A world map on a pin-board. Your old passports. A diary. There are various ways of keeping track of the places we've been but it's not so much the where as the when that tends to escape me. I've been comparing options for recording both the where and the when of our travels.
Visited Countries
The name says it all. Visited Countries describes itself as:
...a small project demonstrating the power of manipulating the palette of a gif image on the fly. Here we start with a map of the world with each country in a different color. The script asks which country you have been to and sets the colors of those countries to red, the rest to green.
Visit the site, check the boxes, and generate an image like this:
That's the where, but not the when. Unfortunately you have to re-create the map from scratch each time you visit a new country—but it's very easy to incorporate the map into your website.
iPhoto
This happens to be the solution I'm using at present, primarily because my memory is largely based around a collection of images rather than written words. I use a Travel folder into which I create albums by year and trip, creating a timeline thus:
The comments field can be used to record details not appropriate for the image caption. Unless you want to upload your entire iPhoto library, this is more of a personal way of keeping tabs rather than a solution to share on the web.
Google Maps
A number of sites are doing creative things with Google Maps. I even tried to get to grips with the API myself and create a world map with pins indicated places visited. The idea was that clicking a pin would reveal a bubble containing date information and a link to a representative photo. I got so far, but then gave up, not being able to devote the time needed to fully understand and use the API:
Then I came across YourGMap which looked very promising. It does exactly the same thing I was trying to achieve, but with much less effort on my part:
After adding a few locations you can preview the map before signing-up (it's free). Clicking on any pin reveals your custom information about that location. You can choose to publish the resulting map as a direct link to the maps.yourgmap.com server, or have it display within your own site using inline frames (iframes).
Update 18.06.06: Another option is a flash-based map in the form of Indy Junior, $5 suggested. Not sure about the name, but configuration is easy using a simple XML file for location coordinates and dates, and web-based map customization.
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