog data so you need to add a BlurbBit to each blog post. The easiest way to edit a specific post is to click on the link in the preview and then click the Edit Post icon at the bottom.

If you plan on using Dynamic GeoBlog Maps and you don't like using a full map for each post, you can use the BlurbBit Add text link in Website/Blog publishing option (for maps only) and you'll get a popup map.

Now What?

Decision time: What do you want to do about all your old blog posts?

Obviously you could continue to map posts, generate BlurbBits and add them to each post you want to map (you don't HAVE to map them all). In fact, that's the only way you'll get a map within a Blogger post and provide support for feeds. If you have a small number of existing posts this might be the easiest cleanest way. Everyone will have access to a post map (including new or catchup readers)!! While you are adding the BlurbBits to define the location, you can also add new photos you feel would enhance your existing posts. Mapped Picasa Albums can also be created quickly with the Mapr.

Just the interactive map please

If you have 100's of posts but no one is reading the older ones and you aren't changing/editing them any more, we have a solution. We'll use the Mapr ScratchPad to save your data and then load it into the web based Google Spreadsheets to re-extract it. We'll also combine the older data with the latest additions from your Blogger feed. Note: Saving the data takes a snapshot of the blog posts in its current state, so subsequent changes to those posts will NOT be seen.

You don't need to map every post just to see a trail of where you've been. You can also draw lines in the BlurbBits mapr and combine it with blog posts using Google Spreadsheets command options or scratchpad data (try drawing a quick line)!! You can also combine your blog with another website using the Scratchpad/spreadsheet method.

Saving the Scratchpad

Switch to your blogs Mapr window (from above) and select Text Tab Delimited in the ScratchPad Format pulldown. Then click the Save To Scratchpad button. Use the RMC-Select All in the scratchpad window to select and then RMC-Copy to copy all the text. Open a new text document with Notepad (or a simple text editor) and paste the text. Save the document.

Using Published Google SpreadSheet (GSS)

Now you have a snapshot of your newly mapped posts, but we know you don't want to have to edit this file every time you add a new blog post. We'll use Extract Commands and our Blogger parameters to combine the two.

Follow these instructions to import your saved scratchpad file and publish it. Here's the example file.

Combine with latest Blogger data

The second row contains the extbb+ and our Blogger parameters (&blogger=BlogName:Number:Options) blogger=svbillabong:50:published-min=2008-10-30T10:18:00Z. The :50 specifies Number, a maximum of 50 posts. The :published.. field sets the minimum date Option so only posts dated after the specific date/time will be included. In order to succeed, the published-min must be set to return at least one post entry, otherwise a Nothing Found error will be returned.

Select the first row by clicking the 1 in the furthest left hand column. Use the RMC-Insert 1 Below button to add a new row. Add extbb+ to the first column and the correct Blogger extraction parameters, maximum post and published-min parameters to the second column (as above). If you publish frequently use 100 instead of 50. Make sure the date/time is between the first two posts (I add an hour to the second posts time).

Select the third row and use RMC-Delete Row to delete the first blog posts data. You may want to add a new test post to make sure it gets added correctly. Note: The bottom of this file also contains Lines for each years sailing track (L) and all our Picasa Albums (A) for our starting location.

The Full Monty

What's the best way to manage a travel blogs new posts? Our process varies slightly depending on how/where we publish our posts.

Via Email: We add our lat/lng location to the top of the Mail-to-Blogger email and sometimes attach a small photo (250 px max). We organize and edit our photos in Picasa (remotely) and then upload them when we get internet access. Then we use the Mapr to extract our recent Blog posts (and their text lat/lng data) to create a BlurbBit with a map (the minimum) or a map and photos that we've filtered to match the post (we also check and tweak the map zoom level). We add these new BlurbBits back into each post we published remotely (since the last time we had internet). Sometimes we create a new trip summary post and add an entire album to it (with our current location), you could even add your travel path (we update our KML file from our GPS)!!

Connected to Internet: We use the Mapr (with no Url parameters) to find our location. If we have more than a couple of photos, we combine them with the location Map and add our BlurbBit to the post or use BlogThis for a new one. For posts with single photos we use the standard post editors add image button. If we know our location, I just tweak the BlurbBit Url parameters using the interactive examples as a guide (yes I still need a manual).

Note: since we use the Dynamic GeoBlog maps we use the Add text link in Website/Blog Publishing Option to add a map only BlurbBit (you'll get a popup). However, since we've started using BlurbBits we always add photos to our map (it's almost too easy).

Migrating Existing Gadgets

You don't need to adjust your existing post photos (unless you want to). Check out our post on Gadget Overload for some hints, along with ways you can keep people up to date with your changes as you integrate BlurbBits into your blog.

Combining with other sites

We started out our travels with only a website. Then we started blogging so we could email from remote locations, but still kept our website going. Now we do much more in Blogger because it's so easy. We still update our site and manually map new page links (via the mapr scratchpad). The minimum data required is the TYPE,LLZ,LABEL,URL. DATE is necessary if you'll be sorting the results and DESC provides the preview text. Check out the scratchpad and the column details for more information. Make sure the columns match your Blogger ScratchPad data and copy/paste the new rows and add them to the top of your published Google Spreadsheet. Here's our combined file.

If you are using Blogger to track your travels (and why wouldn't you?), don't forget to add a "where" or tracking (or both) BlurbBit to your non-blog site. Use Map of Blog Posts parameters and/or add extracted map views (&mv=where&mi=in) to create a BlurbBit which shows your latest location and blog post (example).

Adjusting/Copying an Existing Blogger BlurbBit

Note: we highly recommend using the scratchpad to save complicated BlurbBits data.

Blogger currently changes the HTML code it publishes (ie. & becomes & amp;) which makes it hard to get back to the original BlurbBit URL. If the BlurbBit is simple just replace it with a new one, but if it is complex or you simply want to add or adjust parameters (and don't feel comfortable editing the raw HTML), use this Design Mode technique.

Edit the post/gadget HTML code and find the first blurbbits.html? within the begin-end of the BlurbBit. Add design=true& after the ?, this enables design mode. Publish the post (or save the gadget) and click the info button. Use the Paste link for email or IM path to get the original URL, adjust as needed.

Note: This Design mode adjustment can also be used if you want to allow users to be able to add your BlurbBit to their site.

If you use the Mapr, you can also save BlurbBit source data to the scratch pad which makes it easy to adjust travel paths etc later. You could also copy the iframe src= string (for embeded) or anchor href= string (for links) to a text editor, replace & amp; with &.

Blogger Mapping Options

2009-01-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

1/17/2010 Update: Blogger's Geotagging method is still only available in draft mode after over a year. It has been broken a couple of times and there is still no Blogger supported method for geotagging posts via email.

Note: This post was originally posted on BlogsMapr (our BlurbBits Blogger playground). We wanted to test/support the new Blogger-in-Draft geotagging editor and answer some questions about why you'd want to geotagged posts (can you believe they asked?). We continue to use BlurbBits in our Sailing Blog (via standard Blogger) because it supports remote blogging, has more configurability AND you can specify a locations zoom level on a post by post basis. We have a documented migration path for when the editor becomes more mainstream (and by then we'll be sure to have a utility).

Now What?

You've defined post locations via Blogger-in-Draft, our position text input (for Mail-to-blogger) or by adding stand alone BlurbBits to your posts (to add routes and photos etc).. So now what?

Well we've been GeoBlogging for 3.5 years, using Blogger to track our 5 year 30,000 mile sailing trip, so we've got some ideas and some tools. Here are some cool things you can do with BlurbBits and related utilities.

Blogger Popup maps and a Dynamic GeoBlog Summary map
Each post with a defined location will have a popup map within your Blog. In addition, a GeoBlogs on this Page summary map is dynamically created based on the posts on each page. If posts are filtered by searching, labels or selecting an archive month or year, the map will automatically change to show only the relevant geoblog posts. It's a great way to visualize blogs locations for a year or specific area (via label).

Open our Sailing Blog (standard Blogger) or BlurbBits Playground (Blogger-in-draft) and notice the View map links. They were automatically added via our gadget.

Click on the link to display a quick Google Static Map of the location directly within Blogger (no new page to open). An additional click, in the map, will display the zoomed out view. Try selecting a Blog Archive month and watch the Geo-Blogs map change.
Navigate your blog via an interactive map

Not only do you get to see your blog locations on an interactive map, we also extract a summary of each post and the first photo for a preview. We maintain the map and open your blog pages directly in the window below (select from the list on the top right or click the [more] link in the preview). The map stays persistent allowing the user to smoothly navigate your geoblog posts.

On the Add Page Element page click Edit Content and adjust YOURBLOG to the correct location (ie. YOURBLOG.blogspot.com .. blogsmapr for this Blog). If you use FTP posted blogs change blogger=YOURBLOG to bloggerid=BLOGID (blogID=XXX in the post editor URL). Click here for more BlurbsViewr details and options.
Extract a map for selected Blog posts to embed or email. Maps can be customized based on the desired number of posts and/or filtered by categories/labels. Click the i Info button to select various publishing options. The BlurbBits in the sidebar were extracted from other blogs. Learn how to adjust the widget size for sidebar vs post installs.
Create a "Where Blog map" to embed or email showing the latest geoblog location with a link to the latest post. Same as above using &mv=where and &mi=in.
Create a GeoBlog photo album. This method extracts the first photo (so make it good) and the post location to create a photo album for the blog. Posts which are geotagged will appear with a Location map button. A short blog summary can be previewed by selecting the notes button. Add &bp=1 to the extract a map example.

Photos stored online with Picasa or Flickr can be displayed in the same album BlurbBit format, examples are scattered throughout all our blogs.

Check out our BlurbBits basics section for more details. Most of our sailing blogs were created using Mail-to-Blogger and updated once we got to port and an internet connection.

To see all of our online Sailing content including our Webpage journals and photos, Youtube videos, Blogger posts and KML GPS tracks click here. This data was entered in the BlurbsBits Mapr scratchpad which can be uploaded to the web via Google Spreadsheets.

Blogger Gadget Overload

2009-01-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

You may have seen this banner after you've published a Blogger blog. When you click on the link you literally get thousands of gadgets that are available to add to your Blog sidebar. I've seen plenty of blogs slowed down with too many sidebar gadgets; remember it says choose from thousands, not add them all.

What's the Problem?

The sidebar gets loaded for each and every blog post/page that is viewed. This is fine for some gadgets that change dynamically or load quickly, but for others it just slows down your page load times. Maps and Photos are the perfect example. Once a user has seen the map or looked at the photos they are done. They don't need to see them over and over again, yet they will continue to pay the performance hit EVERY time they visit ANY post/page on your site. Also, the sidebar gadgets are only available within the Blogger environment and are not viewable to followers and those who use your Blogger RSS feed (blog posts are). You wouldn't put a blog post in the sidebar, so why do people put too many gadgets in the sidebar? .. because gadgets make it easy!!

BlurbBits can easily be added to either the side bar or the blog post, just think of them as gadgets that can be published in posts!!

Performance Matters

Even if you are "just" a simple blogger, you have entered the world of website design and the constant balance between performance and visual content. Surveys suggest that if your page doesn't load in 8 seconds, you'll lose up to a 1/3 of your visitors.. but photos, maps and gadgets all enhance the attractiveness of the site, so it's a fine balance. Some bloggers add as many gadgets, photos, and wizbang features they can think of, hoping to increase the chance that something will catch someones eye, but instead end up losing viewers who aren't willing to wait.

If you have a "global" blog you also need to think about users who use older/slower computers with slow internet connections. We frequently get bogged down and frustrated with slow pages during our round the world sailing trip.

Add a Post

Our solution for complex/slow loading or one time use features is to add them to a separate blog post. The slow loading code gets loaded once, and only after the user has chosen to view it. We've also tried to make it just as easy to add a BlurbBit to a blog post as it is to add a sidebar gadget (via publishing options). Update with the new additions to our Dynamic GeoBlog maps you can increase your performance even more by adding slower loading items in the expanded post section and/or adding BlurbBits as links (to posts or the sidebar).

Another reason people add a sidebar gadget is to highlight/feature specific content. You can still highlight posts using a link or HTML/JavaScript gadget which points to your post URLs. Make sure you get the correct URL by clicking on the Title of the post you want to link to (the format should be BLOGURL/YEAR/MONTH/title.html). We use the HTML/Javascript gadget because it is the most flexible. You can have simple links (like the getting started links on the top right) or image links (like svbillabong). See Blogger's guide to basic HTML or this page for more details.

BlurbBits-Sidebar vs Post

We've optimized the performance of BlurbBits for both sidebar and in post use. When BlurbBits are used with online photos the photos are not loaded until the user selects a photo viewing option (improving load times). Most embedded slideshows load the photos and degrade performance during the critical initial page display (including those with autoplay disabled) even if they are way down on the page or sidebar and are not even viewable to the reader.

