User-friendly website merges weather information and social content into Google map display
A Fort Worth advertising agency is raising the bar for website design and innovation with the launch of iMapWeather.com™, a new website that marries social networking with state-of-the-art weather information.
Balcom Agency, a leading creative services agency in the Southwest, designed the website using Google Maps, user-friendly navigation tools, global weather detection and forecasting technology, and social media features such as photo- and video-sharing.
Launching later this month, the website promises to be an entirely new way to experience the weather. Users will be able to connect with -- and through -– the weather by posting and sharing photo, videos, events, and Twitter-like text bursts, all localized inside the iMap.
“What makes iMapWeather revolutionary is the merging of geographic map technology, weather conditions and social media into one beautiful map display,” said Brian Blankenship, Balcom’s interactive creative director. “This has never been done.”
The Balcom Agency partnered with Weather Decision Technologies Inc. (WDT), a global leader in providing unique weather content and forecasting services, in a joint venture to create iMapWeather.com.
“iMapWeather is a completely new online phenomenon—a website that marries social networking with real-time weather data,” said Stuart Balcom, president of the Balcom Agency. “It’s a whole new way of accessing and sharing vital weather information for millions of people.”
Added Mike Eilts, president of WDT, “We are excited to partner with one of the United States’ leading creative services agencies to provide extremely accurate, global weather information directly to consumers as a terrific interactive weather map experience.”
iMapWeather’s design offers users the easiest, most enjoyable way to get weather conditions, view radar and satellite images, and see real-time lightning strikes. iMapWeather deploys a proprietary Flash application integrated with Google Maps API. It provides Doppler Radar, satellite imagery and the most sophisticated forecasting available anywhere.
Users share their content by sending it via e-mail from a computer or mobile device. Social media content will be displayed based on an algorithm that includes newness, popularity (views) and ranking.
The iMapWeather embed code can easily be copied and pasted onto any website. As such, iMapWeather.com™ is serving as a hub for a larger network of iMaps hosted by individuals and organizations on their websites, from ABC4 in Salt Lake City, Utah to SailingWorld.com, a magazine of the Bonnier Group.
About iMapWeather
iMapWeather is the easiest and most attractive and user-friendly way to get weather forecasts and current conditions, view radar and satellite images, and contribute and enjoy user-generated content like videos and photos. It will be the first website and widget (embeddable Flash application) to marry social networking with the weather.
iMapWeather is a joint venture between Balcom Agency, the leading creative services agency in Fort Worth, Texas, and Weather Decision Technologies, a global leader in providing state-of-the-science weather detection and forecasting systems and services based in Norman, Oklahoma.
Visit iMapWeather.com™ to experience the weather in a whole new way.
1 comment:
You can check out the beta, social version at: http://beta.imapweather.com
Let us know what you think!
Chip
Balcom Agency
iMapWeather.com
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