Interactive maps for website integration

Magnus Rademeyer, AfriGIS MD, says the proliferation of mobile GPS devices into the market and map services from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have resulted in a significant increase in interest in the benefits of location based services.

According to Rademeyer, AfriGIS has been able to make the maps free for the first 10 000 views a month by placing advertising down the side of each map served. The revenue generated from the advertising will be shared with the company using the maps on a 60/40% basis to make it mutually beneficial.

“The maps can therefore be used to promote companies' partners or suppliers to people who visit them and to those who may just be using the site to get good directions,” Rademeyer says. “Whatever the case, the aim of making interactive maps freely available is to create awareness about the power of location-based services and how useful accurate maps are in assisting people with finding geographical information that they need.

“What this means is that people can monetise the use of the map on their website. So for example if a blogger integrated the interactive map into their website and all the people who read the blog used the map whenever they needed directions, then the blogger would earn revenue from the advertising on each map served just as they would from banner and text advertising on their site,” he says.

The maps are supposed to work across all major browsers, including Internet Explorer 6 and 7, FireFox, Opera and Safari. Free updates will be made available quarterly. To sign up, go to http://maps.AfriGIS.co.za and register of charge. A key to AfriGIS' map server will then be sent, to be integrated into website code.