Try out the new People Map Beta
While the majority of the Yahoo! Groups team is working on strengthening and improving the core Groups product (more on that to come soon), a small team of folks have been working on a new way to create features within Groups, features that can be customized by moderators to fit the specific needs of their groups.
What is People Map?
Have you ever wondered who the members of your group are and where they live? If so, you’ll want to try out the People Map, which offers a simple way to add people to a map.
But the People Map is more than just a way to map member locations. By giving group owners and moderators the ability to customize the questions members are asked, the People Map can also serve as a dynamic group address book or even a group specific profile.
You can learn all about the People Map, including how to link your members to it during this limited Beta period, here:
People Map Feedback
So if you want to wait for a later release to begin trying it out in your groups, we understand. Nevertheless, we do think the People Map is ready for lots of groups to begin using it, and we look forward to the feedback from those who do. In fact, we’ve created a group specifically to collect this feedback.
Thanks!
Jami
Groups Community Manager
Steve said,
July 8, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
Just wanted to say, without even seeing it yet, that this sounds awesome. I’ve long wanted a mapping feature like this for my groups for ages and have asked at every chance I could find. Thanks in advance. I’ll check it out and provide any feedback I can think of!
Amber said,
July 8, 2008 @ 4:40 pm
When members leave the group, will they disappear from the people map? We have a Frappr map, but the fact that old members don’t remove themselves is mildly annoying.
Actually, it’d be nice if their photo album would disappear too, but that’s for another post.
RS said,
July 8, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
I’ve seen the basic idea used on a forum, I think it has some merits. Not the first priority I’d like to see for groups, but so long as it works, I’m happy. I’ll have to play with it to see how it functions. Keep up the work Groups Labs!
Valerie said,
July 8, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
In the blog posting, the words “we’ve created a group specifically to collect this feedback” are a broken link. But I have feedback that I would like to leave! This is a *very* cool feature that I am excited about! But I found a small buglet: I tried adding myself. I entered that I live in “Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48108, United States,” but it looked at my zip code and decided that I live in Pittsfield Township instead, and it wrote that on my entry. But I don’t — I really do live in Ann Arbor.
Thanks for listening!
J H said,
July 8, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
This funtion is not something my groups would be interested in using. Our members prefer annonymity. To post locations could be a very severe security risk. For example, I let you know where I am and you let me know where you are. Sounds like a great thing till someone of an undesireable nature joins the group. Access to such information is not somwthing any of my members would willingly allow in an open medium such as a yahoogroup on the internet. J
CSGreen said,
July 8, 2008 @ 5:35 pm
I sure wish you’d get something like a ‘last posted column added to the member’s list - I don’t mess with the toys much; they could wait for last.
STS said,
July 8, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
There’s no way my own groups would ever ever ever use it, but I might enter my location in large groups where I use an anonymous email address, just to help everyone see what the geographic distribution is.
Barbsjoy said,
July 8, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
Our group will use this, haven’t tryed it yet. Not to long ago, spent quite a bot of time finding a mapping feature as you describe, to map out our members and give them a visual for where we all are. Finally found a feature on a well know search engine that offers maps. It was pretty cool, but would like to have it built right into yahoo groups instead of inviting our members to a different site.
Look forward to seeing how it all works.
flash said,
July 8, 2008 @ 6:59 pm
HI YA,LL HOW,S EVERYONE TODAY, I JUST WANTED TO INTRODUCEMY SELF AND SAY I THINK THIS IS AWESOME
AT said,
July 8, 2008 @ 11:39 pm
I COMPLETELY agree with JH! Of all of the options Yahoo works on they start with THIS? As owner/moderator of a fairly long standing and large group (9+ years and over 1,000 members) I think this is a BAD IDEA.
I certainly will NOT enable it in my groups. And most certainly hope it WILL be something the moderator can disable!
Thank you JH for your comments.
Reduce Reuse Recycle said,
July 9, 2008 @ 1:47 am
I also agree with JH and AT. There are way too many weird or criminal people out there who are looking for ways to find victims– why in **** should we help them?
mmandulak said,
July 9, 2008 @ 3:08 am
I also do not think that the people map is a good idea, at least for my group. Mainly because of the potential of theft, the focus of my group is guitar studies and many of the members have some really expensive equipment and do not want their address published in a semi-private forum.