We use Google static maps in our BlurbBit maps to enhance performance for both in post and sidebar maps. We don't force our slower loading interactive map on everyone, but instead allow users to chose it through our sidebar link gadget. And once we open our interactive map we keep it open (and persistent), changing your blog posts instead of rebuilding the map on every page (as a standard sidebar map does).

We also offer Dynamic GeoBlog maps which are perfect for the sidebar. The map changes automatically based on your blog pages content. Your latest location will appear highlighted on your blogs home page, while an archive or label selection will show your mapped locations for the selected period or label. We even add a popup map within Blogger to highlight a post location for those that were emailed remotely or end up hidden by partial post methods.

We are not suggesting you get rid of all your sidebar gadgets, just suggesting that you think about the usage model and decide whether or not to add a BlurbBit as a sidebar gadget or in a post (see publishing options). Here are a some good sidebar uses:

Picasa Albums SideBar
Since this BlurbBit opens each album (via Open Link) in a medium BlurbBit popup, the user can see photos for all your albums quickly. New albums or changes to existing albums will automatically be updated. An individual album can also be published to a sidebar BlurbBit but it is much nicer in a post size BlurbBit. See Online Photos for more details. Note: you can hide the top BlurbBit menu with the far right arrow button.
Travel Blog Tracking
The Blogger extract parameters can be used to a quick blog history map or another blogs Where map. The BlurbBits will be automatically updated when changes to the blogs are made.
Travel Route
Use the BlurbBits Mapr utility to quickly draw you travel route (planned or actual). Then load it into a route map sidebar gadget.
Extracted data
We can also extract data from various sources including winlink, Google Spreadsheets, GeoRSS feeds and moblog photo maps.

Keeping up with the changes

As you start adding BlurbBits to posts it can be hard to keep your readers informed of the changes. The good news is all of your new BlurbBit post will appear at the top of your page (and in your feed) so those are covered. If you add BlurbBits to older posts or change a post date (to make the travel track work) the blog order can get jumbled and it's hard for existing readers to keep track of your updates (but better than miss-dating a post).

When we add major new features to our blog sidebar (like interactive maps) we usually write a "news release" post just to keep people in the loop (and focus them). You can also use a Blogger feed to get a list of changes. Just like BlurbBits, your Blogger feed can be configured via Url Parameters (see Blogger example and Full parameter descriptions).

You can use the orderby=updated parameter to see the recent changes you've made to your blogs (by date is the default) but this will show ANY updates you've made including small typo fixes etc. You can also search for blogs with a certain labels using the category=label parameter. If you label blogs with featupd (or anything else) you can combine the two parameters to get a feed for your featured updates. Then you can label/unlabel posts based on those changes you wish to highlight. See our example for BlurbBits latest Blogger updates. You can add this as a feed as a link in your sidebar. We are already prototyping some enhanced functionality for BlurbBit links!!

Picasa - Remote Photo Editing

2008-12-23T04:51:00.000-08:00

We love traveling to remote places, taking lots of pictures and sharing our experiences through our Blogs. One of our main issues is the lack of internet access because most photo sharing sites force you to make collections and albums online.

Picasa is great because you can add captions and tags, edit and organize your photos into albums all without internet access. You can even Geotag your Picasa photos in Google Earth while it is offline. Then once you find an internet connection you can upload your photos to your Picasa Web Albums and easily turn them into BlurbBit Albums that you can add to your Blog Posts.

Picasa is really two tools, Picasa which lives on your local computer (and manipulates your local photos) and Picasa Web Albums which manages photos you choose to upload and share on the web (BlurbBits uses these). Note: BlurbBit references to Picasa relate to the shared web albums.

Upload via Direct Internet Connection

If we have a direct Internet connection we use Picasa Upload (from your computer).

Choose or Create an Album, Select the Image size. Since we usually only use the photos for our blog, we use the small size to save space and prevent printing of our photos.

Upload at Internet Cafe

If we don't have direct access, we use Picasa Export to save the selected photos to a new folder.

Then we copy the directory to a USB stick. Once you are at the internet Cafe, Log onto Web Albums and use the Upload button. Select or create a new album and add the files from your stick, it's a little slower this way but sometimes it beats lugging your computer to the Cafe.

If you use Flickr or another photo sharing site, use Picasa Export to save the selected photos to a new folder. Upload the photos from the new folder using your sites uploading instructions.

MoBlogging and Photo Maps

Picasa Web Albums supports email upload or you can use Blogger to upload your blog text and photos from a remote location. Check out the details here.

Photo Album and Map

Once an album is uploaded you can map the photo albums. This is much easier than geotagging ALL your individual photos (we support both). We also make it easy to build a BlurbBit (w/Map + Photos) using the BlurbBits Mapr. If you add the resulting BlurbBit to a blog post, we use it to determine the posts location. Once we have the posts location we can map that too, all that from a single mapped Picasa Album!! If you add/modify the photos or change captions/notes to photos in the album, all the changes will appear in the BlurbBit automatically.

Note: the same process can be used remotely with any non-web based photo editing tool that saves Exif data (like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) . Test a couple of photos (raw vs jpeg) to make sure you have complete data (captions and geotags) before going too crazy. We do need the photos online (Picasa or Flickr) to gain access to them. Picasa has good synchronization between your photos on the PC and the Web Albums.

MoBlogging - Blogger on the Go

2008-12-23T04:04:00.000-08:00

Update: We are also reviewing posterous for remote email blogging AND photo sharing. Posterous' focus is "dead simple" blogging via email. Blogger's email functionality is very limited and support/updates to the email method are non-existent.

Sometimes you want to blog but you can't access the internet directly (i.e you're in the middle of the ocean 1000 of miles from the nearest Internet Cafe).

Blogger has two methods to support moblogging which can be used to add text, a small photo, or both (hey I didn't make up the term).

Mail-To-Blogger
95% of our sailing blog posts were created this way and since BlurbBits also supports the extraction of Lat/Long from the post text, maps can be made from the middle of no where.. literally! We edit, organize and caption/tag our photos underway and then upload them into BlurbBit Photos Albums once we find internet. You can also use tags/labels to filter the photos to match your post content. Here's an example Picasa Album Post (made using a geotagged Picasa Album in the BlurbBits Mapr).
Blogger-Mobile
Send an MMS to go@blogger.com to create your mobile blog.

Geo MoBlog Photo Maps

Note: this section is mostly applicable to Blogger-Mobile users who take photos with a GPS enabled device and want to map their tracks through photos NOT blog post content.

If your photos are geotagged (either manually or via a geotagging enabled phone) you can easily create a photo based map of your travels. When images are uploaded to Blogger, an album is automatically created in Picasa Web Albums. Go there, find your Blogs Album and click on the link (notice the AuthKey in the URL you'll need that).

In the examples below, use the i (Info) button to view the embedding options. Use the Blogger AddGadget button to add to the sidebar and the BlogThis button to add to as a new post. Adjust the &width and &height to match your blog layout size and usage (sidebar vs post).

Interactive Examples:

&picasa=SailBillabong:IndianOceanPictures&pm=1&width=220&height=200&mark=smallred&smark=smallred

Our Indian Ocean Photos Mapped

&picasa=SailBillabong:IndianOceanPictures:start-index=10&pm=1&width=220&height=200&mark=smallred&smark=smallred

Skip the first 10 photos from our Photos Above.

&picasa=SailBillabong:IndianOceanPictures:start-index=10

Show the Album Photos to find the correct start-index.

&picasa=SailBillabong:Sailing2007&pm=1&mark=midredx&smark=smallred&width=220&height=200

The Sailing2007 map from SailBillabong (try Sailing2004, Sailing2005, Sailing2006). The X mark represents the end of the year location

&picasa=SailBillabong:BillabongAtSea:authkey=VtVRMtCavYI&pm=1&width=220&height=200&mark=smallorange

The BloggerAtSea Blog Album map. Unpublished Albums require AuthKey shown in Album Url

Picasa orders their feeds starting with the first photo taken, so you may need to adjust the start-index to focus on a certain portion of the trip. Leave off the &pm=1 and make sure you are starting with the correct photo. Once you have completed a trip you can copy a set of photos into a new Album which details the trip. Do not move or delete the photos, they will be removed from the Blog post.

I have already seen photo blogs dedicated only to geotagged photos for tracking purposes. The photos are usually horrible quality and the posts don't include text, which in my mind is pretty much a completely useless Blog. If you are only using photos to track your travels it makes more sense to use Picasas email upload.

Picasa Email Upload

Picasa also supports email upload of photos and you can place them into specific albums by using an existing album name as the email subject. If your mobile device supports geotagging you can easily get a map of just that album using the method above, use the album name to differentiate various trips. You can even highlight your favorite photos in a BlurbbBits photo album in a Blog post about your trip.

Interactive Travel Photo Maps

You can even use the same data to build an interactive map by using the same URL parameters with the BlurbsViewr.

Here's the BlurbsViewr map for our Indian Ocean Pictures (?picasa=SailBillabong:IndianOceanPictures).

If your photos are taken sequentially along your travel path you can add &tt=travel&mi=out to the URL to create a Travel Tracking Path with a calculated total distance - (select Trip Summary from the list in the upper right).

Extracting geotagged data

If you have a GPS Enabled phone or an automatic method for geotagging your photos, the location data you need is already hidden inside it. You can easily extract the Lat/Lng data using the BlurbBits Mapr and then use it to geotag your blog posts.

Here's the Indian Ocean Pictures. Click on sidebar list to navigate/zoom to a photo. The Center Lat,Lng,Z: field is the Lat/Lng and zoom of the photo location. Use the first two fields for the Lat/Lng in the Blogger-in-draft location editor to geotag the Blogger post (don't forget to remove the comma).

You can also use mapr to add a BlurbBit map of this location into your blog post. If you are using the non draft version of Blogger, this also allows the blog post to be mapped.

Migrating Lat/Lng to Blogger Geotags

2008-12-18T05:23:00.000-08:00

I have been following Blogger's announcement Blogger in Draft: New feature: Geotagging and noticed that some users are having a hard time finding their exact post locations. I have also seen various informal "geotagging" techniques used around various Blogger sites; Google Maps, Google Static maps, KML/KMZ files or text input and all geotagged photos contain the lat/lng data within the Exif data. All of these methods require knowledge of the exact Lat/Long for the marker (ie. post location). Since all of our Sailing Blogs are tagged with Lat/Lng, I thought I'd detail the migration path.

Blogger-in-Draft Location Editor

Enter a space separated Lat Lng pair into the search box of the Blogger-in-Draft location editor and click Search. This will zoom the map to the correct location but leave the Location link name blank. Zoom out (using the - button), the Location link name should now appear.

Adjusting the Location String

The Location string is determined via the reverse geocoder which will sometimes result in Unknown Location. You can adjust the Location name by clicking on the Location Link under the search box (next to Location:) and entering the desired Location text.

When I first tested direct lat/lng entry it didn't appear to work correctly (user error? Bug Fix?). Sometimes the result would shift back to the reverse geocoded result instead of the Lat/Lng in the search string.

Finding a Lat/Lng

There are lots of ways to get the Lat/Lng of a location/address including Wikipedia (good for tourist locations) or by extracting the data from geotagged photos (from a mobile device or automatic geotagging software).

Dynamic Blogger GeoBlog Maps

2008-12-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

Since Blogger-in-Draft announced geotagging support, we thought we would add some quick maps to highlight blog posts locations. This gadget locates the geotagged posts on each blog page and adds a link next to the new location footer or at the top of the post for other BlurbBit/text tagging methods. Update: now it does even more (expandable posts, popup maps/photos).

Clicking on the link will display a BlurbBits map directly on the page within Blogger (i.e. no new windows/tabs for your readers to get lost on). If geotagged posts are found, they are also added to a Geo-Blogs on this Page summary map. This map will dynamically change based on the page content and is very helpful for visualizing the locations of posts filtered via searches, labels or archives. Visit our Sailing Blog for a Blogger example (with zoom level definition) or check out our Map your Blogs playground for a Blogger-in-Draft example.

With geoblogs on this page summary map

Click to Add (Blogger post location version)

Click to Add (lat/lng text version)

Without geoblogs summary map(popups only)

Click to Add (Blogger post location version)

Click to Add (lat/lng text version)

This gadget is only supported with Blogger layout templates (the default), contact us to migrate your old or custom non-standard template blogs.

Interactive Maps (non-sidebar maps)

Check out the BlurbsViewr navigation map for a great way to navigate your blogs from a persistent interactive map. We even have specific Blogger mapping options to add an interactive map button (and more).

