How to use LookLOCAL
What is LookLOCAL?
LookLOCAL is the most comprehensive public online mapping site available on the Web. With
LookLOCAL, you can
access all of the maps, photographic imagery, and location information from
Live Search Maps,
Google Maps, and
Yahoo! Local Maps.
LookLOCAL Traffic provides you access to the most comprehensive network of traffic cameras and incident
reporting available in North America and the UK. The Explore Vacation Spots tab allows you to explore some
of the world's best travel destinations as determined by destination experts that include travel agents
worldwide, Sherman's Travel, Lonely Planet, Golf Magazine, and more! On this tab you can also add your own KML
files to personalize your map and share your adventures with friends and family. You can also search for
products, map directions, and explore your world with IDELIX's patented in-place magnification technology
called Pliable Display Technology-or PDT.
Tip: Choose the source of the map information by picking from the list at the top of the LookLOCAL Web page.
Visit us often as LookLOCAL is continually evolving based on user input. If there is a feature or
functionality that you'd like to see on LookLOCAL, we'd love to hear about it so please send us your
feedback!
What is Pliable Display Technology?
Pliable Display Technology (PDT) is like a "lens" for "magnifying" what appears on your computer display screen.
In LookLOCAL, the PDT lens appears in the middle of the map when you first open the Web page. You
can move the PDT lens around on your screen by clicking and dragging. And you can increase or decrease the
level of magnification by using the 1x, 2x, and 4x controls located at the top right of the lens.
Tip: You can choose to display a different type of data in the lens—photographic imagery, for
example—by choosing an option from the Lens Data Type palette on the bottom of the lens.
Unlike the lens of a magnifying glass—which only allows you to see more clearly what is already
there—a PDT lens can display information that is not present in the unmagnified view. By adjusting
the PDT lens magnification, you can see the very smallest details available without "pushing" other
parts of the map off your screen. The PDT technique is known as detail-in-context viewing because
it shows both very small details and a large surrounding context at the same time.
Try this: With Photo or Hybrid imagery selected in the PDT lens, you may be able to find a picture
of your home, and still have the whole map of your city, town or region visible in the LookLOCAL Web
site browser window.
Using the PDT Lens
LookLOCAL offers a number of different ways to interact with the PDT lens and map:
• Mouse actions and keystrokes
• The Lens Controls attached to the lens
Let's take a look at mouse actions and keystrokes first:
Mouse Actions and Keystrokes
Click and drag the lens: Click and drag within the lens to move the lens.
Click and drag the map: Click and drag on the map outside the lens to move the map.
Double-click: Double-click on any point on the map to move the lens to that location.
Single-click: After performing a search or directions request, you can single-click on
any numbered map marker to move the lens to the marked location.
Tip: You can single-click on the map markers that appear in the list of text results, too. If a
particular map marker is not visible on the map, clicking on the text result marker will quickly bring the
marked location into view on the map.
Mouse wheel: Use the mouse wheel to adjust the zoom level of the map.
Arrow keys: Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the lens.
Using the Lens Controls
The Lens Controls and Lens Data Type palettes attached to the right and bottom edges of the lens contain
controls for the appearance and behavior of the lens.
And here's the function of each control:
Remove lens: Removes the lens from the map. You can get the lens back by by selecting
the lens icon in the top left corner of the map window.
Lens magnification: Choose a power of magnification from the displayed list. A
greyed-out value indicates that no map data is available at that scale from the selected map provider.
Lock/unlock lens from map: Locking the lens causes the lens to move with the map.
Tip: In locked lens mode, the lens can be quickly moved to a new position by double-clicking on a point
on the map, or by single-clicking on a search or directions numbered map marker.
Increase/decrease lens size: Toggle between the two available lens sizes.
Open/close lens controls: Collapse the Lens Controls to see more of the map.
Lens Data Types: Choose the type of map or photo imagery to be displayed within the
lens. The list of available data types may vary according to the selected data provider.
Search Tips & Tricks
The
Find a Location tab at the top left of the
LookLocal window provides two text input boxes.
The upper box, labelled "Location or address", allows you to specify a place name, or street address
e.g. "1155 Mainland Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada".
The lower box, labeled "Business name or category", allows you to specify a business type, a product, or other
type of category e.g. "dog grooming".
Tip: A full address (including commas, as in the preceding example) can increase the accuracy of your search.
Tip: If you are not looking for a particular product or category, you can leave the "Business name or category"
box blank and search with the "Location or address" alone. If you use only the " Business name or category "
box and leave the " Location or address " box blank, LookLocal will use the current map view as the geographic
area for the search.
Because LookLocal allows you to access geographic information from
Live Search Maps,
Google Maps,
and
Yahoo! Local Maps, you can choose which provider to search with, and compare search results between
providers.
LookLocal always uses the selected map provider to conduct searches; however, by switching
providers after a search, you can see the results from the initial map provider displayed on the map from
newly selected provider.
Try this: Try a comparison for yourself. Perform a search with, Live Search Maps, and then switch to
Google Maps. After you switch map providers, you will see the search results from Live Search Maps
displayed on the map by Google Maps. If you click the Search button again, you will get new search
results provided by Google Maps. Do you see any differences?
Driving Directions
LookLOCAL enables you to get from point A to point B by providing you with step-by-step text-based directions
and your route plotted on a map.
To do a directions search, select Get Directions in the left pane of the LookLOCAL window.
