Interactive examples

Vidmap provides free geotagged videos

After blogging about VisualPin, a service that provides “moving map videos,” a reader notified me about Vidmap. Coined the “true Geo-Tagging for videos,” Vidmap allows users to feature videos side-by-side a google map that updates according to the location of the movie. Made especially for videos filmed across distances, these presentations are hosted on Vidmap’s site and can then be easily embedded into your site.

This free service is a nice option for users wanting to combine an animated map with a video, but it still has it’s limitations. The design of the video player needs improvement, and the watermark over the video is a little too big in my opinion. I appreciate the embed code and the ability to change the size of the player, but I would love to see more customization options. I emailed them my thoughts, and received this response from Mario:

“I was also thinking about offering some additional options to customize the look of the player.”

He also seemed very responsive to my opinion of the watermark, so I am encouraged to think that this service might be one worth watching for upcoming improvements. You may want to as well, and I would suggest bookmarking their blog for future updates.

To test this feature, I tried to upload a video file and give it some random map coordinates. The upload process was overly simplistic, and it never notified me as to what types of video files it would take, nor give me file size restraints. One question asked how I captured the video, and gave me eight options: by car, bike, plane, by foot, motor-bike, ship, train, or other. It did not explain why this information was important, and I can imagine times that there might be several means of transportation, or none.

Unfortunately, after attempting to upload both a .flv and .mov, it returned an error message that “Content type is not included in the list.” I’ll admit that I’m a little discouraged, but I will still come back to this service down the road to see if changes have been made to better facilitate user submission.

UPDATE: I felt compelled to include this second email I received from the developer because I am continually impressed with his willingess to work with users to improve his service. Below is a portion of our correspondence:

“Can you please tell me what kind of error you have seen exactly? What did it say? Basically all kinds of video formats & codecs that are supported by the great FFMPEG (www.ffmpeg.org) are supported., e.g. these samples should work in any case: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1425 Please let me know otherwise!
Would be a shame to confront your readers with a not-working upload functionality.

I will take care of the submission site instantly to make it a bit more informative. I will also see what I can do about the watermark. Maybe add some more transparency in a first step.”

So, someone else please give this service a try and let me know how it went for you. Perhaps I was having a bad day …

Other posts that might interest you:

• VisualPin introduces next generation of interactive videos with geotags
• BBC News uses data wisely in “Mapping UK’s Teen Murder Toll”
• Toyota launches user-submitted multimedia interface “Beyond Cars”

© 3 June 2009 Innovative Interactivity (II).