Adjusting your dynamic maps

Edit the HTML/Javascript Gadget

Use pw and ph options to adjust the width and height of the resulting map popup.
zooms is used to adjust the zoom levels for the resulting map (in and out).
Adjust the size of the Geo Blogs map via the "geomap" width and height style parameters.
We also use it's background-color to customize the popup.

Most other options are explained in the Customizing a BlurbBits map section. We will be expanding the documentation in the near future.

Refreshing your Browser

During the testing/modification of your blog posts and gadget it is necessary to refresh your browser to get the latest available data.

Refreshing your Browser in Firefox

Press the shift key on your keyboard and keep it held down.
Click reload on Firefox's graphical toolbar menu.
Keep your finger on the shift key until you see the page reload.

Refreshing your Browser in Internet Explorer

Press the shift key on your keyboard and keep it held down.
Select view from the Internet Explorer file menu and click refresh .
Keep your finger on the shift key until you see the page reload.

New Geotagged Blogger Posts

2008-12-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

We've been geo-blogging with Blogger ever since the second post of our Sailing blog back in June 2005. It is such a great way to track our travels and keep people up to date with not only what we are up to, but where we are. Most of our friends and family had no idea where Kiribati, Eritrea or the Maldives are, let alone the remote anchorages we love to visit.

Blogger has just announced support for geotagging which is currently available only through Blogger in draft. This feature allows users to specify a location for each blog post and outputs it as a GeoRSS feed. Check out the announcement for some known issues.

We have updated BlurbBits to support the Blogger GeoRSS output in addition to our existing text (for Mail-to-Blogger) and BlurbBit (including optional zoom and path) geotagging formats . This will allow users to view their geotagged posts in the BlurbsViewr (an enhanced blogmap) and/or extract various maps/views into stand alone BlurbBits.

To learn more about BlurbBits start here or check out our basic BlurbsViewr Blogview.

For Blogger viewing options with examples, check out our Blogger BlurbBits Playground.

We are VERY excited about the new native Blogger Geotagging support and will be looking for additional ways to enhance your geo-blogging Blogger experience.

Stay tuned for updates. Comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Interactive BlurbsViewr Maps

2008-11-19T20:38:00.000-08:00

Add a map to navigate your website or blog posts

Interactive maps have been around for ages but most people embed them directly into their page. This means that every time a user changes pages the map needs to be reloaded and built again.. and again.. and again!! If your map has a lot of data this can be painful and time consuming and the view changes during each reload losing the continuity you were trying to gain by adding the map in the first place. Maps can be made quicker by only having one location but then what's the point, why not use Static maps or a BlurbBit (two zooms + title) instead?

Now I'm sure you've also seen maps that allow you to navigate to other pages. They either stuff all the information in a tiny info window or open in another window or tab. To get to the actual page, you usually have to wait while the map adjusts the info window.. one click on the map icon, wait... , find the link in the info window and click it, find the tab.. uggh. I know because I used the exact solution for our sites.

The BlurbsViewr opens your pages directly in a window below the map, allowing us to maintain the map while your site changes your pages. Users can navigate the context of the map and your pages quickly while maintaining continuity of the complete "picture". They can also find additional content nearby whether it's your own content, like photos or videos near the blog, or through optional layers like Wikipedia and Panoramio photos. Here's an example that ties ALL of our our sailing sites together: our SailBillabong.com Journals, Photos, You Tube videos and our svbillabong.blogspot.com blog. The map will open with a preview of our latest post and position automatically extracted from our blog.

Use the drop down menu list (top right corner) to navigate the content or just browse the map (instructions under ?). If you want just a page preview first, disable the Quick Link Option (under Map Type/Extras). If our photos don't do a good enough job describing the area or you want to learn more, enable the Wikipedia and/or Panoramio layers.

So there you have it, a full interactive map to navigate all your geotagged web pages and content. Please let us know what you think!!

Note: This map data was hand entered from our SailBillabong site while the latest blogs are automatically extracted from the Blogger feed data and it's BlurbBits. We can automatically map GeoRSS feeds, geotagged photos, and blogs posts/Web pages tagged with BlurbBits (that also support feeds).

If you use Blogger check out the GeoBlog mapping options and our Travel Blog process.

Geotagging data

If you have a feed (without geotags), try extracting the data with the BlurbBits Mapr and drag the entries into position on the map (don't forget about zoom). Save the data to the Mapr ScratchPad (text tab format) and upload it (or copy paste using Ctrl-C Ctrl-V) into a Google Spreadsheet. Share the spreadsheet and load it into the BlurbsViewr and you've got yourself a pretty cool map. That is the fastest way to get your non geotagged blogs/pages onto the map. Then you can use the data to add go back and add BlurbBits with photos and/or maps where desired (without them nothing extra will appear in your post or feed.. ie no links, photos etc). You can even combine the two, handling historical blogs with a spreadsheet while adding BlurbBits to your new posts.. the best of both worlds.

If your site doesn't support RSS feeds you can easily build a spreadsheet that contains all the data (I said easy NOT quick). The basics are the URL for each entry, a Label and a Description and Type (required). Photos are optional but enhance the preview and the chance that users might click through to the page (you can add these later). Check out the ScratchPad format and options and this sample ScratchPad data.

Url Parameters for BlurbsViewr

All of the data extraction parameters and are supported by the Viewr (&bp=1 is redundant). Online Photos parameters can also be used if they have geotagged data.

Other supported parameters

&mtitle=map title (see Basic Setup)
&mt=map type (see Customizing your map)
&mv=where will zoom map to latest entry at initialization (if location is defined)
&tt=travel Turn on the Trip Tracker
&mi=in|out Defines the initial map view (latest entry or all points)
&zoom=zoom Default zoom value for locations without a zoom
&llz= (initial location) good for highlighting an area of your trip but not a specific point (no marker is added).
&qlno=true disable quicklinks on initialization. Shows a preview first however it is important when custom maps are generated that do not contain URL links to pages (just popups).

Cool Things To Try

2008-11-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

Here's some cool things to try with BlurbBits

This assumes you have a little understanding of how BlurbBits and the BlurbBits Mapr work.

Fun with Photos

One of the main reasons we go though the effort of selecting, organizing (tagging and captioning) and cataloging our photos (into albums or sets) is for our own enjoyment. There is nothing like an album of your favorite photos to stir up some memories to reflect on past adventures.

If you don't have a blogger account sign up for one. It's easy and you'll be Blogging in two minutes.

BLURB-THIS - a BlurbBit & Blog for a Picasa Album:

&picalbums=SailBillabong

Photo albums from SailBillabong (try your Username)

UserName is your Picasa login name
Login and check the path http://picasweb.google.com/UserName
ex: use SailBillabong for ...com/SailBillabong
Learn More

Open the Albums by clicking the Icon and make sure some albums are found for your account. You are also welcome to use ours as an example.

Now run the BlurbBits Mapr with the album URL parameters from above (replace the & with ?). ex: ..setup.html?picalbums=SailBillabong

This will load the Picasa albums in the sidebar and place those with a defined location on the map (ah the glory of data re-use). Click on an album and if it is not already placed, drag it onto the map and click to set the location (and current zoom). If you are using this album to define a Blogs location adjust it as needed. This is where it helps to use the LLZ to pin point the location/zoom and then drag the album to it. Adjust the zoom level if needed; find the zoom level you like and use RMC set Zoom. Adjust the Map or Photo Parameters as necessary (don't forget toggle to update). Try adding these for a start &mark=midredx&smark=tinyred (append to the end of the extras line) . Preview your BlurbBit, open the photostrip and select the photo you feel best summarizes the photos or thoughts. Make any adjustments and re-Preview. Once satisfied, select the i (info) button and click the BlogThis button.

A Blog Your Bit popup will appear. Click the Login button and login into your Blogger account (you only need to do this once). Choose your Blog (if you have more than one) and then write your post; add more details about the trip, add any reflections you may have had or just describe the album. The BlurbBit will replace the [BLURBBIT] tag, so feel free to add text before and/or after. Select Publish Post. The unformatted blog will appear below as a preview, select the link to navigate to the actual blog post (or view Our Sample result .. cheater).

Now that wasn't that bad, you've got a blog post describing your trip or photos, an entire albums worth of photos, complete with captions, geo-photo map, notes and a link to the Picasa photos online. If you have your photos tagged (or in sets via Flickr) you can easily filter them to a specific topic or location that you want to write about. Filter your Photos and write your Blog or write your blog and then find the photos that match your topic.. it's that simple.

Then slice and dice the results into different views...

Interactive Examples:

&blogger=blogsmapr

A Blogger map for blogsmapr.blogspot.com

&blogger=blogsmapr&bp=1

A Blog Album (blogs with photos only)

&blogger=blogsmapr&mv=where&mi=in

A BlurbBits "Where" Blog map with link to latest post and last known location.

And ..
An interactive Blog navagation map with similar viewing options (last location or full view).

When you are finished with the Album don't forget to unset the update toggle or you will overwrite the other albums on subsequent previews. In most cases the update toggle is a good way to set the default preferences for many objects. Picasa albums are the only objects that come pre-configured (so far).

If you want to add a path or route to your album, use the RMC to set the map to add line mode and use left mouse clicks to draw your line (use RMC to stop adding points). Then select the entire path description to the right of the Preview BlurbBit Button and copy it (CTRL-C or RMC copy). Select the album and paste the new path at the end on the Extras line. Don't forget to replace the ? with a & (we'll remind you). Make sure the Select Toggle is enabled and Preview your new addition. Double check your photo maps if you changed the zoom of your album location. If the line doesn't appear make sure the Select toggle in On!! (My Sample Route result).

Now you added a travel map and favorite, last or average position to all the photos, not a bad way to enhance your blog. It doesn't stop there, if you have more than just a blog, you can map ALL your webpages. Here is all of our SailBillabong journals, photo albums (the old way), videos and our blogs (automatically updated).

If you are using a public machine don't forget to logout of your Blogger account.

An interactive Trip Photo Album map

The good thing about maps is they give users a really good sense of your travel destinations. The bad thing is you need to define where you were in order to build them. If you already have geotagged photos they'll automatically appear on the Viewr map. If not ..the thought of geotagging 25,000 photos is mind boggling. The good news is you don't really need to geotag every photo to map them, just the albums or your own web pages that display the photos.

Picasa albums are really easy because you only need to set one location per album and we automatically convert the album into a BlurbBit with all the photos.

Run the BlurbsViewr with your Picasa Album
ex: .../blurbsviewr.html?picalbums=SailBillabong

Your albums will appear with the latest album highlighted. When you open the album (select from the list, click [more] or double click on the icon) the BlurbBit for album photos will open in the window below. Quick and easy way to navigate all you trip photos eh?

There's more.. if your albums represent a single trip (like ours) you can create a rough Travel Track with the date and location of the albums. Add &tt=travel&mi=out to the BlurbsViewr album parameters (or Try Ours).
ex: .../blurbsviewr.html?picalbums=SailBillabong&tt=travel&mi=out
You'll find out VERY quickly how accurate your dates and locations are. Highlighting the Trip Summary will display the approx distance Traveled.

If that's too much work to clean up, you can draw the lines in the BlurbBits mapr and save them to a Google Spreadsheet. See our Example with Drawn Tracks. These paths can also be used when creating a standalone BlurbBit of just the album to embed on your page.

The ultimate trip photos map.. all of our individual geotagged photos and our drawn lines or you can overlay them with our actual GPS tracks (from KML).

Remember if you don't use Picasa albums you can still use the ScratchPad to enter your data for each page and then use a GoogleSpread sheet to extract the data for the Viewr. You can even combine your photos and your blogs on the same map or heck do everything. Don't forget the best part, any changes or additions you make (to extracted data) will be updated on the map. As we add BlurbBits to our new Blog Posts they will automatically appear on the map, we don't have to do anything!! Yes!!

GeoTag and Educate with Wikipedia

We like to share more than just our photos,blogs and journals. If you've read our Blog you know we frequently refer to Wikipedia articles so that reader can learn more if they are interested. A nice quick introduction through our travels with some notes, to a full on encyclopedia at the ready.. the reader can choose!!

Wikipedia is a great free online encyclopedia FULL of information AND geotag data. Most geocoding services are focused around address etc but Wikipedia covers almost everything. I've found Suwarrow in the Cook Islands (no full time inhabitants) and Niuatoputapu in Tonga both rather remote by modern standards of travel. They even had Onotoa the first place we went that wasn't in our Lonely Planet.

