General
- What is the Wordpress PlanetEye Maps plugin?
- Where can I download the plugin?
- Why add a Map to a blog post?
- Do I need to know HTML to use the plug-in?
- How do I use the plug-in?
General
1. What is the Wordpress PlanetEye Maps plugin?
The Wordpress PlanetEye Maps plugin allows a blogger to link blog posts to any of the places on PlanetEye.com. With a growing list of hotels, restaurants, attractions, landmarks and other points of interest to the traveller, these links give the reader access to useful information related to your post while enhancing the appearance of your blog with a cool Google Map.
2. Where can I download the plugin?
You can find the latest version of the PlanetEye Maps plugin along with installation instructions and other technical information at the Wordpress.org Plugin Directory under the geotag, google, map tags
3. Why add a Map to a blog post?
Geotagging is the process of assigning a specific set of co-ordinates to pieces of information. These co-ordinates are called latitude and longitude (or lat/lon for short). Essentially, each city or place, photo of a place – or in this case blog posts – mentioning a place, are related by way of what they are actually about.
For example, the lat/lon co-ordinates of Palazzo Grassi, an art museum in Venice, are 45.4337048, 12.3280799. A photo taken by a PlanetEye user of that place may have the exact same co-ordinates, which is meaningless information to most people. However, if you then write a blog post about Palazzo Grassi and include a simple link back to the Palazzo Grassi page on PlanetEye that photo taken by a traveler you don’t know and your article now have something in common. And PlanetEye can tell they are in reference to the same place.
This means a photo you didn’t take and the blog post that you just wrote are now connected – offering a richer experience for the reader. Of course, a single photo and blog post isn’t enough. By taking the lat/lon, PlanetEye also knows what’s in the area surrounding the Palazzao Grassi.
So without you having to write anything more, your reader can see that photo and find out there is a hotel near-by, and a place to eat that has been reviewed by the New York Times.
4. Do I need to know HTML to use the plug-in?
No – the plug-in has been designed to be as easy to use as possible. All you will need to do is use the Wordpress visual editor to write your posts, since that’s how you access the geotagging plug-in.
5. How do I use the plug-in?
Step 1: Login to Wordpress and Start a New Post
The first step is to make sure you are logged in to your blog and have started to write a new post.
New Post
Step 2: Select the Text You Want to Link
While writing your post, highlight any text that you would like to convert into a location on the map. Usually the name of a place or a city will be a good choice.
Select Text to Link
Step 3: Click on the PlanetEye Icon
Once you have selected the text you want to link back to PlanetEye, click on the PlanetEye icon to open the window where you will search for the place to which you are linking. The screenshot below shows the mouse pointer hovering over the icon you will want to click.
Select Text to Link
Step 4: Search for the Place to Which You Are Linking
Now that the search window is open, you are going to want to search for the place you are writing about. You can just enter the name of the place (the example shown in the screenshot below is The Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, WA) and then click the Search button. You can add additional clarifications to ensure you receive relevant results – such as the city where the place is located, or the full address.
Plug-in with Search Query
Step 5: Find the Correct Place
Once the results appear, you can find the one you are referring to and click the “Link to This Place” button.
Link to a Specific Result
Step 6: Let PlanetEye do the work.
Once you click the “Link to This Place” button, the plug-in will insert the correct code into your post and will create a nice Google Map featuring this location. At the same time we use this opportunity to make sure the PlanetEye site is updated with any places we didn’t know about. This will only take a few seconds.
Plug-in Creating the Geotag
Step 7: Done!
You can repeat this process for as many location as you wish within your post. All of them will appear in the Google Map.
Post Now Geotagged