Mapping Switzerland with Ajax

February 23, 2005 2:09 PM

Dynamic map of Switzerland. Google Maps isn't the only mapping service using Ajax: map.search.ch, which does the same thing for Switzerland, launched last October.
posted by mcwetboy (17 comments total)

If only I needed a map of Switzerland...
posted by smackfu at 2:14 PM on February 23, 2005

How the hell did they do that? They released the service almost 5 months before the marketing buzzword even existed! Is that even legal?
posted by dvdgee at 2:17 PM on February 23, 2005

Bitch, bitch, bitch (see above).

As a waterskier, I particularly loved the image of the boat pulling the skier. And, am fascinated by the whole concept of the endeavor.

Thanks, mcwetboy!
posted by sillygit at 3:04 PM on February 23, 2005

What dvdgee said. Ajax is a shameless marketing word for something that already existed.
posted by grouse at 4:14 PM on February 23, 2005

I don't get it. even google maps seem clunky compared to what could be done in flash.
I guess there is a reason why it was done in flash, can anyone explain it?
posted by ronenosity at 4:29 PM on February 23, 2005

I meant 'WAS NOT' done in flash... (see above)
posted by ronenosity at 4:33 PM on February 23, 2005

Korea.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:57 PM on February 23, 2005

Switzerland...it's so.... green.

Any Swiss people here? Can you confirm? Is your country actually this green?
posted by Baby_Balrog at 5:45 PM on February 23, 2005

I'm half Swiss, and in the spring and fall Switzerland is pretty green. At the moment it's probably more white.

I could find the building my parents married in (now a hotel in Glion) and the funiculaire they took as the first part of their honeymoon.
posted by kika at 6:46 PM on February 23, 2005

ronenosity -- a lot of companies and organizations feel that it's best not to bind their service to a single-vendor solution; it effectively takes you captive. You may like that vendor's product and business practices today but that's no guarantee that you will tomorrow. If you're wholly invested in a closed solution, you're screwed if the company starts acting like a bunch of damn fools a year from now, as anyone who didn't sleep through the dotcom era will attest. Macromedia's done a pretty good job to date but that's no reason to believe they will tomorrow.

None of which explains why the BBC still streams using #@$*!! RealMedia, but that's really drifting off the point...
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:51 PM on February 23, 2005

Switzerland is indeed pretty green (well, maybe not right now). I thought this was great, it had some of the tiny little mountain villages I visited that aren't even connected by roads.
posted by borkingchikapa at 8:11 PM on February 23, 2005

This one works in Safari! How nice. Lovely details too---planes at the airports, parking lots full of cars...
posted by tss at 9:20 PM on February 23, 2005

I can see my house from here!

Yeah, Switzerland is pretty green in spring and summer. Not at the moment though, everything is covered in snow and looks all picturesque.
posted by sebas at 12:02 AM on February 24, 2005

sebas beat me to it... :)
posted by adrien at 6:11 AM on February 24, 2005

sebas, does your house have a red roof or a grey roof? This is fascinating for me.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:18 AM on February 24, 2005

My house (well, apartment building) has a gray roof. But it seems the foto is more than a year old, as some new buildings have been built already further along my street which seem to be missing.

Also I looked at my place of work and the McDonals accross the street which was built more than 2 years ago is not there, as well as an extension to our parking lot. I wonder how easy it is to update the maps in this application.
posted by sebas at 2:52 PM on February 24, 2005

What I'd like to see is a technology that shows the size of countries based on surface area. In other words, conventional maps display a country's size as it its terrain were entirely flat. But In hilly/mountainous regions, there's significantly more "land," than a flat map depicts; imagine squishing a pyramid so that its sides are flattened.

Make any sense?
posted by ParisParamus at 12:49 PM on February 25, 2005