Go to the Main Page and enter a search string in the left hand side. Find the article you are looking for and note the top right hand corner. If there is a globe with a link click the link to open the Geo Hack Page. Look for Coordinates (second line) and enter the decimal value into the BlurbBits Mapr Center Lat,Lng,Z: text box, and select Move. You can also enter the decimal value directly as an &llz= parameter (add a ,zoom value if desired).

This is a great place to search for more information and who knows, you might even learn something while you're there. Save the path so you can add a link to your blog/website. If you find an article that doesn't have a reference but you find one, consider adding it to Wikipedia.

The Ultimate Off Line GeoTagging Combo

We use Google Earth at Sea on Billabong (without Internet!!) to help in areas where charting is poor. It is amazing how good the imagery is, you can clearly see most reefs and in some cases you can even find the sandy patches where you want to set your hook. First you must visit the areas you are interested in while connected to the internet. Keep an eye on the Streaming indicator which appears just below and a little to the right of the Earth. When this indicator has reached 100% the imagery you're viewing is fully loaded and saved to your cache. Increase the cache size to get the most out of your data and you can even use the Touring Places feature to automatically store data based on a set of placemarks (ie. Markers) you setup.

As if that isn't cool enough, Picasa has a geotagging feature that works directly with Google Earth. You can even use your saved GPS tracks to import into Google earth to help find the date/time and position for your photos. There is even a program that does it automatically. The problem is most people either don't have a GPS or haven't saved their tracks, so the manual placement mode via Picasa/Google Earth is necessary. The good news is once you've done it, the data lives within the photo as metadata so tools like Picasa and BlurbBits have access to it.

If you have GPS tracks saved and want to get them into Google Earth check out GE GPS import (for the non free versions) or look into the ultimate GPS Utility (in and out of MaxSea, Google Earth etc) or a online translation program called GPS Visualizer. In most cases GPS data stretches the limits of the Static Map APIs 50 Point, however we are working on some potential solutions (Douglas-Peucker algorithm) but will certainly support it in our interactive maps (we've got 28,500 nM of GPS tracks.. We'll make something work).

Using Online Photos

2008-11-04T05:35:00.000-08:00

The whole basis behind BlurbBits is to use existing online data when at all possible, so the last thing we are going to do is ask you to upload photos. We use web based photo services to extract data that is available; the photo, a thumbnail, date and time, location, caption, labels/tags, notes and albums or sets you might have created. The more data you have, the more filtering options you'll have available for BlurbBits creation. Currently we support Picasa and Flickr photos as well as extraction of a "Photo Blog Album" based on the first image in your existing site feed (if available).

Note: if want to use photos and define a location for a blog post, make sure you define the post location. The easiest way is to use the Mapr to find/define the location/zoom of the post and use the Url parameters below to paste into the Mapr's extras textbox. The mapr can also be used to extract existing geotagged photo locations.

If you use use another Online Photo Sharing site, please let us know and we'll add it to our list. If you don't use an online service consider either Picasa or Flickr. Each has their advantages and we use both.

Picasa has an off-line version that allows editing and tagging, which is great to use for organizing your photos when there is no internet.. i.e. sitting in a remote anchorage. Their online Picasa Web albums allows us to import all the data into BlurbBits.
Flickr has a large online community with comments, groups, and favorites but no off-line organizing/editing.
We'll compare the two in more depth later.

Adding Photos from Picasa or Flickr

Once you enter design mode you should load the photo strip and choose a photo to "highlight" your BlurbBit. This photo will be added to the Embedded Object as a visual reference prior to loading the rest of the photos and provides the users viewing your feed with a photo and link to the BlurbBit.

Note: you'll be able to adjust the zoom properties of the individual geo-tagged photo maps with the Photo Zoom option (see below). I usually run with a &pz=4 but if you try our first photos, the Marquesas Islands only supports &pz=2, &pz=4 causes a empty background for the map.

Photos from Picasa

Picasa supports a mixture of geo-tagged photos and untagged photos in the same data feed. This is very helpful if you are going back to update some photos (but not all). In BlurbBits the geotagged photo will appear with a map button, the other won't.

Picasa User Photos: &picasa=UserName:Album:Options

UserName is your Picasa login name
Login and check the path http://picasweb.google.com/UserName
ex: use SailBillabong or sailbillabong for http://picasweb.google.com/SailBillabong
Album (optional)
Select an album and check the path http://picasaweb.google.com/UserName/Album
ex: use Sailing2005 for http://picasaweb.google.com/SailBillabong/Sailing2005
Usually just the spaces are removed but double check for special characters just to be sure
Options (quess what? they are optional)
If options are used without an album a blank space Must be used ex: username::tag
- Tags: use tag=tag1,tag2 to filter photos by tags
  tags can be shortcut by leaving off the tag= ex: user::tag1 is the same as user::tag=tag1
  ex: sailbillabong:sailing2007:orangutan or sailbillabong::chris
- Query: use q=query1,query2 to search the title, caption and tags
  ex: sailbillabong::q=chris,kt
- advanced feed parameters such as max-results and start-index can be used
  Default: the first 100 matching photos will be shown
  Picasa does not support feed ordering and the photos are chronological order (first is first). You can use the start-index parameter to "target" the last 100 photos you want to show off.
  If added to other parameters the & must be escaped to %26 or it will be processed as a BlurbBit argument (and skipped by Picasa)
  ex: sailbillabong::q=chris%26max-results=3
  broken ex: sailbillabong::q=chris&max-results=3 (will return all photos)

Interactive Examples:

&picasa=SailBillabong

The first 100 photos from SailBillabong (try your Username)

&picasa=SailBillabong:Sailing2007

The Sailing2007 album from SailBillabong (try Sailing2004,Sailing2005,Sailing2006)

&picasa=SailBillabong:sailing2007:orangutan

Photos matching the tag orangutan in the sailing2007 album

&picasa=sailbillabong::chris

Photos matching the tag chris in all albums

&picasa=sailbillabong::q=chris%26max-results=3

Get only 3 photos matching chris in all albums

&picasa=sailbillabong::start-index=101

The next set of photos

Picasa User Albums: &picalbums=Username

Albums are a great way to show off your photos. The user can browse your albums, their descriptions and maps (if geotagged). When open link is clicked, the selected album opens another BlurbBit containing its photos. It's very fast and easy way to allow access to all your public photos. If you map your album in Picasa first, you can use the BlurbBits Mapr to create a map and photo BlurbBit (example) which can be added to a Blog post to define its location and add the photos for the post (more details).

UserName is your Picasa login name
Same as User Photos (see above)

Interactive Example:

&picalbums=SailBillabong

The albums from SailBillabong (try your Username)

Picasa Public Photos: &picall=Options:Number

Options
Same as for user photo (see above)
max-results is used by :Number so it's redundant
Number: Number of Photos (optional default is 25)

Interactive Examples:

&picall=q=sailing

25 uploaded photos matching sailing

&picall=sailing,turkey:50

50 photos matching sailing and turkey

&picall=sailing,turkey%26start-index=50:50

the next 50 photos

Try your own queries and see what you photos you find!!
There are some strange tag to photo matches!!

Picasa Featured Photos: &picfeat=Options:Number (default 25)

Options
- all: use picfeat=all to get the first 25 photos
- start-index: use picfeat=start-index=25 to get the next 25
  This is currently broken and has been reported to Google.
Number: Number of Photos (optional default is 25)

Interactive Examples:

&picfeat=all

25 featured photos

&picfeat=all:50

50 featured photos

&picfeat=start-index=50:50

the next 50 featured

There are some very cool photos here. Click on the Open Link button to popup the photo in Picasa to check out more our the users photos and albums.

Available Picasa Photo Sizes:

When you upload photos, Picasa creates a large selection of photo sizes. Matching your BlurbBit size to the available photo sizes will optimize the performance. We will automatically scale down the photos to fit into the window, scaling up can cause photo distortion and is not worth the performance gain. The available sizes are:

72, 144, 160,200, 288, 320, 400, 512, 576, 640, 720,800
measured in pixels along the the longest edge.

Photos from Flickr

Flickr requires an upfront choice with respect to geotagged photos. If you specify geotagged photos you'll ONLY get those photos. Geotagged data does not appear in the normal feed, so it is impossible to combine a mixture of geo and non-geo tagged photos into the same BlurbBit and show a map for only those that are geotagged.

Update: you can also use idgetter to extract your User and Group ids.

Flickr User Photos: &flickr=UserId:Options or &flickrgeo=UserId:Options

Use &Flickr for all photos and &flickrgeo for only geotagged
UserId is your Flickr Id
Login, Select your photostream and find the Subscribe to xxx photostream (near the bottom) and click Latest.
You'll get a page URL like ..public.gne?id=25998359@N07&lang=...
The numbers and characters between the "=" and the "&" sign are your ID
ex: use 25998359@N07 for ..public.gne?id=25998359@N07&lang=...
Options:

Tags: use tag=tag1,tag2 to filter photos by tags
flickr tags cannot be shortcut
ex: tags=market,tomatoes for market and tomatoes
Sets : use set=setid to show a set
Use Flickr to navigate to Your Sets and select the desired set
You'll get a page URL like ....sailbillabong/sets/72157606804117190...
The numbers after set/ are your setid
ex: use set=72157606804117190 for ..sailbillabong/sets/72157606804117190

Interactive Examples:

&flickrgeo=25998359@N07

Our latest photos (switch to &flickr= and try your id)

&flickrgeo=25998359@N07:tags=market

latest geotagged with market

&flickrgeo=25998359@N07:tags=market,tomatoes

latest geotagged with market & tomatoes

&flickrgeo=25998359@N07:set=72157606804117190

A set from the market

flickrgeo= could be replaced with flickr= (but we might as well show off our geotags)

Flickr User Favorites: &flickrfavs=UserId

UserId is your Flickr Id
Same as for user photo (see above)

Interactive Examples:

&flickrfavs=25998359@N07

Our favorites, we haven't done much here yet just for testing

User Favorites does not support geotagged photos or tags.. but we're asking Flickr for it!!

Flickr User Friends: &flickrfriends=UserId:Options

UserId is your Flickr Id
Same as for user photo (see above)
Options:

all: use all to show all photos of your friends
The default is to show only one photo from each friend
or nothing (leave it blank for the default)

Interactive Examples:

&flickrfriends=25998359@N07

Our friends first photo (want to be our friend?)

&flickrfriends=25998359@N07:all

All our friends photos

User friends does not support geotagged photos or tags.. but we're asking Flickr for it!!

Flickr Groups: &flickrgrp=GroupId or &flickrggeo=GroupId

Use &flickrgrp for all group photos and &flickrggeo for only geotagged group photos
GroupId is the Flickr Group Id
Find a group, navigate to its Group Pool page and find the Subscribe to xxx group pool (near the bottom) and click Latest.
You'll get a page URL like ..._pool.gne?id=33122952@N00&lang=...
The numbers and characters between the "=" and the "&" sign are the GroupId
ex: use 33122952@N00 for ..._pool.gne?id=33122952@N00&lang=..

Interactive Examples:

&flickrggeo=33122952@N00

Outstanding Travel photos

&flickrggeo=41425956@N00

Travel Photography

&flickrggeo=11488522@N00

Visit the World

flickrggeo= could be replaced with flickrgrp= (but geotags answer where's that?)

There are some great groups that share some amazing photos, and BlurbBits is an easy way to view the GeoTagged photos. I guarantee you'll be asking "where is that?" more than once. You can easily get sucked in, there are almost 30,000 GROUPS with travel photos.

Start here and contact us with any good ones you find.
Click on the Open Link button to popup the photo in Flickr to check out more of the users photos and sets or use the info button to get more info on the photo and photographer.

Available Flickr Photo Sizes:

When you upload photos Flickr creates a select set of photo sizes. Matching your BlurbBit size to the available photo sizes will optimize the performance. We will automatically scale down the photos to fit into the window, scaling up can cause photo distortion and is not worth the performance gain. The available sizes are:

75,100,240,500,1024
measured in pixels along the the longest edge.
Note that the Medium size BlurbBit will actually use the 500 size photo

Advanced Photo Properties

The Photo Zoom and PhotoStrip properties can be used to refine the views and performance of the photo within the BlurbBit view.

Photo Zoom: &pz=Value

Value: the difference from the main map zoom levels. Default 0
The Photo Zoom can be used to adjust the zoom levels of the individual photo map (if geotagged) to show close up detail of the area if available or desired. By default the zooms are set to the same as the base map. Be sure to check the availability of high zoom levels, in remote location the higher zoom levels are not support by the underlying Google Static Maps.

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497&mi=in&flickrgeo=25998359@N07:set=72157606804117190

Individual photo map are the same zoom levels as the main map

&llz=36.2938,30.1497&pz=6&mi=in&flickrgeo=25998359@N07:set=72157606804117190

Same photos with PhotoZoom set to 6

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,12&pz=2&mi=in&flickrgeo=25998359@N07:set=72157606804117190

Main map zoomed in by 4 (via llz) + a small PhotoZoom (2)

Don't forget to check out the Overview photo map once the photos are loaded. It will be zoomed to fit all the photo locations on the map.

