WikiLoc's blog

A new way to download Wikiloc's trails!!

2011-11-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

Throughout tomorrow and Saturday the Wikiloc's trail download system will experience some changes which will gradually get to all users. We have created a new functionnality to directly connect Wikiloc with your Garmin GPS. Read a little further down for details of this new feature.

On the other hand, this new plugin has forced us to redesign the trail download interface. It's a redesign which does not affect the way we download trails and it's just a visual and interface update. From now on, when you download a trail a window will pop up with these three tabs:

- GPX: with the current existing list of options for downloading in GPX format
- Google Earth: download in KML format for viewing on Google Earth
- Garmin: to create the connection with the Garmin Communicator plugin for direct download to your GPS

But with the new plugin is where there's really a significant change. Let's go through the details.

Wikiloc-Garmin Connection

From now on it'll be even easier to download trails directly to your Garmin GPS. The new connection enables you to download and store trails straight to your gps, making the process much faster and easier to carry on.

How it works:
To download trails straight to your Garmin GPS follow these steps:

Find a trail on Wikiloc and click on the Download link

On the download window, select the Garmin tab

Install the Garmin Communicator plugin on your computer (if it's not already installed or if you have an older version)

Make sure that the install process worked fine by going to the Garmin test page (reboot if needed)

Plug in your GPS to your computer

Allow Wikiloc to communicate with your GPS

Once the GPS is detected, click on Download (optionally, you can change the number of points the track can be downloaded as)

Supported Platforms:
The Wikiloc-Garmin connection will work on all platforms on which you can install the Garmin Communicator plugin. Currently those are:

PC: PCs with Windows 7, XP or Vista and Internet Explorer 6 +, Firefox 1.5 + or Chrome
Mac: Intel or PowerPC G4 or later Mac OS 10.4 or later with Safari 2.0 +, Firefox 2.0 + or Chrome

We would like you to tell us how well this new connection works, if it's easy to use, if it brings up errors, etc... So we'll greatly appreciate your feedback!

Wikiloc Downtime November 5th 2011

2011-11-03T04:53:00.000-07:00

On Saturday November 5, 2011 Wikiloc not available on Saturday from 22:00 GMT until 05:00 GMT the next day. You may not access or search for trails, upload them or use any of the Wikiloc's usual functionality. We will use this downtime in the service to improve the infrastructure and give more power to the system, which will result in faster loading pages and more room to store tracks and photos.

Wikiloc downtime:
from 22:00 GMT on Saturday November 5
to 05:00 GMT on Sunday November 6

Thank you,
Wikiloc Team

Wikiloc er nú fáanleg á íslensku!!!

2011-10-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

(Wikiloc is now available in Icelandic)

Thanks to the effort and great colaboration of Robert Beck, Wikiloc is now fully available in Icelandic! Robert is a heavy user of Wikiloc and has shared many tracks of his own. Thank you Robert, we appreciate your hard work!!

And just to show you one of the ton of Iceland's trails you can find on Wikiloc, here's a great route from humall in one of the corners of this beatiful country

On this weekend's downtime

2011-09-20T02:17:00.000-07:00

First of all thank you for the patience you all have had with this unexpected downtime of Wikiloc (Sept. 18 to 20)

During maintenance tasks we detected an unusual behavior of the database that was affecting its contents. Given the possibility of this being a huge problem we decided to stop the server and analyze the situation looking for the source of the issue.

It seems that some records in the database were corrupted due to disk failure. Once this has been detected we have proceeded to the recovery of the data, also including the content added after the last backup. This process has been painfully slow, but that was the only way users were not affected and that you didn't loose any of the information uploaded.

Once the problem has been fixed, we have also taken advantage of this situation to update the structure of servers and put some updates in place, like our brand new homepage. We hope you like it!

Please, excuse us if we have caused any inconvenience during these three days.

Thank you so much for all the suport we have received from you during this hiccup. Happy trails!

Wikiloc Team

New filters on searches

2011-06-16T03:43:00.000-07:00

One of the most common requests to improve Wikiloc which many users ask for is definitely improving the search for trails existing on the system. It is difficult (or, rather, long) to find trails based on criteria such as the type of activity, distance or trail difficulty. We knew it was a necessary improvement but we have not been able to put it on the system for quite some time. But search filters are finally here!

