Talking about events and maps

 

I posted some mapping tips and tricks on our team blog, The Space Craft, for those of you who have tried or are thinking about trying Windows Live Events.

Map that event!

Raise your hand if you’re directionally challenged like me!  Ask Mike – he’s been a witness to my ineptitude since well before our days at Microsoft.  I’m useless without printed directions from Live Search Maps or Live Search for Windows Mobile phones.  Therefore, I feel the need to highlight some of the ways the Maps team and Windows Live Events are going to save my butt:

 

• Help guests pinpoint your house
• Find a local place to have a party
• Print driving directions or send them to your phone

Jay
Product Manager, Windows Live Events

* Right now, the Live Search Maps features described in this post are available in English-speaking markets only

Help guests pinpoint your house

If you’re organizing an event and you know ahead of time where it’s going to be held, it’s really easy to add a map to the event website for your guests:

 

• Go to the Create Event page for a new event or the Event details page for an existing event.
• In the Location name field, type a friendly name for the location like “Our house” or “Algonquin Park.”
• Type the known address into the Address field.
• Click Add map and check out the map to your event from Live Search Maps.

That alone should be useful, but have you ever noticed that when you use popular mapping services, they don’t necessarily put the pushpin on the right house on your street?  Forget it if you’re on a cul de sac.  That’s because mapping services tend to make a best guess where to put the pushpin based on the number of your house as it relates to which block the house is on.  For example, if I live on 750 Main Street, mapping services guess that my house is directly centered within the 700-800 block and show the pushpin there.   Basically, they incorrectly assume that houses are a fixed distance apart.   This discrepancy is often annoying when you follow directions turn for turn and then still spend time circling the neighborhood trying to locate the actual house.  A small but useful feature we added to the maps in Events is the ability to pick up an incorrectly-placed pushpin and place it directly on your house so guests can find you.

 

• Click on the pushpin icon in the lower left-hand corner of the map.
• Move the pushpin to the correct house by clicking on the house.
• Click the cursor (arrow) icon in the lower left-hand corner to get out of pushpin mode.

Find a local place to have a party

Sometimes you know what type of place you want to have a party, but you don’t know the exact place.  For example, you want to have your kid’s birthday party at a pizzeria, but which one?  Or, you want to find a nice park.  We (actually, Live Search Maps) can help.  Let’s use the pizza example:

 

• Go to the Create Event page for a new event or the Event details page for an existing event.
• In the Location name field, type the category of venue you’re looking for like “pizza.”
• Type the city and state into the Address field.
• Click Add map and check out the list of pizzerias that is displayed.
• Click the pizzeria where you want the party to be held.

The address and map are automatically added to your event!

Print driving directions or send them to your phone

Once you add a map to an event, we add two links to get a larger map, driving directions, and have access to more slick mapping features all on http://maps.live.com.  For example, you can take driving directions with you on the go by:

 

• Click Get driving directions below the map to go to the Live Search Maps site in a new window.
• Type in your starting address.   The ending address will be filled in with the event location.
• Choose Shortest time or Shortest distance for the route option.  Additionally, you can even have the service Choose route based on traffic!
• Click Get directions.
• Click the printer icon to bring up a printer-friendly map and directions.

OR

Click Send to mobile, type in the number of a phone that receives text messages and has a web browser, and click Send to have a clickable directions link sent to your phone. 

 

Technorati tags: Windows Live Events, Windows Live, Live Maps, Microsoft, Events