PhotoStrip Options

ThumbNail Size &ts=size

Size is the thumbnail size in pixels. Default is 50
Used to adjust the thumbnail size of the photo in the PhotoStrip

Interactive Examples:

&picalbums=SailBillabong

The albums with the default ThumbNail size

&picalbums=SailBillabong&ts=75

The same with larger thumbnails

Border Padding &pbw=Width and &pbh=Height

Width is the border (in pixels) applied to the width of the photo on both the left and right sides. The default is 10.
This width should be used to adjust the photo sizes into a very wide BlurbBit. If you have a 600x250 BlurbBit, by default we will load the photo size to fit the 600 pixel width (they may be wide panoramics). Pad the width to match or you'll be downloading huge photos to fit. By default the Photo height will be 190 (i.e. 250 -30 -30) so a &pbw=200 will give approximately the same size, however you may wish to adjust the padding based of the aspect ratio of the photo for the best fit.
Height is the border (in pixels) applied to the height of the photo on both the top and bottom. The default is 30.
Don't forget to take into account any ThumbNail size changes.

Interactive Examples:

&picalbums=SailBillabong

The default spacing

&picalbums=SailBillabong&pbw=50&pbh=50

Increased border

&picalbums=SailBillabong&width=600&height=250&pbw=200

A wide album optimized

Just a Photo Map : &pm=1

In this case only a map of photo locations will be extracted, good for embedding in Blog sidebars. Adjust the Width and height to match your application. You'll automatically get a map with the standard BlurbBits above after selecting the photo view type, but sometimes it is hard to display all the photos in a sidebar. This one automatically loads and updates without interaction.

We also sort the photos (by date, latest first) to make sure they appear in the correct order. Use the Picasa start-index parameter to begin with the correct photo.

Interactive Examples:

&picasa=SailBillabong&pm=1&width=220&height=200&mark=smallred&smark=smallred

A map of the first 100 photos from SailBillabong (try your Username)

&picasa=SailBillabong::start-index=100&pm=1&width=220&height=200&mark=smallred&smark=smallred

Skip the first 100 photos from SailBillabong Picasa, start mapping at 100.

&picasa=SailBillabong:Sailing2007&pm=1&mark=midredx&smark=smallred&width=220&height=200

The Sailing2007 map from SailBillabong (try Sailing2004, Sailing2005, Sailing2006). The X mark represents the end of the year location

&picasa=SailBillabong:BillabongAtSea:authkey=VtVRMtCavYI&pm=1&width=220&height=200&mark=smallorange

The BloggerAtSea Blog Album map. Unpublished Albums require AuthKey shown in Album Url

Customize a BlurbBits Map

2008-11-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

The BlurbBits Mapr utility is designed to create multiple location based BlurbBits using an interactive map. Use the Mapr Help or click on the ? button in the tool.

These option are only used to configure the Static maps used in the stand alone BlurbBits. The resulting data can be extracted to create the interactive map through the Viewr.

Don't add too many markers until you understand how zoom is used.

Map marker options: &mark=Marker and &smark=SmallMarker (BlurbBits only)

Marker: The marker name used to highlight the Main Location on the Main Map
SmallMarker: The marker name used for other locations and the Zoomed out view of the Main Location.
From Google Static Maps marker specification
marker names are formated like {size}{color}{alphanumeric-character}
-{size} (optional) is the size of marker from the set {tiny, mid, small}. If no size parameter is set, the marker will appear in its default (normal) size.
-{color} (optional) specifies a color from the set {black, brown, green, purple, yellow, blue, gray, orange, red, white}. Remember to choose a color that will stand out on the BlurbBit Map Type you are designing.
-{alphanumeric-character} (optional) specifies a single lowercase alphanumeric character from the set {a-z, 0-9}. Note that default and mid sized markers are the only markers capable of displaying an alphanumeric-character parameter. tiny and small markers are too small to show characters and therefore cannot be used.
Defaults Main Map &mark=midorangeb &smark=smallorange (for Blogger)
Others &mark=midredx &smark=smallred
Be sure to pick a mark that stands out on you map. We use x as in "x marks the spot".

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497

Default Markers

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&mark=midredx&smark=smallred

redx and red mark markers

No Map marker: &nom=true

Using &nom=true with a &llz statement defines the center location of the map and its zoom level but doesn't add a markerighlight the Main Location on the Main Map.
Useful when describing an area but not a specific location.

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&nom=true

Same map but hold the marker

BlurbBit Map Zooms: &zooms=in,out or &zoom=in and &ozoom=out

In the BlurbsViewer &zoom is used to defined the default zoom values for ALL objects.

in: The default zoomed in level (a higher #) default is 8
out: The default zoomed out level (a lower #) default is 2
See Location specification for example levels and notes
A llz position with a specified zoom level will always use it's level for the zoomed in view and subtract 6 for its default zoomed out view. Only the zoomed out view will be overridden.
Within the BlurbBits Mapper
A zoom level is always added to all markers, so only the zoomed out level is effected

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497&zooms=14,6

Forced to zoom levels 14 and 6

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,8&zooms=14,6

Uses zoom levels 8 (from llz) and 6 (from zooms). The default would be 8 and 2 (8-6)

Specify a location: &llz=lat,lng,z

Defines a specific Location and an optional Zoom level to create a map. It is also used to extract the entry location from an existing BlurbBit (from Blogger or feed). In the BlurbBits Mapr these are created via the add marker functionality. In the Viewr these are used to create the initial viewport.

lat: Latitude in decimal degrees (use negative values for South)
ex: enter 32.5 for 30 degrees 30 minutes N
ex: enter -32.5 for 30 degrees 30 minutes S
lng: Longitude in decimal degrees (use negative values for West)
ex: enter 178.5 for 178 degrees 30 minutes E
ex: enter -178.5 for 178.5 degrees 30 minutes W
5 decimal of precision gives a good level of accuracy but is usually only necessary on the interactive map or high zoom levels. More than 5 decimal places are rounded.
z: Optional zoom level (default is 8)
Map default can be overridden using the zoom parameters above

0 - The World
1 - Unknown location
5- Country
6 - Region
8 - Sub-region
11 - Town
13 - Post code
15 - Street
16 - Intersection
17 - Address

The BlurbBits Mapr can translate comma separated values of the Blogger Text format DD MM.MM[N|S],DDD MM.MM[E|W] by entering them in the LLZ or Center Lat,Lng,Z text fields and hitting enter.
Ex: Entering 32 30.0S,178 30.0W would move the map to -32.5,-178.5,8

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497

Position Map and use default zoom level

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,12

Position Map and use zoom level 12

Specify a route or path: &path=PathDefinition (BlurbBits only)

PathDefinition: See Google Static Maps path specification (change | to +)
Multiple paths can be specified (use another &path=)
No more than 50 points can be a used in all paths and markers.
Zoom is NOT allowed in the path points statement
When using the BlurbBits Mapr the path statement will replace (| to +) to facilitate ScratchPad storage in | mode. Both forms are valid in BlurbBits (Positive values MUST not be proceeded by a + sign).
This statement can be combined with an llz point to specify a location. The map will have two zoom levels in this mode. The path bounds will be considered the "out" view for the map. To get an overview location of the route (for detailed routes), set a lower zoom on an llz definition, add nom=true, and use &mi=out (the marker).
If you have existing KML/KMZ data, use the K: ScratchPad option to load the file and roughly trace your route (remember on 50 total points are allowed). If you have GPS data there are many utilities that convert GPS tracks to KML files.

It's much easier to draw the line with the BlurbBits Mapr

Interactive Examples:

&path=rgba:0xff0000ff,weight:2+25.1,-113.2+-2.1,-121.6+-14.6,-151+-16,173

Same points but drawn as a line across the south pacific

&llz=25.1,-113.2&path=rgba:0xff0000ff,weight:2+25.1,-113.2+-2.1,-121.6+-14.6,-151+-16,173

Adds a location definition to BlurbBit

Initial Map Zoom: &mi=in

mi: Use in to start with map zoomed in (default is out)
The BlurbBits Mapr automatically adds the &mi=in option by default it can be overridden by adding &mi=out to the extras.
If a path and a point are used in the same BlurbBit, the bounds of the path are used for the out zoom level.

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14

Default Map

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&mi=in

Zoomed in Map

BlurbBit Map Type: &mt=MapType

MapType: Change the style of the Map used
- mt=h for hybrid satellite with labels (the Default)
- mt=s for satellite
- mt=t for terrain
- mt=r for roadmap
- Not all maps support detailed maps (so check your results)

Within the Mapr
Changing the map with the Pulldown menu also sets the maptype .

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14

Default Map

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&mt=t

A Terrain version

Specify multiple locations: &llza=llz1+llz2+llz3 (BlurbBits only)

This is how data gets passed between our various utilities. These points are only used to display a BlurbBit and are not extracted as a Location in Blogger or other sources. Multiple individual locations should be used instead. However I'm sure someone will come up with a good use for it.

Points: a + separated list of llz (same as single location)
Markers use the smark value
Map will be scaled to show all markers
Does not support additional single llz or path statements
A Quick Way: Create a line in the BlurbBits Mapr, save it to the scratch pad and use LINEPTS parameter.

Interactive Examples:

&llza=25.1,-113.2,8+-2.1,-121.6+-14.6,-151+-16,173

Shows some points across the south pacific

BlurbBits Terms Of Use

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BlurbBits are free to use for non-commercial use.

BlurbBits use Google Maps and Google Static maps, users of BlurbBits are subject to the same terms of use as the API. In addition we ask that BlurbBits not be used for commercial purposes (contact us with questions).

Beta Version

This Version of BlurbBits, the BlurbBits Mapr, BlurbsViewr and other utilities is the initial public release. Although we have attempted to find/fix every bug, we only have a limited number of resources available while we focus on further development and will not be able to handle large support loads or hand holding.

In case you haven't noticed we spent a HUGE amount of time documenting features and making a flexible interactive example platform. Please use this!! We cannot tolerate overloading by users who don't take the time to read the available information.. It's there, if you feel something is truly missing please let us know.

The Future

Who knows!! We think BlurbBits is a cool idea and what you see is just in its infancy. However we still need to find away to pay for development and support. If you like it, please let us know and spread the word.

A pat on the back doesn't pay the bills but it helps..

Limitations

We rely heavily on Google Static Maps to provide the map images you see in the BlurbBits. It is a new API and we have been testing it to its limits (and beyond). We also use the Google Maps API for the Mapr and both are amazing, however we are subject to changes and bugs that may effect BlurbBits that are beyond our control. We are available for consulting to build your Custom Google Maps or BlurbBits Implementations. If you are looking for a simple non-javascript version of the maps you see here, check out the Static Map API for various options.

In the case of lines/paths there is a limit of 50 points for all lines. Multiple lines can be added as long as more than 50 points are not added. We are using Google Static Maps API to obtain the maps you see here.

Maps are also limited by the number of characters in the Url parameters that must be passed to the Google to obtain the Map Image. We've never had a problem but if you are running into the limit, save the BlurbBit to the ScratchPad and remove some extra digits in the path.

Extracting Data

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Most data extraction Url parameters will work for BlurbBits (to embed on your page) , the BlurbBits Mapr (to help build your BlurbBits/Maps), or the BlurbsViewr (to navigate your site). Online photo parameters can also be used.

Blogs

This is where your work pays off.. we can put your Blog entries on a map or create a Photo Blog Album. We will extract a lat/lng position from the entry text or the first BlurbBit (with an llz position) and the first photo for each Blog entry . The text option is necessary when using Blogger mobile via email, which doesn't support html without rich text emails (not available through most remote email services).

The lat/lng text format is DD MM.MM[N|S] DDD MM.MM[E|W] (with no extra characters i.e. 36 17.63 N 30 08.98 E). The separator between lat/lng can be a space, comma or /. The llz= parameter can also be added as a string (llz=[-]DD.DDD,[-]DDD.DDD,Zoom i.e. llz=36.2938,30.1497,14) where - is used for South and West and zoom is optional but should be used if changing between remote locations (middle of ocean, zoom = 8) and street/anchorage maps (zoom=15).

Note: The text MUST be on the same line with no Extra characters.

In order to extract both photos and positions from Blogger the Full Post Feed MUST be enabled. Go to Settings-Site Feed and make sure Allow Blog Feeds is set to Full (or Blog Post Feed in Advanced Mode).