Also at least half of my group are people who are from countries all over the world, will you be able to map people from Scotland, Korea, New Zealand etc?
We mainly use ygroups for file sharing of practice exercises, sheet music and documents on music theory, as such we’ve accumulated many files over the past couple of years, it can be difficult to find what you’re looking for and newer members don’t even know that the document exists. I would like a method to easily parse the files area and it’s sub-folders, read all of the fields (filename, description, date, location, user who uploaded) that are available and output it in a comma seperated file or more ideally uses the Database function in ygroups to parse the folders to create a flat index of the files.
Barbsjoy said,
July 9, 2008 @ 6:16 am
I understand why some large groups would not use this feature. I went in and looked at the beta version and I will be blocking the street address part of it, I will only be mapping the towns. Having said that, I understand why others are no so thrilled about this, as they have many many more members than we do and there is a privacy issue. Of course the group a moderate is private members only, and that makes all the difference.
As with all things in life, some may find this useful, others won’t. I hope the next little new thing will be of benefit to those who cannot use this feature.
Looking forward to seeing what they will come up with next.
zane said,
July 9, 2008 @ 7:59 am
Ours is just a small family group so this will be great. I have entered about a dozen names and addresses so far and it works fine.
Fiona said,
July 9, 2008 @ 9:39 am
I have imported the link to my group, but I think people are far too paranoid about security aspects of the internet to be honest. I don’t see the harm in adding your first name and postcode - yes, you are giving your address, but I did notice part of the postcode is “cut off” - is this deliberate for security reasons?
In all, my group is small, not much posting and I hope it will at least allow people the chance to get to know each other, people pass their home address details to complete strangers in private anyway!!
Thanks
RS said,
July 9, 2008 @ 9:47 am
So, I tried this out and here’s whats what.
I couldn’t use the URL method to get there. Quelle suprise. Fix your links already Yahoo. Strike 3 on the links. I was successful in adding the code to my groups homepage though.
So far as it is built, members must add their own information to the app, it doesn’t autopopulate. So that reduces the security concern somewhat. People who are worried about it need not participate. Keeping the map available only to members of the group would also mitigate some concern.
Otherwise this is the biggest and DUMBEST kicking open of the door to Net Stalkers I have seen Yahoo offer yet. As if MyBlogLog wasn’t stalkeriffic enough? Concept = near fail. City is all anyone really has any busines sharing about their real world whereabouts on any given day. I would recommend defaulting to City Only on the main form. Its easy enough to edit the form, so if you really want to ask your members to expose themselves to stalking and real world harassment when the group gets a sour patch kid in it, and it will, then that’s a choice made a group level, not one encouraged by Yahoo (who should be responsible enough as a service provider to advise members of the same!).
Functionality is mostly fine, BUT, here’s the one bug I’ve encountered:
It seems to be changing my city name when I enter it. For some reason, its trying to out think me. Why the text I enter for my city name is failing I don’t know, but I recommend just taking what people type in, and not trying to out think them. As it is, it can’t get my city correct. Shoudl I leave out the Zip? Cuz I don’t live in Spanish Flats, but YahooMaps thinks I do! LOL!
hsgirl said,
July 9, 2008 @ 10:57 am
This feature may be desireable to some groups but not ours! I would prefer to see more capability to add graphics and streaming music to the front page. I’d like to see post counts for each individual. I’d like to be able to edit a post AFTER posting. I want our PRIVATE GROUP chat room back! Now if these things are incorporated into Yahoo Groups, I wouldn’t have nary a complaint!
RS said,
July 9, 2008 @ 11:15 am
OK, figured it out. It does autopopulate (override) your city field if you put in the Zip. If you Don’t put in the Zip, it autopopulates the Zip based on your city field. FYI, double check your zip code database. Spanish Flats is tagged to the wrong Zip.
