Schmap Enters Public Beta
This, people, is a smart service. Schmap, provider of interactive online maps with guide and tourism info, has just pushed an innovative iPhone-friendly solution into public beta. The service allows users to quickly and easily publish iPhone-friendly contact details with a map on their websites. When we say “Quickly and easily” we mean it. First of all, no registration is required and the service is completely free. Secondly, the setup from beginning to end takes about two minutes. The user need only enter the contact details in a few form fields on the Schmap site, copy the resulting code and paste it onto their homepage. Done. The results will be completely invisible to most browsers but visit the site on an iPhone and bar will appear across the top of the screen. Tap it and you will be brought to a page with contact details; rotate the iPhone and a map will be displayed pointing you to the exact location of the business. Schmap also has plans to make the service S60, Android and BlackBerry-friendly in the near future, meaning that the same piece of code will yield properly-formatted results for each of the aforementioned platforms. No changes to the code currently in place will be required when the update comes around. The key challenge for Schmap of course will be getting exposure with less-web savvy retail business owners, restaurants, bars, etc so that they know the service exists. We wonder what other cool services could be added to websites in a similar no-registration, two minute-implementation way? For a sample of Schmap’s service in action, hit www.purefoodandwine.com from an iPhone.
[Via The Outsidr]
Yes, this definitely is an excellent service – dead-simple and meaning real-life advantages both to businesses and their customers. I think it will be even better if (or hopefully when) they integrate this simple service with their online guides to show additional places of attraction nearby, for example.
Looks like WM is deliberately left out. Do all these companies really think they can force people to buy iphones?
boogalooboy maybe winmo 6.1 isn’t an exciting platform to develop for…
Not sure what being exciting to develop for has to do with offering a service, isnt making your product available to the largest amount of users more relevant? But hey, I’ve pretty much accepted I will be the last WM user on earth after everyone has switched to apple so guess this shouldnt be surprising…
Or, boogalooboy, you could simply accept that Apple has produced a remarkable piece of technology that integrates technology better than any other mobile device and make the switch. I used just about every phone Verizon has offered (PDA-wise) and switched 8 years of Verizon dedication to get an iphone because it simply is the best PDA. Still needs a few minor improvements, but there is no better. Accept your fate, young grasshopper.
Bill
I really, really dont see what the attraction is. Ok, tell me is there anything the iphone can do that I cant do on a WM device?
The iPhone has hype and very rapid sales perpetuating development. Symbian has the fact that it’s the most popular smartphone OS in the world by leaps and bounds perpetuating development. BlackBerry is the most popular enterprise device in the US and Android is, well, Google. My guess is that those are the reasons Schmap has chosen to support each of the aforementioned platforms…
zumis wika pipe dream
LOL, I walk past that place every day, just south of Gramercy