Note: We will combine duplicate locations and if more than 50 unique entries are found, they will be averaged over the whole set. Text Blog entries should be updated when internet is available by adding either a BlurbBit link or an embedded version. You can define the maps zoom level and it allows other tools, utilities and your RSS feed readers to enjoy your location.

A Map of Blog Entries: &blogger=BlogName:Number:Options or bloggerid=BlogId:Number:Options

BlogName is configurable portion of your Blogspot addess
ex: use blurbbits for http://blurbbits.blogspot.com
BlogId is used to access the data for ftp published blogs
Create a new Post or Edit an existing post
you should see post-create.g?blogID=XXX or post-edit.g?blogID=xxx
ex: use the blogID value (XXX)
Number is the number of entries to extract. Default is 10
ex: svbillabong:20 would get last 20 entries and extract any positions found
Options (quess what? they are optional)
Confusion again: Blogger calls a feed query for labels.. categories
If options are used a number Must be specified ex: username:10:category=Pasta
- Category: use category=lab1,lab2 to filter by labels
  ex: fromthegalley:10:category=Recipes or fromthegalley:10:Recipes,Pasta
  Note: Labels are Case Sensitive and special characters must be escaped.
- OrderBy: use orderby=updated to get blogs organized by recent updates instead of blog entry date. Great for updating your old blogs and adding new photos and letting people know what you've been working on lately!!
- published-min: use published-min=dateTtime to set the minimum published date and time. Only posts that are published after this date will appear in the feed (not updated) . Use the RFC 3339 timestamp, ex: 2005-08-09T10:57:00-08:00.
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSTZ where TZ (timezone) can also be Z

Interactive Examples:

&blogger=svbillabong

A Blogger map for svbillabong.blogspot.com

&blogger=svbillabong&mv=where&mi=in

A Blogger "Where is Billabong?" map with link to latest Blog

&bloggerid=13526182

The same map accessed via BlogId

&blogger=svbillabong:50

The same map but 50 entries

&blogger=sandpiper38:100:category=Indian%20Ocean

Search for Indian Ocean + map locations. Try Indonesia, Mediterranean

Photo Blog Album: &bp=1

No we haven't gone off the deep end. This is a great way to navigate and preview your photo blogs and show the blog location(s) at the same time. If a photo is not found, the blog will not be added to the album. If a location is not available the individual blog map will not appear. Remember we currently use the first photo so make it a good one.

Adding &bp=1 to &blogger creates a Photo album of the blog. Any geo-tagged blogs will appear in the summary map and for with individual Blog entry photo.
Click the Notes button for a preview of each blog entry.
Click the open link button to open the selected blog in a new window

Interactive Examples:

&blogger=fromthegalley&bp=1

A Photo Blog album of FromTheGalley (Try your blogger account)

&blogger=svbillabong&bp=1

A Photo Blog album of svbillabong (the BlurbBits photos are used)

&blogger=fromthegalley:10:category=Recipes,Freezable&bp=1

A Photo Blog Album of from the galley with Freezable & Recipes

&blogger=yachtbalvenie:10&bp=1

A Photo Blog Album of yachtbalvenie

&blogger=yachtbalvenie:10:orderby=updated&bp=1

Yachtbalvenie with recent updates first (notice the photo order)

This format is specific to BlurbBits to define a photo view vs just a simple map view. Within the BlurbsViewr all data is supported (although only those with locations are mapped). Photos will appear in the map tooltip and will be converted to map icons once the tooltip is viewed.

Blogger Photo Size:

Blogger uses the same photo sizes as Picasa for photos that were uploaded to Picasa recently . The bp=1 option can be used with other feeds however photo scaling support is limited to Blogger, Picasa and Flickr (until we add more).

Winlink Quick maps: &winlink=Callsign:number

Do you use winlink to report your yacht's position? Add a quick map, up to your last fifteen position.

Callsign is your winlink callsign
number is optional and specifies the number of entries to extract. Max is 15.

Interactive Examples:

&winlink=KC0RMX

Map of last 15 locations of callsign

&winlink=KC0RMX:1&mv=where&zooms=13,5&mi=in

Where Map (described below) includes link to winlink interactive map for this callsign

Google spreadsheets: &gss=SpreadsheetId:Number

If you haven't used Google Docs yet, you have to check them out. We use Google Spreadsheets to gain web access to Mapr Scratchpad data.

SpreadsheetKey: The Key for your Published spreadsheet.
When you are editing a document you should see the following path http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pB293mcNyGGy8SmJCPOwDfQ
ex: use pB293mcNyGGy8SmJCPOwDfQ
number (optional) Specifies the number of entries to extract. The default is all rows.

Interactive Examples:

&gss=pB293mcNyGGyXtOwzu-R5Jg&mark=midredx&smark=smallred&mtitle=Our%20Latest%20Wanderings

Our Latest Wanderings (look familiar)

&mtitle=Uhuru%20Positions&gss=pB293mcNyGGy8SmJCPOwDfQ&mark=midredx&smark=smallred

A friends circumnavigation

GeoRSS Feeds: &gfeed=Path:Number

Path: The Url location of an rss feed.
Note: make sure all Path parameters are escaped (? = %3F and & = %26) or they will be processed incorrectly as BlurbBit/Utility parameters instead of feed parameters.
Number: Maximum number of entries (default is based on feed)
A fallback for general use
Feeds vary greatly in their content, format and details so it is almost impossible to design a general feed reader that will handle/format the data in which is optimal for a specific purpose. All of the feeds above started out from a basic GeoRSS feeds and where highly customized based on the desired result and available content.

We will attempt to extract positions and plot them. However this is an unsupported base format, ie. If it works great.. if it doesn't we're sorry.
We will be working hard to add more formats into BlurbBits. If there is something you would like to see please Contact us. We are also available for consulting or custom development.

Interactive Examples:

&gfeed=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/catalogs/eqs7day-M2.5.xml:50

Last 50 Earthquakes

&gfeed=http://maps.google.com/maps/ms%3Fhl=en%26ie=UTF8%26t=h%26source=embed%26msa=0%26output=georss%26msid=100073405698197242227.00046087dc764f3de70c9

A Google Map RSS feed (escaped). Try your MSID parameter. Use the pp=blog option to re-order the feed if needed.

&gfeed=http://mapnut.com%2Fcalstatepark.xml:50

The first 50 State Parks

&gfeed=http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/api/user/SailBillabong%3Fkind=album%26alt=rss

Our Raw Picasa Album Feed

Extracted Map Views: &mv=where

where: Map only the last location (i.e. Where are they?)
Used with extracted maps
Creates two zoom levels
If a link is specified it will appear in the bottom left of the map
We will be working on extracting other map views

Interactive Examples:

&blogger=svbillabong&mv=where&mi=in

A Blogger Where map with link to latest Blog

&gfeed=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/catalogs/eqs7day-M2.5.xml:50&mv=where&mi=in

The Last reported earthquake with link to the detailed page

&gss=pB293mcNyGGyXtOwzu-R5Jg:10&mv=where&zooms=14,8&mi=in&mark=midredx&smark=smallred&mtitle=Our%20Latest%20Wanderings

Where view from Latest wanderings

&mtitle=Uhuru%20Home&gss=pB293mcNyGGy8SmJCPOwDfQ&mark=midredx&smark=smallred

A circumnavigations end point (their start/finish point)

In the BlurbsViewr this will cause the map to zoom to the last entry location (if it has a position).

Using extracted data with BlurbBits Mapr

The extraction methods above (and the photos) also work as parameters to the BlurbBit Mapr. If a location is found it will be placed on the map, otherwise it will appear in the Mapr sidebar list as location unknown (a world with a ?). Clicking on a unplaced entry will add the marker to the map drag cursor which can be dragged into position and placed with a click. You can also find the location first using the Find a Location dialog box, click Go and adjust the maps zoom level to the desired level. Then drag the unplaced entry to the LLZ finder and click to assign its location.

NOTE: This does not and will not modify the source data. You will still need to add the BlurbBit into the original data source (Blog Post), or modify the source directly (photos) .. sorry but we can't do everything. For Picasa album option, the BlurbBit for each album is automatically extracted by default.

This method is also good for testing existing BlurbBits data. If the position doesn't show up in the Mapr when extracted, it wouldn't show up in the extracted BlurbBits.

In this mode the geoRSS feed can be used with NO position data and entries can be dragged onto the map. Save the data to the ScratchPad (text tab format) and upload it (or copy/paste using Ctrl-C Ctrl-V) into a Google Spreadsheet. Follow the extraction steps above and you've got a very quick site navigation map for your geo data using the BlurbsViewr.

Using extracted data with BlurbsViewr

Any of the above examples can be applied to the BlurbsViewr by appending the sample string to the path (don't forget to replace the & with a ?) ie. http://www.creative-cruising.com/blurbbits/blurbsviewr.html?blogger=svbillabong:100
Here's our Sv Billabong Blog in the BlurbsViewr.

Don't forget to increase your feed size if you want all the data mapped. Start with the BlurbBits Mapr to make sure you have some data before proceeding with the Viewr.

BlurbBits on Wordpress.com

2008-11-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm doing a little testing over on a BlurbBits Wordpress blog just to see what you can and can't do..

No Iframes so embedded BlurbBits are out, no javascript so there goes the auto generated BlurbBit popup maps.. I tried just cutting and pasting the Full embedded code just to see what would happen... The good news is the photo stays and the links all look good after they remove all of the Iframe for me (thanks)!! I also discovered that they also do something with absolute positioned elements, i.e. remove ALL style formating including the photo height and width (not nice)!! I have fixed the height and width issue, however a Wordpress.com user will need to remove the style attributes of the top BlurbBits div in order to get the tightest formating around the photo or you can just use the link options and add your own photos.

So here's what we can offer..

Interactive Examples:

&gfeed=http://blurbbits.wordpress.com/feed/atom/

A Blog map extracted for blurbbits.wordpress.com

&gfeed=http://blurbbits.wordpress.com/feed&bp=1

A Blog Album of blurbbits.wordpress.com

&gfeed=http://blurbbits.wordpress.com/feed&mv=where&mi=in

A Wordpress "where" map with link to latest Post
.. and an interactive Blog Navigation Map

No javascript or iframes is necessary on your site. We do the heavy lifting.

Check out our wordpress.com playground to see what we have done. We can add a selected photo and a link to the BlurbBits in the post but can't embed it or do any fancy Javascript GeoBlog Summaries and MORE!!

There are some issues to sort out prior to upgrading Wordpress.com to a defined status

Need some qualified testers who are willing to help test the functionality
Need to better understand the various photo uploading/blogging options.
The basic single upload is simple to extract various sizes (thumbnail, full size etc).
Understand the requirements/process for approval as short codes. This is where BlurbBits would shine.

Need to find anyone who might be interested (contact us if you are).

And I can't believe how unbelievably slow it is .. In fact I'm writing all this while waiting for a WordPress Publish. It took almost two minutes to go from editing one post to editing another (1:53). Granted I don't have the fastest machine in the world but to save this edit and edit another post takes..23 seconds.. wow what a difference. I actually had to give up.. any menu click goes through the secure socket layer and takes forever. By the time I got to my post I had already forgotten what I was going to write about. I can't even figure out how to shut it off.. I tried all the suggestions but nothing seems to work!! oh Well.. glad I'm blogging here.

Update I did login later and found I wasn't in secure mode (must have been cookies or something).. it was faster.. but still slower than blogger.

Create a BlurbBit

2008-11-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

BlurbBits can be used in a standalone mode to create a photo gallery, describe your travel route and/or detail a location. If you have a blog or feed based website, we can use the individual BlurbBits to extract an image and location into a summary Journal/Blog map or Photo Album AND the BlurbsViewr for an interactive navigation map of your site. If your blog doesn't support native geotagging, BlurbBits are really just a cool way of adding Map locations and zoom levels to each Blog Post or Web Page while giving you something for your efforts. See Extracting Data for more details of the data extraction process and options. Make sure you start with BlurbBits Basics if you haven't already.

Why do I have to enter a position?

Actually you don't. BlurbBits can easily be used without it, however a location adds a map and gives the end user a chance to see the area/areas you are describing. Since each location also includes a zoom level, you can configure all sorts of maps: one that shows the entire world to another that shows the details of your house, apartment or boat location. What about geocoding? Geocoding will get you a starting position, but only you the writer knows exactly where/what area you are taking about. Do you mean Boston proper or the area surrounding Boston?

llz=42.35892,-71.05781,9

llz=42.35892,-71.05781,15

With the BlurbBits Mapr it really doesn't take that long to pinpoint exactly what area you are talking about and then you can add photos etc. Note: The BlurbsViewr requires position data to place entries on the map.

BlurbBits allows you to put your article, blog entry or webpage "on the map" while managing your photos in one central utility.