Went to Mod Central to see the version they chose. I recommend character limits be allowed to be set by the group for each text field. Some loser put random words, spam, and numbers in his and ittook up 1/3 of the results page. If I could limit the characters myself, that would be an easy way to limit spam and junk responses like ‘ahmed’ put in.
RS said,
July 9, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
Final thought for today: Not useful for me on 99% of my groups, but I could see a family site using it, or maybe a merchant-based group for storefronts. The security risks really worry me tho. For example, lets say when this is finalized and rolled out, my group owner puts the addresses as available to the public to see. Now that data can be harvested by bots and other programs, meaning lord only knows where my address will end up. Please tell us you have some though to security given besides caveat emptor?
I appreciate development of new toys for groups, I really do, but I would really like it if Yahoo put more effort towards things that the majority of the users want rather than widgety glitz like this. Sure these are probably much easier to develop, but check your suggestion boards, the laundry list has been given. Give us back chat rooms or enact some fixes for the rudderless groups. Or at least tell us why you won’t or can’t so we can pipe down about it. I don’t recall seeing mapping features on that list, but I haven’t checked in awhile.
I do like the goals in place for this product, being able to moderate the entries will help a lot. A good mod will be able to catch the nonsense, like the entry ‘ahmed’ put up on the Mod Central board that is basically dictionary spam. The customizable nature of it is great, and exactly the direction I want to see YG go. You also didn’t force this new device on all of us this time. Bravo! I’m encouraged. That’s how it oughtta be, in my opinion.
When this widget is all done, a tutorial video would be nice. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but some things bear explaining and mentioning.
Cheers.
Gary Plana said,
July 9, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
I took a look at this app, and it is great. I want to use it on my group, which is named MileHiCon, but I had a problem implementing it.
When I cut-and-pasted the HTML (?) code into the group’s Description as instructed. it didn’t work. My existing text compressed down into a single run-on paragraph, and the new stuff re the map app didn’t appear. My existing description is straight text without any imbedded HTML, I don’t speak HTML which is one reason I’m using Yahoo Groups, and I don’t know how to make straight text and HTML co-exist inside the Group Description field.
Please email me back and tell me how to make this work from within the Description field. Thanks!
RS said,
July 9, 2008 @ 5:18 pm
Hi Gary,
I think you’d have to format the whole description in HTML to pull it off. The good news is that its an easy code to insert. The tag “” will do it. Just put a couple of those between paragraph breaks. It should take care of itself after that, looks like it can’t “mix and match”. There may be an easier way, but that’s a good point. Hopefully they’ll make it a module or automated add-in so that we don’t have to learn code for our decsriptions just to add the feature.
RS said,
July 9, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
Shoot. This forum killed my tag. The tag is the letters BR between the greater/less than brackets (<). Hope that makes sense? Good luck!
ferry said,
July 9, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
good luck for your louncer, map beta,
SGcvn69 said,
July 9, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
I have to say that having been stalked online before I do not see this as a good feature. I value my privacy so much more after that incident. I would rather see Yahoo improve what they have currently than work on new things that may jeopardize someone’s safety. The groups that I am on and have managed/owned have been plagued with spam, problems with trimming posts, delayed posts, missing posts, etc. I realize this is a free feature, but it is quite frustrating at times to use it at times. I hope you take what I have to say into consideration also.
Fiona said,
July 9, 2008 @ 11:39 pm
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. yesterday I thought your People Map was a great idea, added it on my group I have to a deceased actor, whose brother is on board - then realised I was the only person willing to participate (we have 181 members) - people are too afraid of stalkers and security conscious, it is a sad reflection of today’s society but I really don’t think People Map is a good idea - perhaps for a specialist group it is. So I’m afraid we won’t be using it. Thank you for all the hard work you do, but this is the Big Brother attitude the world has today and I am glad to provide feedback!!
Maria said,
July 10, 2008 @ 10:42 am
Interesting. I haven’t played with this, but I’m not sure that my group members (1) would actually want to use it, or (2) can actually do very much with it, since the online maps of our physical community have not been updated to reflect the last 2 years’ development of roads and neighborhoods.