In the last few days on all search pages and listings of trails you have on the left side of the screen different filters that can be applied to fine-tune searches and quickly reach the trails you're interested in. The filters which can be applied are:

- Loop trails or just one way
- Trail distance
- Type of activity
- Difficulty
- Origin of the track (GPS, mobile, hand-drawn)

In addition to those new filters there's another feature added in the search results. Now these results can be sorted according to three different criteria :

- Popularity : the 'best' trail first (a 'best trail' means having a higher quality track, a good description and title, many visits, pictures and videos added, etc)
- Relevance : first the trails with the search criteria in the title, description, etc.
- Upload date : the latest added trails on top of the list

Also note that you can activate an activity as the search criteria by the default in all searches. That is, if you have set it up that you like climbing, on the searches you do (provided that you are logged in the system) will focus only on climbing trails, and the results will show up only this type of trails (you can then modify the criteria to broaden it up to more activity types). To set the default activity in searches you must select the activity on your user profile.

We hope this is going to help you find the best trails in the world!

Wikiloc for iphone

2011-05-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

It took us a while, but we've got ready our shiny new iphone application!!!

More and more you, outdoors lovers, get out there to practice your favourite sport with your favourite gadget to track your outings and share them with your friends afterwards. But we know that you always also carry your smartphone with you, and sometimes 2 devices is one device too many. Here's where the Wikiloc iphone app comes into play! With the new app you will be able ditch your heavy GPS and still track those amazing hiking routes you discover every weekend!

So, what exactly can I do with the app?

The Wikiloc app is a route tracker. This means it uses the iphone's built-in GPS to track your location, show it to you on a Google map and then store it so you can upload the full track into your Wikiloc account. So this will be very useful for any type of outdoor activities, but specially for the hikers, runners, bikers and all those who like to travel light. Another important feature is that you can take photos on the go and they will be uploaded together with the track.

Here's some details on the features you can find in the app:

Record your activities on the go and upload them to Wikiloc

Take photos and upload them into the trail on Wikiloc

Get stats (distance, speed, elevation,...) of the track

Store your tracks on your phone for later upload

Block the phone and keep it recording the trail

We have built the application following the 'Wikiloc philosophy': make it useful, make it simple. There are no instructions, nor a million configuration options. Just install it and start recording your activities. It's that simple!

Remember also that if you have your Wikiloc account connected to your Facebook profile, the trail you have just done and uploaded into your account will show up on your Facebook wall instantly. Let the world know you worked out hard!

And last, but not least, the Wikiloc app is free!! So go get it on the app store and let us know how do you like it!

If you have any suggestions for improvements or have uncovered any bugs, head over to the forum and leave there some feedback for us. We have improvements coming up but we'd like to know what's important for you to get it done first!

Download the Wikiloc iphone App now!

Wikiloc Helps Writing Books

2011-04-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

We all turn to Internet to find places, trails and info for our outdoor outings. But let's not forget there's invaluable info not available in digital format. There are thousands of books that might be your best chance to find what you need for your next trip into the wild.

And it doesn't have to be just one media or the other. And the proof that mixing both worlds is a great idea is on these two books:

Hudson Valley GPS Hiking - Louis T. Rivas has done a great job on putting together popular hikes through some of the forgotten places around the New York Hudson Valley, an area he has been exploring for 12 years. But he has also been a Wikiloc user for a long time (HikingLou) and he has been uploading and sharing with the community the tracks and waypoints that will help you using the book. You can get his book on hudsonvalleyhikingny.com. Well done Louis!

Still unpublished, the second book is about a hiking trip that must be totally amazing to do. The book title is "De Reus a Roma" (From Reus to Rome) by Josep-Àngel Gassó Garreta and it describes the complete route from the Spain's city of Reus to Rome. Each stage has very carefully detailed information for hikers and it includes a link to the GPS track for that day uploaded on Wikiloc. We look forward reading you work Josep-Angel!

We've got new forum!

2011-03-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

As of Friday March 18th our forum has a bright new suit! Well, it's not just the outside that has been updated, but also the structure and the integration with Wikiloc.

One of the main new features of the forum is that now we've got different sub-forums for different languages. For now we have Spanish, English, French and Catalan as separate languages and and extra sub-forum for all the other questions in other languages. With this update, you can all post new questions and search for answers in your own language, and thus improve the chances of getting help out of the comments of other users.

We have also created a new GPS sub-forum. There were so many questions around how to use GPS, which one to buy or how to use GPS software to move back and forth tracks between devices and Wikiloc, that it made sense to create a separate area where to group all these questions.

Also mention that now, under each Wikiloc user's profile, there's a link which will take you to all the user's activity in the forum. A nice and easy way to quickly find possible answers on different topics for that user.

