Show HN: I created a feature I wanted in Google Maps | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I created a feature I wanted in Google Maps

mppr.me

18 pointsauston17 comments

So, I've always been frustrated by the inability for me to "push" addresses to my iPhone from my computer. Specifically, when I have to go somewhere new, like a Dr's office or co-working space.

I created mppr.me - a "mashup" of sorts taking ideas from bit.ly (to shorten link locations), google maps (for making it embeddable) & using tropo (a twilio competitor for sending sms).

It's free & I've been doing some minor promo the past few weeks, on the usual tool sites (http://www.listio.com/web20/app/MpprMe/ - http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/mpprme-people-send-business-add... - http://www.feedmyapp.com/p/a/mppr-me-mppr-me-enables-your-we... - http://www.netwebapp.com/view/Mppr-Me).

I wanted to share the idea with HN. I'd really love to get some feedback on this & see if you guys think this is useful.

Also: I've got stats publicly available here: http://mppr.me/statsboard

I put in my email address I clicked on Create Listing, but nothing happened.

hey, did you put in a US address? I probably should have stated that currently, it only works for US addresses.

A good way to see if it supports your address is to click the "preview" link once you've put in your address.

I put a non-US address.

I'm OK with the fact that you choose to limit your website to US for pragmatic reasons, but I'm curious, what is the reason here? Google Maps is universal. Though I admit I don't quite understand what your website is supposed to do. :-)

* It should let you preview without entering an email address. Right now it's not clear what the site does, and while I mostly trust HN crowd, I would prefer not to give my email unless it's clear what it's used for.

* It should accept email addresses with + in then.

* Consider using the shortlinks generated by google maps instead of generating your own? That way, the messages will still be useful even if your service has gone down for any reason.

FWIW, there's a $1.99 iPhone app with accompanying Safari, Chrome and Firefox extensions that serves the same purpose called Handoff:

http://www.handoffapp.com/

So, I've always been frustrated by the inability for me to "push" addresses to my iPhone from my computer. Specifically, when I have to go somewhere new, like a Dr's office or co-working space.

Is this not already available for iPhone (honest question, I don't own one)? If I'm in Google Maps, I click the star next to an address, and I immediately have it available on my (Android) phone in both Maps and Navigation. I can't imagine not having that feature these days, having recently moved 2000 miles, it seems like a pretty big failing.

I don't know if I'm slow but I couldn't figure out what this does in the first 30 seconds. Now that I know, it seems cool, but an example or something more explicit/clear would be nice.

No, I definitely need to work on properly exhibiting the value prop. Thanks a ton for the feedback!

Short-circuiting the above user who figured this out and instead just asking you (the creator) - what does this do?

Thanks for the question: It creates a widget for your business' website for people to send that business' address to their cell phone.

Ah this is a great idea. It's like a more universal chrometophone extension

Cool, this looks like one of the features of Agendize: http://www.agendize.com/toolbox/phone I guess that could be taken as market validation.

Wow. Thanks so much for this link, that looks like a cool product!

I couldn't get it to work... Do I have to embed it for the texting to work?

Also, I gave my email but I never received an email.. ?

yes & i dont send any emails right now!

Cool. The map preview didn't work for me (using a non-US address, Firefox 4.01, Win7), but the embed code etc. was fine.

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