Create a BlurbBit:

BlurbBits are configured via Url Parameters appended to the Url Path of our basic utilities and sent through a standard webpage HTTP request.

ex: http://..../blurbbits.html?blogger=svbillabong&mtitle=Sample

The query portion of the URI is used to define the key=value pairs. Each additional parameter is appended following an ampersand &, e.g.: ?key1=value1&key2=value2. The query string MUST begin with a ? (only one) or you will get "page cannot be found" errors. If there is a problem or missing portion of your BlurbBit, it is most likely in the parameter passing. These parameters can be added to the Location bar of your web browser or links you add to your page.

Interactive Examples:

The easiest way to get used to something new is to try it. The BlurbBits documentation will be organized as follows:

Feature Name: &Parameter=Options

Option: short description
More details etc

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,12&mi=in

Our Current Location (Try adding a title by add &mtitle=SVBillabong after in)
Clicking on the icon to the left of the text box will load the example into a BlurbBit in a popup window. If you expand the popup you'll see ../blurbbits.html?design=true&llz=36.2938,30.1497,12&mi=in in the Location Bar. We've automatically added the ?design=true but the rest is as entered above. The data gets passed to our WebSite so we can customize it especially for you, that's how the URL parameters work.

The example text is also available in an interactive text box that allows edits. Change the example and hit enter or click the icon and the changes will be loaded into the BlurbBit. If there are any issues you can always refer back to the original example above. The BlurbBit is in design mode so the publishing options will be available under the info (i) button. The &mtitle=Title option is used to title both the map and the webpage.

If you are anything like us, you'll skip the reference part and go straight to the examples, just make sure you understand any gotchas before you create too many BlurbBits.

Embedded BlurbBit in Blog Post

Interactive Example BlurbBit

Note: In certain cases the resulting interactive examples will appear slightly different in the popup than in an embedded version. In the embedded version you can designate a cover photo, which lives on the actual page it is embedded on and is not a part of the BlurbBit. As a result some of the interactive examples may appear "naked" since they are not embedded.

The examples all begin with the & sign for ease of entering into the BlurbBits Mapr. If you are entering these directly onto the URL path, make sure the first & is replaced with a question mark, i.e. http://www.creative-cruising.com/blurbbits.html?llz=36.2938,30.1497,12&mi=in.

Basic Setup & Publishing

BlurbBit title: &mtitle=Title

Title: used as the map caption AND page title.
Special characters must be escaped i.e. use %20 for space
within the BlurbBits Mapr
The Mapr handles escaping of special characters
Uses the user defined label as the title if use label is selected

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&mtitle=Our%20Current%20Location

Adds a title to our previous map

Width and Height: &width=Width and &height=Height

Width: Measured in Pixels ex: 400
Height: Measured in Pixels ex: 400
do not enter
If you are hand editing the results make sure you update ALL the references
These reference are passed to ensure correct reproduction in all the viewing options.

Interactive Examples:

&llz=36.2938,30.1497,14&width=220&height=200

A smaller version of our map (for Sidebar)

Design size considerations

The Design Size can effect photo load times dramatically. The default sizes were chosen to optimize the available photos, and the square shape supports both Horizontal and Vertical orientation. If only a map is used or the photos are in a single orientation, the width and height can be manually adjusted.

Publishing Options

If you are using the interactive examples, first make sure the width and height are correct for your application (sidebar vs post). &width=400&height=400 works for a Standard Post and &width=220&height=200 works for the Sidebar. These values can be added directly to the interactive examples box if you need to change the default sizes. Select the i (info) button for the publishing options (design mode must be enabled).

Blogger users have it easy..

Note: Jan 08. We are investigating a Blogger editor bug related specifically to Internet Explorer version 6.* while using the Compose editor with Iframes (like BlurbBits). We HIGHLY recommend you upgrade to a newer/safer/faster browser like Firefox. BlurbBits published via the Add Link publishing option will not break the compose editor and All BlurbBits will display correctly. The Edit Html editor reportedly works fine.

Choose the Blog This entry to add a new Post/Entry about your new BlurbBit. We even hide all the ugly HTML code for you, the [BLURBBIT] section is replaced with the actual code at publishing time.
Choose Add Gadget to add it as a gadget to the Blog (ie. Not a Post). By default the Gadget will appear in the sidebar. If you have configured the BlurbBit for a different location, drag the widget into place.
Note as of Nov 7, dragging was broken in the Add gadget window. Open the layout panel in a new window and drag it there.
To add a BlurbBit to an existing post, edit the post, select the Edit Html tab and paste the Embed in Website/Blog Entry (with feed) code into the desired location. If you are having a hard time finding where to place the code, use compose mode to MARK the code, ie. add XXXX. Then use the browsers search to find it in Html mode.

Other Options

For direct links, email or IM paste the URL link into your editor.
For sites that allow Iframes AND have a RSS feed (like Blogger), choose the Embed in Website/Blog Entry (with feed) option. This will handle both the post/web page and include a link (and optional photo) into the feed so others will have access to the BlurbBit.
For sites that allow Iframes but don't have an RSS feed use the Embed in Website/Blog sidebar option.
For sites that do not allow Iframes, choose one of the link options.

In the Blurbbits Mapr use the X button in the upper right corner to close the preview window.

Design Mode: &design=Mode

For all the interactive examples and the BlurbBits Mapr, the design mode is enabled.

This triggers a development mode that allows you to choose publishing options and set default sizes based on where the BlurbBit will be used. It can be used in a sidebar, footer or embedded into a blog post or website, you can even email or IM it.

Mode: one of the set {sm,med,lrg,sidebar,footer,true}
- sm: 250x250
- med: 400x400
- lrg: 500x500
- sidebar: 220x220
- footer: 600x200
- true: triggers the mode but doesn't define size
Allows access to publishing options and sets the BlurbBit size if not defined via &width and &height parameters
Within the BlurbBits Mapr
The Mapr handles the setup and allows a quick preview of various size options.
The examples are all configured with design mode enabled
Once a BlurbBit has been tested, it can be published via the options under the i info button.

Interactive Examples:

You'll be using design mode in all the interactive examples.

Now What?

Check out our getting started overview (BlurbBits and utilities).
Learn about the geoblogging process (step by step overview)
Learn how to create BlurbBits using an interactive map (the BlurbBits Mapr).
Learn how to use online Photos (i.e. Picasa or Flickr).

Picasa Album/Map Viewer

2008-10-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

BlurbBits is great for viewing geotagged Picasa albums because it is focused around the photos not the map. We use Google static maps to add an overview map of your geotagged photos and an individual photo map for each photo.

With a single click the users can quickly see a map of the album location. A zoomed out view is also available, so the user can always answer where was that?.

You can also add an additional map, this one shows our 5 year Sailing trip. Clicking on the route map will load a detailed view showing our current location. Selecting the photo strip menu button will load our albums, add a geo photos map overview button to the main menu, and display the photo options menu. This menu allows you to toggle on/off various album overlays including captions, albums notes, and/or the location map (if it has a geotag). Change albums by selecting the thumbnail or using the next/previous buttons. The photos IN each album can be viewed by clicking the open album button. A popup will appear showing the selected albums location and its photos can be loaded and navigated the same way as albums. Once photos are loaded, the geo-photos button will appear in the main menu along with a map link (in the sidebar) for each photo, both a detailed photo location and overview map are available.

Picasa albums and photos can be organized/filtered by album or tags or general strings (title, tag).

Learn more about how to create your own

BlurbBits Mapr Help

2008-10-31T08:38:00.001-07:00

The BlurbBit Mapr Utility has two uses:

Create & position multiple standalone BlurbBits
including photo albums or sets (using extra parameters)
Extract & position existing content (from RSS feeds or scratchpad)

Standalone Blurbbits

Each marker or line creates a single BlurbBit which can then be added to a Blog Post, Website or the sidebar (see publishing options). Once this data has been entered it can be extracted and combined together to be displayed in its entirety using BlurbBits or BlurbsViewr. Basically we add BlurbBits to define each posts location (sort of like dropping bread crumbs) and then extract/collect them later if needed.

Existing Content

The extraction options can also be used with BlurbBits Mapr by adding them as Url Parameters (append them to the Mapr Url path starting with ?). Resulting objects can be used to create standalone BlurbBits (described above) and/or saved to the scratchpad and uploaded to the web using Google Spreadsheets. Use can use existing content to quickly build an interactive map of existing content, map existing blog posts, map Picasa web albums or extract existing lat/lng data from geotagged photos. Note: the scratchpad method does NOT modify original source data.

Some Basic Mapr Concepts

The setup map is designed around a right mouse click (RMC) context menu. In most cases this causes a menu to appear with various options based on the object and its current state.

A RMC on the map will allow you to configure the maps click mode (action of the left mouse button), change the maps center and adjust the map based on the LLZ (Lat,Long,Zoom) Locator. By default the click mode is in Normal Mode. You can also use the Edit Selected menu to edit the selected marker or line which is helpful when markers overlap.

LLZ Locator
The LLZ (the blue box) is designed to be moved around to pinpoint a location and zoom level. Once the location is correct use RMC options to: add a new marker, add it to an existing line or center the map at its location. You can also move an existing marker to by using Marker RMC->Snap to LLZ. Note: You can alway re-center the LLZ at anytime by clicking the Move button next to the Center Lat,lng,Zoom field.

Marker

When the map is in Add Marker mode, a left mouse click will add the marker to the clicked location and store the maps current zoom level. A marker RMC menu has options to: edit properties, set zoom level, enable/disable drag (for positioning), snap to LLZ and delete object. Clicking on a marker at any time will re-center the map to its stored location and zoom level, the basis of the BlurbBit map. If the markers Drag Mode is enabled (default for new markers), the marker can be dragged to a new location with the left mouse.

Line

The line RMC menu has options to: edit properties, insert a point, disable edit mode and delete object. To add a line, first set the map to Add Line mode, then click the map to add points using a RMC to finish (or re-click the last point added). Editing a existing Line: A line can be re-shaped by moving the mouse over the line and dragging the segment end or mid point to a new position. A RMC on a segment end point will remove it from the line. Append points to the selected line by setting the map to Append to Line mode and clicking the map, a marker or the LLZ. The LLZ locator can be added to a selected line in any map mode (RMC->Add To Line).

Moving about the map

The map can be dragged with the left mouse or by using the pan controls on the top left. The map can be Zoomed by using the zoom scale on the left side, double clicking left mouse (zoom in), double click right mouse (zoom out), or by using the mouse scroll wheel (if it has one). Selecting a marker will center the map at its position and zoom level, while selecting a line will center the map to display it bounds.

Finding a Location

For all you landlubbers, enter the address, city and/or country you are trying to find in the location text box and click 'Go'. If the location cannot be found try refining the search string or starting at the Country, State or Region level. If found, the LLZ locator will move to the location and zoom level. Then you can modify the zoom, adjust the position and add it to a line or create a new marker. Please note that we all share this service and it is meant to only be used occasionally and certainly not for batch geo-coding. There are plenty of better and faster ways to batch geocode data (see batchgeocode.com/). See our examples on how to get lat/lng data from Wikipedia (good for tourist locations) or by extracting the data from geotagged photos (from a mobile device or automatic geotagging software).

If you are a sailor like us, you'll find lat/long values the easiest way to enter data. You can enter the comma separated lat,long (and optional zoom) values in either the Center Lat,Lng,Z text field or the LLZ text field.

Don't forget that markers also include a zoom value. Selecting a Marker on the map or in the select list will cause the map to center and zoom to the markers location and zoom level. An individual BlurbBit map will be centered at this view. You can use the Marker RMC Set Zoom to update the marker to the maps current zoom level (or enter it manually via the Edit Object - Zoom).

Designing a BlurbBit

Choose your Design Size, configure your extras and then click the Preview BlurbBit button. This will popup a preview of the BlurbBit in a design mode. Once you have checked the various features and map zoom levels, select the Info button for the installation options. Use the X button in the upper right corner to close the preview window.

Choosing a Design Size

Note: The Design Size can effect photo load times dramatically. The default sizes were chosen to optimize the available photos, and the square shape supports both Horizontal and Vertical orientation. If only a map is used or the photos are in a single orientation, the width and height can be manually adjusted.

Extras

Markers and lines are really just the start, and we only talk about them first because we're talking about the BlurbBits Mapr so we figured you wanted a map. In the BlurbBits Mapr, extras cover the things that aren't described by the basic line or marker object. Extras can be extracted and entered much easier than drawing a line or figuring out the zoom level of the Boston area you are interested in without a map.

Hey what are all those funny ? and & signs I'm seeing?