We'd like to thank and give credit of the authorship of the new forum template: Mike Lothar has done an excellent job on this simple, clean and effective template. Many thanks also to our friends at Panoramio, who showed us the way to go with this upgrade.

We hope you like the new forum and that you will contribute to make it THE place for all Wikiloc users where to find answers, help and even a place where to meet outside in the real world.

Wikiloc Channels

2011-03-24T03:49:00.001-07:00

One of our goals at Wikiloc is to give more tools to businesses and organizations to help them grow by unleashing all the possibilities of the GPS track information they already have created.

Our first tool built with this goal in mind is Wikiloc Channels. A Channel is a special place in Wikiloc (call it a micro-site if you like) where all the tracks and photos of a single business, organization or touristic brand are grouped together. The Channel has an improved structure, design and many added features to create a professional looking place where to store your GPS related information and, more important, to build a community around it.

Some of the Channel features are:

Upload of GPS tracks, photos and videos

Look and feel customizable to adapt to the business needs (images, links, colors, etc)

Multi-language

Hability to add layers of points of interest to each track, including photos, descriptions, pdf documents, etc...

Hability to add tracks uploaded by other Wikiloc users

Social Media tools (facebook, twitter, etc)

Management of all the content and customizations through a CRM-style behind the scenes software

Software provided as SaaS

Traffic statistics

Free of advertisement (i.e. regular Wikiloc banners )

Wikiloc Channels are aimed at all kind of organizations wanting to grow their business through building a powerful repository of GPS tracks and sharing them with their clients and the Wikiloc global community. Let me give you a quick example. The Costa Brava and Pirineu de Girona is an organization managing one of the most turistic brands in Spain. They are now aiming at an international, sustainable and eco-conscious target who would come to visit Spain to enjoy the outdoors by doing all kinds of activities. By creating their Costa Brava Channel and providing all their local knowledge on trails and services around them they provide the potential tourists with all the information they need to get the most out of their stay. Moreover, they use the built-in social media tools to post updates about new routes and activities thus keeping their fans and followers up to date.

But this is just an example. Many other industries can benefit from a Wikiloc Channel: sports product brands, sport teams, athletes, small touristic/lodging/cultural businesses, etc.

More Channels are already in the pipeline to be launched in the upcoming months. We're excited about it!

Trails around Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii

2011-03-08T01:15:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, when visiting the Hawaii Islands, I was hoping to see a sudden and spectacular volcano eruption in Big Island. Nothing serious or dangerous but just big enough to get a hint at the nature's power. Well, that didn't happen, but instead it just happened this past weekend. I'm quite far away from Hawaii now so I'll dream about what it may look like to be there through wikiloc's trails! So join me and check out this beautiful track below in the Volcanoes National Park uploaded by andre123.

There are many other trails and pictures around the area of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii. Check them all out!

Picture courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

New icon and 6M pageviews

2011-03-07T00:29:00.001-08:00

The number of sports one can practice has grown in an unbelievable way for the last few decades. Sports which were inexistant just a few years ago are now booming around the planet. This means more work for us in adding all those activities in Wikiloc! We'll be adding many more activities in the upcoming weeks, but for now we have added one which was a long time request by users: trail running. The icon is already available to choose from the list when you create a new (or edit an old) trail. Make sure you update your old runs!

On a side note, we also wanted to share with Wikiloc's users that this past month we reached another milestone: the number of monthly page views went beyond the mark of 6 million. We can just thank you all again for choosing Wikiloc to share your adventures around the world!

Advertising Opportunities on Wikiloc.com

2010-12-15T04:01:00.000-08:00

Wikiloc was born in 2005. Back then, we didn´t know if it was the right time to launch something like that, if the site would be useful for the users or how it would evolve over the time. But there was something that was very clear to us: the site would be successful only if you, the community of users, were at the top of each end every decision we take at Wikiloc. Only if you felt really comfortable uploading tracks, sharing content and making comments this would be something worth keeping working at. Thus this has turned into our motto: the user goes first.

And so over the years, we have been working with the above goal in mind. Each new feature we add, each change we make or each functionality we remove from the site goes towards making Wikiloc user's life easier, while at the same time trying to add new features to give you more power to do more, to share more, to discover more.

We have gone a long way, but this is just the beginning. Though we can't yet share it with all of you, we have great plans in mind and we are extremely excited about them. Part of those plans involve making our team to grow and to take it to the next level. And for this, my friends, we need to tap into a stronger source of income. Although we have had AdSense advertising on Wikiloc, it's not as relevant as we would like, thus not as useful nor close to the motto I've stated above. We believe that advertising needs to fulfill three pillars: allow us to built a better site, give results to advertisers AND to add value to the user. Those three points are essential. It needs to be a win-win-win situation, if not, it simply won´t work.