Anna said,
July 11, 2008 @ 10:09 am
I am not interested in this at all and consider it an invasion of privacy. I have had a problem in the past with stalker like people that were members of my group and the last thing I want is them knowing where I live or anyone else lives. I am sincerely hoping this will be an option we can opt out on if we desire in our groups. It is sad to say this will only enable those less than stable people out there be bolstered with the knowledge of where someone lives. PLEASE make sure we can eliminate this feature from our groups or anywhere else.
TW said,
July 12, 2008 @ 9:02 am
For security reasons I offer this from my list and ask for feedback:
“It is my understanding that map IS confined to the group-else I would
not have considered it Rozanne…
> -TW
TW, I hit the Maps link here expecting it to be just this Group, but
when it came up for me the names on the list were people from my
address book/Messenger, not just from this Group. ”
—–
I personally feel a great advantage to this for some lists, however? Keeping ACCESS to it [for each list if desired and it IS in my case] for MEMBERS ONLY is required. To help get around the “security issue” some perceive.
—–
I have added a comment in location along lines of “ruff location, even state/province capitol etc.. if desired.”
—–
IF access is only by MEMBERS, members will often be able to at LEAST be able to piece together that much i.e. state/province etc… COUNTRY would be really nice… Being able to SEE it GRAPHICALLY can be a really nice benny I feel.
-TW…
smaelz83 said,
July 13, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
Can locate group in Malaysia also?
Gordon said,
July 15, 2008 @ 6:42 am
In response to some of the recent comments above:
- Only members have access to the map.
- The map only displays whatever entries are manually added by members. No information is automatically added.
- If you are worried about privacy, either don’t user the People Map altogether or only add the information you feel comfortable sharing (e.g. only city or state rather than full address).
- Moderators will have the option to disable this for their group.
- Malaysian groups can definitely use the map, though you will be limited to whatever addresses Yahoo! Maps supports in Malaysia.
IceRyder said,
July 15, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
I would like to put a hit counter on the list homepage. Is that available? or will it be possible to include the script in the list description?
Thanks!
Jonathan said,
July 16, 2008 @ 5:20 am
I love this idea and no that the users in my group would use it!
Great job!
Irene said,
July 18, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
My group is already using this. This is great for us. We’ve now got over 40 people on the map and have just discovered that the map only shows up to 25 people at once. It is fine that there are only 25 listings per page, but it really defeats the purpose if we can’t see everyone on the map all at once.
Was this intentional? I’m really hoping this was an oversight, because I’m not interested in using it otherwise.
Lisa said,
July 21, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
We are very happy with our group map……it takes a little editing to make it fit our needs, but it is a great way to have your group connect ….and that is really the whole point of having a group.
The kinks and glitches are fine for now, we can live with it….really looking forward to the updates and the expansion of the feature.
well done…Yahoo!
parth said,
July 21, 2008 @ 9:15 pm
qsq
Charno said,
July 22, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
THIS IS GREAT NEWS! We have volunteers on our group from all over North America. Right now we have a spread sheet posted on our Group Site for people to fill in their location info… we have need of people to help transport a pet through another state, or do a home visit in an out of state city, etc. Plus it gives us an idea of the concentration of where we already have volunteers, so that area can be further contacted for future volunteers.
Being in New Orleans and having an all-volunteer nonprofit, there are not many locals living here, much less those who have the time to volunteer. They are too busy rebuilding their homes, their lives and their psyche!
Thank you… you certainly read our mind! We started our geographic files back in December… this is wonderful… can’t wait for the other moderators of our groups to see this.
Charno said,
July 22, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
Hey, one more thing… I see others are worried about security, privacy and stalkers… We don’t have that problem on my group, because we are not public. Everyone who requests to join has to give us information and have already been involved with the nonprofit at some level of service. New volunteers are ‘invited’ to join, and they can ignore us if they wish… but since we are a group dealing with katrina animals and post-katrina life, we are relatively new and only have 300 members.
So for us, it is AOK… but I can understand the people who are worried about everyone knowing where they live if it gives the exact address. But if it doesn’t what good does a city and state do? Most of the email addresses used, and people profiles, give you nothing as far as who people are.
