Author: Mapline Team

Google Maps is the go-to mapping software when it comes to getting driving directions, and that’s great if you’re planning a family road trip. But when you’re looking to visualize and analyze data for your business, is Google still the best service to turn to? We take a look at the features of both Google Maps and Mapline to show Mapline’s superiority when it comes to mapping software for your industry. Plotting Multiple Locations Google Maps: Sure, you can plot multiple locations within Google Maps – as long as all you want to see is how to get from one to the others. For distance between several points, you need to enter in each starting address and destination address, note the distance, and then start over for as many data points as you need. Mapline: With Mapline you get the whole picture. Upload your Excel sheet with hundreds of locations and view them simultaneously as pins on a map. Easily visualize the distance between any of the addresses while still being able to see each of your pins and take in the big picture.

Data Analysis

Google Maps: Google offers no analysis of your data. Aside from determine exact driving distance from one point to another, you’re unable to draw any conclusions from entering addresses into Google Maps. Mapline: You can obtain a wealth of information from viewing your pins in Mapline by using our features such as sublayering, radial mapping and territories.

Sublayers

Use Mapline’s sublayers to group your pins according to customer segments, location types or other differentiators. The color coding of sublayering lets you quickly see patterns and trends in your data such as clusters or outliers. There is no equivalent feature in Google Maps.

Radial Mapping

There are two radial mapping options within Mapline: Areas Around Pins and Overlapping Radius Areas. The first allows you to view high-density pin clusters as well as high-value pins, based on data amounts included in your Excel spreadsheet. The second radial mapping choice gives you the option to set a distance for the radius and will present a heat map around each pin, showing you where pin radii overlap. There is no equivalent feature in Google Maps.

Territories

Mapline’s territories feature offers dozens of existing territories that you can overlay on your data. Choose from territories delineated by zip codes, area codes, DMAs and so much more to put your data in perspective and understand the story it is telling. Google Maps does show state boundary lines, but only in relation to distance between two or more addresses.

The Bottom Line

We highly recommend you continue using Google Maps to plan your trip to your vacation house, but for everything business related, Mapline is the clear winner for GIS maps.

We’ve been having some fun behind the scenes at Mapline this election season. We’ve teamed up with the New Jersey Center for Civic Education and the New Jersey Social Studies Supervisors Association to power maps for their mock election for students.

How the Mock Election Works

The mock election covers the presidential race, as well as New Jersey congressional seats and two “yes or no” issue questions: whether the state’s gasoline tax should be raised 23 cents per gallon to fund repairs and improvements to New Jersey’s roads and transportation infrastructure and whether term limits should be imposed for members of Congress. Educators simply determine their Congressional District and download the appropriate ballot for their students, who are then able to cast their votes either on paper or electronically. Voting opened October 10, and all results must be submitted by October 25.

Mapping the Results

After the votes are in, our Mapline team will power maps that will plot a variety of different data for students and educators. A total of 77 maps will be available as PDF downloads representing combinations of 4 overarching variables: candidate, issue, grade level and political region. Mapline’s territory heat map overlays will color code territories in order to differentiate voting patterns. In addition to the PDF maps, Mapline is also providing 4 aggregated maps to be embedded in the site that students and teachers can manipulate. These live, interactive maps will represent voting results across all grades by Congressional District. A map will be dedicated to each candidate and issue variable. Students and teachers can zoom in and out on these maps and can perform searches for specific cities or addresses to narrow down the data.

Increasing Civic Awareness

Students from grades 5-12 from more than 300 school districts in New Jersey are expected to participate in the mock election, generating a wealth of data on student political opinion. It’s a fantastic educational opportunity for teachers to show students firsthand how democracy works and to lead them in analyzing voting patterns across districts. We’re honored to be a part of such an endeavor, and can’t wait to see the results come in! Check out other ways Mapline can be used in the classroom and beyond.