This is an idea that’s been banging around in my head for a long time (and a number of you have mentioned it to me also, so thanks for kicking me in the butt): how to put the few places you really care about being close to on the map, and how can you get a sense for the scale of things.
The solution to both problems that I just rolled out is called “My Places”. The idea is that you can add your workplace, your girlfriend’s place, your school, your favorite gym, whatever to the map as a special blue pin to remind you where it is. Then, every time you look at a listing bubble, there will be a tab with a list of all your places, and the time it would take to drive and walk there (color coded, green for close, yellow for medium, red for far). The travel times will also show up in the side bar that shows up next to the original listing when you click through to it.
If you want to add a place or remove one, there are three places that you can do so – on the My Places tab on a listing bubble, on the little My Places menu in the upper left of the map, or on the original listing on the PadMapper sidebar.
It’s a pretty simple idea, but I hope it will be useful to all of you. I decided to push it out rather than wait until it was completely polished so that I could collect people’s impressions about it without committing too much time to polishing the wrong thing, so please let me know your feedback if you have any! Is it useful? Useless? I can be reached at padmapper@gmail.com.
Thanks a lot, and happy hunting!
Eric
PS: 30-odd hours left for voting on the Webby’s. Please help PadMapper win it! Vote Here
Hi Eric,
My brother stumbled upon your site when he was searching for an apartment in Austin. He originally tried Craigslist (overwhelming) and an apartment locator (underwhelming) to no avail. In fact, the “locator” was only able to locate one apartment that met his criteria! That same night, he and I used Padmapper and immediately found TEN prospective apartments. The next morning, he found the perfect place. Thanks for your awesome website. I’ve been telling everyone about it and just voted for you in the Webbies. Good luck!
[…] PadMapper, on their new feature “My Places”: The idea is that you can add your workplace, your girlfriend’s place, your school, your favorite gym, whatever to the map as a special blue pin to remind you where it is. Then, every time you look at a listing bubble, there will be a tab with a list of all your places, and the time it would take to drive and walk there (color coded, green for close, yellow for medium, red for far). […]
Hi Marianne, really glad it was helpful. Thanks so much for telling everyone about it and voting for it in the Webbies! It’s a close vote, with about 11 hours to go, so every vote helps 🙂
Hi,
the major problem with this website is that alot, i’ll say the majority of people posting places put their markers in the wrong spot. I live in NYC… have been looking for a place for months, and most of the postings in the areas i’m looking to move in are actually much further out. Also, i’ve noticed many instances of people grabbing screen shots of apartments of this site, and then reposting them. Lots of scammers… it would be nice if there was some kind of screening going on, i’m beginning to think going to this site is just a waste of my time.
Hey, sorry about that. I’m planning on doing more from the filtering standpoint in the future. Currently it’s mostly unfiltered by default, so unfortunately it’s up to them to post correct addresses, but if you notice any trends in places that are wrongly positioned, that can help you filter out stuff that’s bad. If you flag ones that are wrong, you can help everyone out. Good luck with your hunt!