JM said,
July 23, 2008 @ 8:31 am
This alarms me as a private member of several Yahoo groups. I remember when I discovered some years ago that a person could google my name and all of my address info would come up instantly - I had to visit the Google site and opt myself out of their system, but if someone more Net-savvy hadn’t clued me in I would never have known. Granted, I am listed by my own name in my local phone directory, so I am in the public records, but when I’m on the Net I want to preserve my anonymity to *everyone* I don’t know! That’s *why* I don’t use my full name here.
I strongly feel that you should set up the defaults for the map system so that Group owners/moderators have to get individual members’ permission to be opted in, *before* their information is shared with the group!
xntygkbwp zrwdgc said,
July 23, 2008 @ 11:25 am
vrbjfe xmdvsjc sako syop tyqjirb ofadb lbfdxtqh
breezynosacek said,
July 26, 2008 @ 10:41 pm
There might be some members of my group that would be gungho about it but for the majority of us, there is no way we want somebody being able to track us down. Especially women that live alone and Widows!
rashid said,
July 27, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
i think we have to understand what the word group means to live togather
and when we live togather we have to agree with each other and we have to help each other at any matter hope you all will agree my idea
and we have share all problem to ecah other and we have to solve the problem of other ok buddy
rashid
johnyaroundtheworld@yahoo.com
AIMAN said,
July 29, 2008 @ 12:38 am
hi
raj said,
July 29, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
keep smiling and enjoy
The Bossman said,
August 2, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
The Jack Schitt story
For some time many of us have
wondered just who is Jack Schitt? We
find ourselves at a loss when someone
says, “You don’t know Jack Schitt!”
Well, thanks to my genealogy efforts,
you can now respond in an intellectual way.
Jack Schitt is the only son of Awe Schitt.
Awe Schitt, the fertilizer magnate, married
O. Schitt, the owner of Needeep N. Schitt, Inc.
They had one son, Jack.
In turn, Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt.
The deeply religious couple produced
six children: Holie Schitt, Giva Schitt,
Fulla Schitt, Bull Schitt, and the twins
Deap Schitt and Dip Schitt. Against her
parents’ objections, Deap Schitt married
Dumb Schitt, a high school dropout.
After being married 15 years, Jack and
Noe Schitt divorced. Noe Schitt later
married Ted Sherlock, and, because her
kids were living with them, she wanted to
keep her previous name. She was then known
as Noe Schitt Sherlock.
Meanwhile, Dip Schitt married Loda Schitt,
and they produced a son with a rather
nervous disposition named Chicken Schitt.
Two of the other six children, Fulla Schitt
and Giva Schitt, were inseparable throughout
childhood and subsequently married the
Happens brothers in a dual ceremony.
The wedding announcement in the newspaper
announced the Schitt-Happens nuptials.
The Schitt-Happens children were Dawg,
Byrd, and Hoarse. Bull Schitt, the prodigal
son, left home to tour the world. He recently
returned from Italy with his new Italian bride, Pisa
Schitt.
Now, when someone says, “You don’t know Jack Schitt,”
you can correct them,And say I know all the about
Schitt’s
Lisa K said,
August 4, 2008 @ 7:25 am
We tested using the people map, but it is very disappointing to see that it only displays the newest 25 members on the map - with a group of 1600, this is a deal-breaker for us. Too bad as it did have potential to be useful and interesting.
Vicki said,
August 4, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
I have added the people map to all of my yahoo groups. I love it. The members have responded right away to having it. ( somegroups more than others but none the less positive).
I have one suggestion… I wish the map would appear open as you scroll down the group discription instead of actually having to go into the map to view. It would be great for new members to see right away where other members are located. I also love the options of doing the inquiry to fit our individual groups.
For health support groups it would be beneficial to be able to pin point medical or related landmarks as well as the members of group. Maybe that is something the team can address.
Thanks
Vicki said,
August 4, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
Lots of you have concerns about security and privacy. First as someone else mentioned if privacy is a concern you need your group set to members only.