Type your starting address in the From field and your destination in the To field. Click on
the Get Directions button to complete your search.
Tip: A full address (including commas, as in the preceding example) can increase the accuracy of your search.
*Note:
Yahoo! Local Maps does not support directions search outside the USA.
View Traffic Conditions
The
View Traffic Conditions tab at the top left of the
LookLOCAL window provides access to over
6,000 traffic cameras across North America and the UK. It also allows you to map reported traffic accidents
and construction zones.
Tip: You must be at "city" zoom level for the traffic cam and incident report searches to display. "City" zoom
level is indicated when you hover over the zoom level indicator in the on the left of the map window.
To access the traffic data, you must first navigate to your chosen city using the zoom tool or by completing a
Find a location search. Then, select the
View Traffic Conditions tab that appears on the left
side of the
LookLOCAL window. Select the
Cameras check box to map the locations of available
cameras. Click on the sidebar image. A window will pop up that will update regularly with new images from that
camera.
Tip: You can have multiple camera pop-up windows open at the same time.
Select the Alerts checkbox and you will see reported accidents and construction zones appear on the map.
Data Source The traffic camera data feeds on LookLOCAL are provided by Traffic Vizzion. Traffic
Vizzion's mobile service allows you to plan your commute by sending live images from thousands of traffic
cameras located across North America and the UK to your cell phone or Pocket PC. For more information,
visit
www.vizzion.com.
Explore Vacation Spots
On the left side of the LookLOCAL window you will see a
Explore Vacation Spots tab. This tab allows you
to explore some of the top vacation destinations around the world, view photographs, read traveler reviews,
and plan for your next holiday. To view one of the travel categories, simply select the check box beside the
layer you wish to display.
In addition to viewing the vacation destination information that we've included, you can also display your
own photos, video, or text information, by adding your own KML placemark file. Under Explore Vacation Spots
select the Add a KML placemark file option. Paste the URL of your KML file into the URL field. You can
then name your layer in the Title field, select the color for the pushpins and then click Add to
display. Once your file has loaded, pushpins will appear on the map. You can click on the push-pin or on the item list on the left hand side of the window to select the item you wish to view. The PDT lens will position over that location and the affiliated file will display in the sidecar pane on the lens.
For more information on KML and adding KML files, see What is KML? below.
What is KML?
KML, or Keyhole Markup Language, is an XML grammar for modeling and storing geographic features such as
points for display in Google Earth
TM and Google Maps
TM.
LookLOCAL allows some KML files (see
KML Restrictions on LookLOCAL, below)
to be overlaid on the map in the form of pushpins and associated text and images. Many KML files can be found by
searching the World Wide Web.
To add an external KML file, open the Explore Vacation Spots tab, click on Add a KML placemark file,
and specify the URL of the KML file, a Title for the pushpin collection, and a Color for the pushpins.
KML Restrictions on LookLOCAL
LookLOCAL can display KML files which use the
#placemark
and
#point elements. Only the
#coordinates tag of the #point element is supported. Also for best results, ensure that images
are 300 pixels wide or less, and that there are 100 placemarks or less in the KML file.
To read the detailed specification for KML, see http://earth.google.com/kml/whatiskml.html.
Disclaimer
External KML files are provided by third parties and IDELIX is not responsible for the content. KML files that
do not conform to the aforementioned restrictions may display poorly or not at all.
Limitations in Searching and Geographic Coverage
Searches—and maps, photographs, and other geographic information—on
LookLOCAL are
limited by the data available from the selected map provider. For example,
Yahoo! Local Maps
does not support searches outside of the USA at the time of writing. However, development is proceeding
quickly, and
LookLOCAL will provide the most up-to-date geographic information as it becomes available.
Performance Tips
Like other online map Web sites such as
Live Search Maps,
Google Maps, and
Yahoo! Local Maps,
LookLOCAL works by downloading geographic information to your computer from the Internet. Your Internet
connection speed can have a significant effect upon the performance you obtain from any online map Web site,
including
LookLOCAL.
Tip: If you think that
LookLOCAL may be running too slowly, please check the performance of
Live Search Maps,
Google Maps, and/or
Yahoo! Local Maps with your computer and
Internet connection. If basic operations such as loading a map, and performing a search are significantly
slower in
LookLOCAL than in the other map Web sites, you may have encountered a performance issue.
We would certainly like to hear about it. Please email
looklocal@idelix.com
for further help.
Note that the beta version of
LookLOCAL has been optimized for Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows.
Other browsers and operating systems will be more fully supported in future versions of the Web site.
Contacts and Feedback
We would very much like to hear your feedback. You can contact us through a number of means:
• Email us at
looklocal@idelix.com
• Fill out our
User Survey.
Legal
©2007 Copyright IDELIX® Software Inc. All rights reserved.
Pliable Display Technology® (PDT®) and other IDELIX technologies are
protected by the US Patents
and other pending patents.
The trademarks, logos and service marks ("Marks") displayed on this Web site are the property of IDELIX or other third parties. You are not permitted to use the Marks without the prior written consent of IDELIX or such third party which may own the Marks.
IDELIX®, the IDELIX logo, Pliable Display Technology®, PDT®, the PDT logo, and Undisplace are
trademarks or registered trademarks of IDELIX Software Inc. in Canada, U.S.A., Japan, and other countries.
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Addional KML files