Make sure you start with Create a BlurbBit

Extras can be used to configure the marker size and color, add photos, and various viewing/configuration options. These can be entered directly as a property of an Object (via BlurbBits property RMC->Edit Properties or the Scratchpad) or quickly entered directly into the Extras box. If an object has no prior BlurbBits definition it will be stored when the object is previewed. The next time the object is selected and previewed, the saved version is shown (good for double checking or storing and retrieving via the ScratchPad). The Update option enables you to quickly prototype different BlurbBits and will update the stored value from the Extras box.

Once you feel comfortable with the available options you can easily configure BlurbBits in the browsers Url Location window (use the design mode to get installation options).

More Details on Extra Options

Preview your BlurbBit

The Show Map button determines if the BlurbBit should include a map. This should be disabled for certain extras that automatically extract a map. The Use Label button allows the map title to be set to the Blurbs label.

Preview the configured BlurbBit and make sure you check each view. Once satisfied, choose your Publishing Option from the BlurbBit's preview i (info) menu. If you are not seeing the changes make sure you have the Update toggle set.

Line Properties

Color Name or #Ref (default is red)
-Name: is one of the set {black, green, silver, lime, gray, olive, white, yellow, maroon, navy, red, blue, purple, teal, fuchsia, aqua}
-#RGB: six digit hex triplet for RGB #ffff00 is yellow, #000000 is black,#ffffff is white
Width Width
Width: Line width in Pixels (default is 2)
Opacity Num
Num: Opacity value within range 0-1 where 1 solid, 0 invisible (default is 1)

Adding Routes/Paths to Locations

For geotagging, the most important item a BlurbBit can have is a Location (via llz ie. a Marker) but lines are great for showing your route or plans. We just don't know what you want to show: the start point, the end point or the center with a zoom that shows the entire route. The easiest way to show both is to use the Marker as your "master" and use a second line to draw the path.

Select the line and copy the path= section of the text box that appears besides the Preview BlurbBit button. Select the Marker, add a & with the path section you just copied into the extras box. If you've already stored a BlurbBit for the Marker, make sure you preview the old version first (which copies the stored value to the extras buffer), then add your line and set the Update toggle.

Most geotagged data will only have a single location, this method can be used to add paths to photo albums, sets and other marker. Don't forget to save the data with the ScratchPad for re-use, we don't extract data from the result path statements.

The ScratchPad

The scratchpad can be used to save the data you create/map; to re-used within the Mapr to adjust BlurbBits or to upload to the web for use with Google Spreadsheets (and extracted for utilites). It is also MUCH easier to cut/paste data into the ScratchPad than into dialog boxes one-by-one. Note: we don't store the data for you anywhere. Data loaded from the scratchpad with Load from ScratchPad replaces all existing Mapr data (changes will be lost).

Click the Save To Scratchpad button. Use the RMC-Select All in the scratchpad window to select and then RMC-Copy to copy all the text. Open a new text document with Notepad (or a simple text editor) and paste the text. Save the document. Use the | separated text file for quickly entering data in a text editor (like notepad) and tab separated for importing into text editor (like notepad), spreadsheets or table editors. Each line represents an object (objects cannot span multiple lines).

Using Google SpreadSheet (GSS)

By uploading the data to a Google Spreadsheet you allow web access to the scratchpad data. You can then use the Google Spreadsheet extraction parameters to view your data in BlurbBits and utilities.

Login to Google Docs. Create a New Spreadsheet by selecting the New-Spreadsheet menu, this will open an Unamed Spreadsheet in a new window AND access the spreadsheet portion of Google Docs (you can also open an existing spreadsheet). Use the File-Import menu to upload the saved scratchpad text document from your computer. You can adjust the column widths to make it easier to read/modify data. Caution: If you just try to upload (instead of import) a plain text file (.txt) it will open incorrectly as a standard document. Tab separated text files (.tsv) will upload correctly as a spreadsheet.

Publish GSS

Use Share-Publish As Web Page and then Publish Now to share the data and allow BlurbBits web access to it. Check the "Automatically re-publish.." toggle to allow all changes to be passed to BlurbBits. Use the key=xxxyyyzzz value of the Your document is viewable at: link for the Google Spreadsheet extract parameter for BlurbBits or other utilities (ie. &gss=xxxyyyzzz).

Here's an example result in the Interactive Blog Map (new window) along with the Published Google Spreadsheet File.

If you want to make changes to THIS data with a new scratchpad file, use File-Upload New Version.. or edit the Google Spreadsheet manually. You can quickly copy rows from the scratchpad by copying and pasting into the spreadsheet using Ctrl-V. Note: if you are not familiar with Google Docs, please use the help that is available through their online support. We cannot provide help on end applications in addition to advancing the development of BlurbBits and related products.

Command Options:

You can also specify commands which combine BlurbBit extraction types. This is useful for combining historical Mapr data with new BlurbBits enhanced feeds.

Note these commands will not work within the ScratchPad but can be used in data passed into the Mapr.

bbext|extract-cmd: extract blurbs and add to list (in order)
bbext+|extract-cmd: extract and add to beginning of the list
sort|type: where type is the date sort format
either blog (latest first) or journal (latest last).

Examples:

Add Paths to our Albums (see example file)
TYPE|LLZ|LABEL|BLURBBIT|URL|DESC|IMAGE|DATE|TRIP|EXTRA|LINEPTS
L||Route 2008||||||0|gray,2,1|7.78,98.3+7.62,92.61..
extbb+|picaalbums=SailBillabong

Combine blogs and photos and sorts them by date
extbb|picasa=SailBillabong::max-results=200
extbb|blogger=svbillabong:100
sort|blog

Add the latest blogs to our historically placed Mapr data AND routes (see example file)
extbb+|blogger=svbillabong:50:published-min=2008-10-30T10:18:00Z
B|36.24,29.985,12|The Truth ..|2008-Oct-30 09:18Z
B|36.289269,30.075920,12|The Lycian...

Note: Combining too many sources or extracting too many items from a single feed can dramatically slow down your load time. If you load a spreadsheet with commands into the mapr, the expanded results will appear.

ScratchPad Uses

You can also use this a simple format to start your BlurbBits when you are not online or create a quick travel log (sample file), objects do not need a llz. Create a couple of each object type and get a good understanding using the dialog boxes first. Then save them to the scratch pad and use this a template for future BlurbBits. Have a blast!! Note: if you have email access while offline it is much easier to Moblog.

Note: watch out for Microsoft Excel, it does some auto formatting of dates and numbers and sometimes it won't let you save the data back out into tab format (nice huh?). It is best to use the File->Open option which triggers the Text Import Wizard where you can configure each column type (general will auto-convert - text will NOT).

Scratchpad Column Details

Currently this format is designed specifically for saving to and from the ScratchPad and NOT for converting other data sources, unknown column headers will be ignored and deleted. Column headers must be formatted as shown (i.e. there is no mapping GUI). In the Google Spreadsheet empty rows cause problems. Columns can be any order however the TYPE statement must be the first column. Be careful when combining multiple data sets i.e. make sure the columns are in the same order.

Ex: (text | mode)
TYPE|LLZ|LABEL|BLURBBIT|URL|DESC|IMAGE|DATE|TRIP|EXTRA|LINEPTS
R|36.38591,30.12451,6|Sample-Marker|&picasa=SailBillabong
L|36.84535,30.25635,7|Sample-Line||||||0|red,2,1|35.74651,29.64111+37.31775,28.67432+37.9442,30.84961+36.35053,31.83838+36.31513,30.58594

TYPE: From the Set {R,J,B,A,P,V,K,L}

This is used to define the type of each blurb. In most cases this just changes the marker icon. In the future we will have a user defined set of types available but first we need to "roll it out" into the various utilities.

R: Location Report (general use)
J: Journal
B: Blog
A: Photo Album (Picasa Album, Flickr Set link of your own photo collection page.
P: Individual Photo
V: Video
K: KML/KMZ file Only used within BlurbsViewr and BlurbBits mapr.
The specified KML Data should contain only line (<linestring>) or drawn data and not markers. Access to the KML marker information via the Google Maps API is non existent so any marker (and resulting info windows) will be outside the scope of our tool and will most likely confuse the end user. We are working on a KML extraction utility to get KML content into BlurbBits. In the mean time you can use the Mapr to roughly trace your complex KML lines (This example has both KML GPS tracks and simple lines). Contact Us to let us know it's important (and to give us feedback.. please). Tracing hint: because the KML layer clicks cannot be controlled, clicking on a KML line will cause an info window to appear. This makes it impossible to actually start drawing the line directly on the KML line. Start by clicking near the line and then trace, when finished drag the initial point onto the line.
To access a Google My Maps KML File use the Url provided by the View in Google Earth button or change the &output=embed to &output=kml in your Google Map embed src= code. ex: http://www.google.com/maps..&output=kml.
L: A line/route/path or track. Best drawn via the BlurbsMapr utility. Use &rpoly=true to round values to two decimal places for the resulting BlurbBit (this reserves URL line length without effecting overall path description.. for large scale paths).

There is also a Trip mode that can be used to automatically generate Trip Tracking paths from your geotagged data. To enable use &tt=travel on either the BlurbsViewr or BlurbBits mapr. In the mapr the Travel Tracks will be updated each time the data is saved and reloaded via the ScratchPad. Please consider this a prototype feature as we have yet to add the definition capabilities to an individual BlurbBit.

X: add to the Travel Track Line (no tooltip or preview.. only position)
T: Starts a New Trip (uses the defined line definition and traces all subsequent points to build a path)
L+,L- more details to follow.. adds a drawn line to the Travel Track.

See a modern version of Billabong's Latest Wanderings. All the Travel Tracks (ie. lines) except the KML track were calculated using this method, which also calculates the travel distance.

LLZ: Lat,Lng,Zoom See Specifying a Location
We also support separate LAT,LNG,ZOOM colums which will be combined to create an LLZ column. (with LLZ the ,zoom value is option and will support Lat,Lng).

LABEL: The label (i.e title, caption) for this entry.

BLURBBIT: The pre-defined extra portion for this type.

Make sure you don't try and overwrite the main object parameters (llz, line pts etc), this is for the extra parameters only.

URL: Path,Label

Will be used to link to a webpage or specific blog in interactive modes (i.e. where do we go when a user clicks).

Path: The URL for a webpage
ex: http://www.blurbbits.blogspot.com
Label: Optional Label will be used when building links (default is the label)
ex: http://www.blurbbits.blogspot.com,this site

DESC: The content description for this entry.

Currently all HTML tags are stripped from this field (thanks hackers). We will be implementing a formating process as soon as we completely understand the issues and solutions.

IMAGE: ImgUrl,Caption

Will be used for the Image when referencing this entry.

ImgPath: The URL for an Image
ex: http://www.blurbbits.blogspot.com/SomeImage
Caption: Optional caption will be used when building links to Image (default is the label)
ex: http://www.blurbbits.blogspot.com/SomeImage,This Blog Image

Note: You must have rights to display and use the image. If you are creating these from scratch make sure you understand the rules of each data source.. i.e. Flickr requires a link back to the source photograph on Flickr.

DATE: YYYY-Mon-DD HH:MM or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MMZ

These are the only acceptable Date formats which are currently extracted from feeds and could be used in the future to sort by date for combining various data sources. Time should be specified in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or Z) and is Optional. Note most cameras don't store time zone so GMT conversion is NOT critical, heck most people don't have the right year on their camera, let alone time.

YYYY-Mon-DD HH:MMZ
Where Mon is from the set {Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May,Jun,Jul,Aug,Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec}
Ex: 2004-Apr-18 06:43Z
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MMZ a T is optional between date and Time
Ex: 2004-04-18 06:43Z or 2004-04-18T06:43Z

TRIP: AddTo

Will be used in the future to create Trip Tracks (need to extend definition to BlurbBits)

AddTo: from the set {" ",0,1,2}
" ": space- Use map default
0: don't include in Trip Track (use for separate "overview" content)
1: Add to Trip Track (keep as blank for now)
2: Add to Trip Route as Day Trip (out to location and then back)

EXTRA: Guess What? Here's where the Extra stuff goes.

Depending on the TYPE parameter different content is stored here.

L: Line style parameters color,width,opacity ex: red,2,1
K: KML/KMZ Url filename ex: http://www.creative-cruising.com/Billabong-Tracking/Billabongs-Sailing-Summary.kml

LINEPTS: The point defintions of a line + seperated.

It's easier to draw lines in the mapr.

Examples:

For a full example try loading our Blogger feed (?blogger=svbillabong) and then save the data to the ScratchPad. Draw some lines and store a couple of your own markers to get the full example and understanding of the data set.

Options Specific to BlurbsViewr:

tt:travel

Configures the Travel Tracker Display Mode, can also be configured via the URL parameter &tt=travel;