Secondly security is something our group takes very seriously so before any members were allowed to add themselves I edited the forms and for name they put their group member ID instead of real name. Also as someone suggested we do not put our physical house address only our city/state
Now I do have another comment. I just realized as some others said it only displays 25 at a time. That does defeat the purpose of knowing where all your members are .
Vishnu said,
August 7, 2008 @ 8:39 pm
Hi, I’m new here.
Vishnu said,
August 7, 2008 @ 8:42 pm
I want to make friends with you. Aren’t you ready?
yasar said,
August 8, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
WHEN YOU LOOK THE NEW GROUP LISTING MY GROUP HAVE 1476 MEMBER MORE THEN #1 RANKING GROUP AND MY GROUP IS LISTED 25 THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR ME AND MY MEMBERS I DON’T KNOW HOW LONGER I CAN KIPPED MY MEMBERS
Group Listings
21 madatyan
18 Members, Archives: Public
Discus our educational questions
22 ArmemiansInCanada
43 Members, Archives: Membership required
This page is for everybody who wants to know more about this beautiful country, it’s history, culture and all other Armenia-related topics.
23 ArmenianHairenik
< 5 Members, Archives: Public
Armenians–but NO JERKS! Jerks will be deleted.
24 armeniansfromcanada1
< 5 Members, Archives: Membership required
this group invites all armenian from canada or anywhere to join and meet new or old friends. its hard finding other armenians to talk to and become friends with.. you can share music …(more)
25 ARMENIANTURKISHFRIENDSHIP
1476 Members, Archives: Public
Armenian Turkish Friendship (ATF) Armenia & Turkey is at the crossroads of Europe, the Balkans, the Black Sea region, Caucasus and the Middle East. It is no surprise that Armenian & …(more)
The Bossman said,
August 9, 2008 @ 5:25 am
Jami -Groups Community Manager and Ian, the person who leads the team,
I was amazed at what it takes and as to how many people there was controling this wonderful free community we have here.I would first like to sayy THANK YOU ALL thats involved here for being here everyday and doing such a great job at managing the
community groups the way you do.THANK YOU,THANK YOU,I repeated myself because after reading all the posted messages and listening to your
report as to what is involved here I thought you deserved them.I know I will look at this community in a much high respect.Thanks Again Ian and please continue your great work.
And Jami if I may please be sent a transcript also (just kidding) I downloaded one already Thank you
Everyone did you read my last comment,save Jami and Ian some work and download it yourself.
The Bossman
Nancy said,
August 9, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Hi I’m fairly new to jewelry making. I wonder if someone could help me out? I’m looking for 3 x 3 paper earring cards. I searched the web, am I looking in the wrong place? Thank you for any advice.
jolene said,
August 9, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
How do i find people who would be willing to help give a wonderful mom and dad a remdeled home. My parents have raised eight children as best as they could they made so many sacrafices for us and lost one of there daughters to cancer. They continue to help take care of her two children who have also lost therer father 10yrs ago.They have also lost five sibblings in the last two yrs. If anyone in the world deserves a beautiful home it would be them so please help me find someone who would like to do something wonderful for two great people.
jebel musa said,
August 10, 2008 @ 8:58 pm
Dear Fellow Mountaineers:
You are all invited for a free (food and transportation) river trekking in Sierra Madre National Park in Isabela. This is a trek in support against the illegal Logging activities in Luzon’s last frontier, an old growth forest reserve in the country. It will be on (and between the dates of ) August 18-24, 2008.
This project is initiated and composed of multi-sectoral group: Tanggol Kalikasan: an environmental law organization, Bantay Gubat ng Quezon, Mountaineering groups: Move-On Mountaineers, Ugnayan ng Mamumumndok ng Banahaw, Tayabas Mountaineers, and Life-Cove, a rescue volunteer organization, and other environmental groups.
This is also being supported by the Provincial Government of Isabela.
Join and support to save our remaining forest!
For more details please contact the following:
09204181864 09209230587
Jebel J. Musa Glenn Forbes
PRO, Move-On Mountaineers Program Director, Coastal and Marine
jeboyjmusa@yahoo.com.ph Tanggol Kalikasan
ENGINEER ASIF said,
August 11, 2008 @ 6:58 am
its a good side +923342728237