Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Video World Tour


Eleven years ago I created my first interactive map using the newly released Google Maps API. The map allowed you to watch YouTube videos of well known tourist locations around the world.

I can still remember the thrill I got when I first worked out how to get a video to play directly from a Google Map. I also remember how excited I was by the concept of being able to watch videos of locations around the world placed on top of close-up satellite imagery of the same locations on a Google Map.

This little personal history is probably why I'm such a big fan of video maps like TripGlimpse. TripGlimpse is an interactive map which allows you to explore famous locations around the world through curated videos.

It is not meant as a criticism of TripGlimpse when I say how little has changed over the last eleven years of interactive maps. In essence TripGlimps is almost exactly the same as my first interactive map. It consists of map markers showing the locations of tourist hotspots around the world. Click on any of the map markers and you can watch a video tour of the location without leaving the map.

The video map concept is such a great way to virtually explore the world. Using the videos on TripGlimpse you can preview places you might like to visit. If you like what you see in the video you can even click through on TripGlimpse to book a real-life tour of the selected location.

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