Wikipedia, Front-and-Center

If you're a regular Atlas user, you may have noticed links to "Add Wikipedia Content" in the results of certain location searches. That was our first version of Wikipedia integration with Atlas (using the Futef API).

This week we improved the integration. Instead of offering Wikipedia results to certain searches, we now have a Wikipedia search tab front-and-center on the Atlas homepage.

This means you can add any geocoded Wikipedia content to your map. Run a search, click "Map This Result", and you're done. As with local search, your search is restricted to the area you have displayed on the map -- zooming out broadens the search, zooming in narrows it.

The Weather in Altas

Weather is a sore subject in Boston this time of year. Spring is around the corner, but winter clings on into April.

To help folks get a better grasp on what's going on outside, we've added weather data from weather.gov to Atlas. By checking a box in the "Edit Map Properties" menu, you can now add three-day forecasts for U.S. points (international weather is not supported).

As an example, I put together this map of weather around New England:


Note that the weather is updated on the fly, so you'll have up-to-date forecasts as long as your map is live.

Enjoy, and let us know if you have any questions.

Sidebar in Action in Bakersfield

If you'd like to see a great example of our new sidebar feature in action, check out this nightlife map the Bakersfield Californian launched last week.

Sidebar Update

Thanks to feedback from our friends at The Bakersfield Californian, we've made a couple tweaks to the sidebar feature we released yesterday. Most importantly, it's now possible to display the sidebar on the side of maps [insert ironic joke here]. To see what this looks like, check the new version of the map from yesterday I saved here.

Also, if there was some stray code showing up in your sidebar yesterday it should be gone today.

Introducing the Altas Sidebar

Last night we launched a cool new feature: sidebars. Now when you create a map with a bunch of different points, you can display titles for all your data in a table beneath the map (thumbnails are also displayed under wider maps). When you click on a title or thumbnail, the corresponding info window will open on the map.

To show you how this works, I put together this map of notable Central Square institutions with some pictures I took this morning. If you want to see how the thumbnails work, there's a wider version of the map here.



One last thing: You probably noticed that the map above includes an ad. All maps that use the sidebar feature will include an add. Basic maps that don't use the sidebar feature will still be ad-free.

Atlas in Drupal? You Bet.

A few people have written wondering how to get Atlas working in Drupal. Earlier this week InsideVandy, the web site of Vanderbilt University's student newspaper, showed how it's done, launching this map on their site.


If you have problems getting Drupal to work on your site, you may have to add Atlas to your embed filter. For more about the embed filter, see Drupal.org here and here. And, of course, you can always get in touch with me.

Snow (and Atlas) Cover Boston

I've been posting a lot about Atlas' new photos features. Yesterday Boston.com published a great example of these features in action.

As part of their Valentine's Day blizzard coverage, they created an Atlas map that allowed their users to contribute snowy photos of dogs, robins, backyards and Valentines. You can see the map here or see an image of it below.



We're very excited about this map and other like it. Sites like Panoramio and Yahoo's World Explorer show how naturally maps and photos go together. There's lots of work left to do, but hopefully Atlas' new photo features make it possible for publishers to create similar photo communities on their own sites.

Give it a try, and if you have questions, let us know.