GPS Tracking ROI

Many business executives and owners are among my readers. Also many folks who work in government agencies, belong to civic organizations, churches, clubs or just occasionally wish they could make a map for other people to find something of interest. I’ve written before about Google giving away what formerly were closely guarded as the “keys of the kingdom’ … map data. And now Google has made it even easier. It’s really pretty simple.

First go to www.maps.google.com.

This is the default view you will see. If you do not already have a Google Account you’ll need to set one up. I recommend getting a Google Mail (gmail) account, it’s very useful … but you can use any existing email account as your “Google Account”. Once you sign in with a valid Google account you’ll see that the “My maps” tab is active. You can make as many Google Maps in your account as you care to and Google stores them and serves them for you. This is really nice for a business that wants to make a special map of branch offices, clients, etc. It’s on Google but it’s under your own account and you control how public or private it is.

Navigate to where you want the map to “start” from … and decide if you want the “Map” view, overhead imagery (called “satellite” by Google but much of what is there is from aircraft flyovers). You also have the choice of a “Hybrid .. imagery with the streets overlayed … and in some areas of the country, a map with traffic reports.

A tip many don’t think about is that Google “knows” the airport codes for almost all airports, so if you are familiar with a city ionly by it’s airport, justtpe in the three (or four) letter code and you’re there.

Save and give the new map a title. If you click on my thumbnail above you’ll see the place I grew up, Lincoln park Airport in New Jersey. The ‘Net is very sow today and I wnat to make sure I can get this posted with the pictures, so the next part in building your own Google Map for Business ROI will follow shortly.

Enjoy your labor day weekend.