kundiman[dot]net

I made a mashup that will plot a MyBlogLog community’s recent readers on a map so that you can view where in the world they are coming from.

There are many tools out there that will do just that, like different stats services but as what makes this unique is by utilizing MyBlogLog, you give your readers a face, and that makes the community more meaningful:D (with this app you give them a face and location)

So I got this widget here:

and made it to look like this:

and called it MyBlogLogSphere:) And by using it, you’ll see just how much coverage does your blog get. You probably see most of your reader’s faces and avatars when they comment on your blog posts and now you could also see where they are from.

And a person’s location has got a lot to say about them.

MyBlogLogSphere uses the MyBlogLog API to get the list of your blog’s recent readers, then gets the location of each reader which they saved on their profiles, geocode that location using Google Maps service then plots the reader’s picture on the map.

These are all data that is publicly available and the accuracy of these locations rests on what readers saved on their profiles.

So whenever you see someone’s avatar on the pacific ocean, it’s because they don’t have location data and so they would just be floating… lost on the big blue.

Encourage your readers to visit http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/member to place their picture on the right spot. I made the map to only show avatars up to some zoom level, so people would just see on what area of a city you are at. Just try not to be too accurate ok?

To view your blog’s recent readers map, just append your blog’s URL to http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/ To get something like:

http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/blog.mybloglog.com
http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/idlip.net
http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/makeuseof.com
http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/kundiman.net

Put up that link on your blog so your readers would see the map also. Blog about it, twit it, bookmark it.. and so on.

Just be sure that your blog has a MyBlogLog community:P and you placed the Recent Readers widget or included the tracking script on your blog, so it would have a recent reader data.

The map starts out cluttered with 50 avatars, zoomed out to view the whole world. Then it is updated starting after several seconds and increasing by 5 seconds more each time if no new readers are coming to your blog. So you could just wait ’til someone drops by your blog and the map gets updated automatically.

By default, the map pans to center the most recent reader. You could also choose to just show the most recent one by ticking the checkbox at the bottom of the map.

Thanks to makeuseof.com’s readers for having a blog to test that feature out.

Thanks to MyBlogLog for the great service and an API to make it even more sexy. And thanks thanks thanks very much for the pro accounts:D Having been noticed by you guys is already enough:)

Some Questions and Answers:

Why are there so many people on the Pacific Ocean?

They are the ones with no location information on their MyBlogLog profiles. They could modify their location at this page http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/member but until then, they are still lost in sea… or ocean.

Why do I get redirected to kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere when I try to view my blog’s recent reader map?

There are 2 reasons I know of on why this happens: 1. you entered your blog’s URL incorrectly. 2. your blog does not have a MyBlogLog community / you didn’t add your blog to your profile.

Why are there no readers showing up on the map?

There are many reasons as to why this would happen: 1. the blog doesn’t use the recent reader widget nor tracking code/script. 2. you have connection problems and the app could not communicate properly to the server. 3. the app’s server is down. 4. the app’s server could not acces MyBlogLog’s API due to connection problems. 5. sadly, nobody visits the blog.

First is to just wait ’til the app refreshes to get new readers. If any error notification comes up, please take note of it and comment it below so I could check on it.

Why do the avatars disappear when I zoom in on their location?

Avatars could only be seen up to some zoom level. Google maps has zoom levels 1-20, avatars show up at xzoom levels 1-15. If you think this should be changed, drop a line or 2 at the comments.

Why is my avatar somewhere where I am not?

The app uses Google maps’ geocoding service to translate the location you saved on your MyBlogLog profile to latitude and longitude coordinates. It’s accuracy depends on Google’s data and what is on your profile (more on the latter). If you want to correct your location, visit http://kundiman.net/mybloglogsphere/member

The map shows my old avatar.

Where’s the question?:P This is because the app stores your image URL the first time it fetches your MyBlogLog profile. I have yet to cook something up to update that data.

How could I put this up on my blog?

You can’t for now, but I think this could be done with maplets.

Why not have mybloglogsphere.com?

Give me the domain:D

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Do you have questions, suggestions or reactions? Post them up in the comments.