Schmap Review, April 17, 2006
(View Spanish language original)
Schmap travel Guides with Flickr Photos
Schmap's interactive travel guides use images from the popular website to illustrate its maps
Jordí Sabaté
The interactive city guides developed by Schmap take advantage of resources on the web, such as Flickr, and combine these in a way similar to Google Earth. Like Google Earth, Schmap is a desktop application, however, it has no satellite photos and doesn’t need to be connected to the internet.
Its operation is extremely agile and does not require a high CPU speed
On the contrary, Schmap’s use of simple street maps results in extremely agile operation and dispenses with the need for a fast CPU (Google Earth requires a computer with a powerful processor to function properly). Browsing a Schmap guide is like using Google Earth with maps instead of satellite photos (even the aesthetics are similar), with an added panel only for photos of recommended points of interest.
The unusual thing about these photos is that all of them are used via Creative Commons licenses and were originally taken by users and uploaded to their personal spaces on Flickr. In other words, these are not classic photos taken by professionals, but rather represent the vision of tourists or residents. In some instances they are less spectacular, but more often they seem fresh and more genuine.
How Schmap works
Schmap guides are available for download from the web along with the Schmap Player, the program that makes them work. First-time users have to download both the program and the selected guide, but on subsequent visits new guides, usually less than 6MB, can be downloaded individually. The downloaded guides are added to the desktop as files supported by the Schmap Player.
After installing and running the Schmap Player, the user chooses which guide to open from the ones he has downloaded previously. The selected guide then opens, and a small overview map of the city, along with commands for panning, moving, and zooming, appears in the left-hand corner. In the center of the screen, the user will see an introduction to the city and its history, with links to photographs taken by users and available on Flickr. These pictures appear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Currently, there are only a few guides available (among them Madrid), with the promise of many more to come.

The introduction contains several sections focusing on the most significant aspects and districts of the city. A series of itineraries is also offered. The right-hand panel showcases different points of interest (restaurants, theaters, museums, churches, cinemas...) that the user can select so they appear on the map.

Virtual tours on the map
To switch to a detailed map view that will replace the introduction in the center of the screen, it is enough to click on any link. The text will disappear, and, in its place, the map will appear and zoom in quickly until the user can see the details of the streets around the selected point of interest. Photos and a brief description of the point appear in the right panel.
 
Printing this screen results in a page with multiple maps at different scales, as well as a brief review of the feature. Another option is to go to the toolbar, located below the map, and click the “Tour” option (represented graphically by a set of shoeprints). The program will ask what kinds of features the user wishes to view in the virtual tour, how long the player should pause in each spot, and which area or district to cover. Once these parameters are defined, the program will guide the user through the different selected places (museums, cathedrals, bars, clubs...) stopping briefly to give explanations and display photos of each one. Each review also contains a link to the official website of the place, phone numbers for reservations, and other details.
 
 
A PROGRAM WITH GREAT POSSIBILITIES
Although Schmap has just launched (March 22) and it is still too soon to know if it will take advantage of its enormous potential, it could be one of the most successful applications of 2006. The reason: the raw material the guides use (texts, maps, images...) is available to everyone on the Internet, but it is necessary to have an application that compiles, arranges, and puts it all together for the user. This is where the Schmap Player can play a fundamental role. At the moment, the guides only take advantage of the photographic resources on Flickr and the links to official websites of museums, bars, theaters and other venues to offer information. Nevertheless, in the future, they could offer richer information with direct links to Wikipedia (in the case of monuments, museums, historical sites) and other interesting websites, as well as allow users to modify the guides