For this, for the last few weeks we have been working on setting up our platform to open Wikiloc to new sponsors and advertisers. If you own (or work in) a business in an industry closely related to Wikiloc content, you are in sync with Wikiloc's way of doing things and want to share your products or services with hundreds of thousands of internet users, drop us a line at advertise AT wikiloc DOT com or take a look at our advertising page.

And if you are one of Wikiloc's community members, expect the same old Wikiloc with new added value and new great things ahead.

Jordi

Explore photos taken along the trails

2010-09-17T01:24:00.000-07:00

We've improved the dynamic map page you use to explore trails by adding a photo thumbnail bar right below the map. The already more than 350.000 beautiful photos and videos we all have shared in wikiloc.com had to be more prominent.

By moving the mouse pointer above the trails list, on the icon on the map or on a photo thumbnail, you'll see that the trail is highlighted, if you click you'll navigate to that trail's page with all the details.

If you want to try it live simply open the map page and start exploring!

We hope that will help you discover interesting trails easily in the World Map before opening the detailed trail page.

We've also been working in several bug fixes and speed improvements and we've advanced in new features that soon will go live.

Hope you like it!

--Jordi

Yesterday's Outage

2010-09-17T00:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, from 1:12pm until shortly before 9pm GMT, we had an unscheduled and unplanned outage due to a DNS issue at our domain registrar. That basically means that Wikiloc couldn't be reached from several European countries (see screenshot below).

I've been working like a mad man last night to make the site accessible from everywhere again, I have setup two DNS servers and several other measures that should prevent this from happening again in the future. Wikiloc.com should be back up soon for you, if it’s not already.

The site was functioning normally and of course no data has been lost. It's been just a domain name resolution issue.

My sincere apologies and thanks for your patience. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.

--
Jordi

You may now choose your activities

2010-05-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have contacted me telling that "I'm a hiker/cyclist and I'd like to see only hiking/bicycling trails in Wikiloc", I'm happy to announce that you may already do so.

For example, I'm currently planning a bicycle touring trip in Switzerland and now I can choose to see only bicycling trails in the area:

Additionally you can sign in and set your preferred activities by default in your settings page and from then on see only those activities in Wikiloc:

I know many of you have been awaiting for this feature, so many thanks for your patience and for your continuous feedback. Hope you enjoy it!

--Jordi

Wikiloc enters the Alexa's "top 50.000" sites!

2010-05-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist to post this one :) Wikiloc is placed 49,818 in the Alexa Traffic Rank list. That's a pretty cool number on the Internet considering there are an estimated 206,026,787 sites out there.

Back to work, I'm working on several improvements that will go live in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Wikiloc artık Türkçe olarakta yayında!

2010-04-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

(Now Wikiloc also on air in Turkish)

Kudos to Ersan Cinan for his full translation of Wikiloc to Turkish.

There are several interesting trails in Turkey like Balloon flight over Cappadocia or a more refreshing hike to a beautiful waterfall near the city of Izmir:

Thanks Ersan!

Jordi

Upcoming events

2010-04-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder for upcoming appearances, on May 11th I’ll be in Sevilla, Spain, to speak at the Encuentro de Directivos de Cajasol. After the event I’ll be in Sevilla briefly if anyone wants to do a meetup

160.000 trails and new server

2010-04-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Today April 7th is Wikiloc's birthday (and mine too :) and the present for Wikiloc has been a much more powerful i7 server. The old server was almost melting during traffic peaks and it deserved a break after all these years of good service.

I hope you'll enjoy browsing trails in wikiloc.com much faster from now on.

To date you and me together with almost 130,000 other users have shared already more than 162,000 trails with beautiful photos taken along the trail (249,402 so far).

Now you can likely find an outdoor trail almost anywhere you visit like hiking or mountain biking in Easter Island (Rapa Nui), walking among penguins in Antartica or taking an off-road trip to watch a volcano eruption in Iceland

We're growing fast in around 9,000 new trails per month and enjoying a lot working on the project. More improvements that you've suggested are in the pipe and will go online soon. Stay tuned!

Jordi

Wikiloc winner of the Living Labs Global Showcase Award!

2010-02-24T09:04:00.001-08:00

Within the framework of the Living Labs Global showcase, wikiloc has been awarded by the cities of Comarca de La Selva (Spain) and Taipei (Taiwan).

We are very happy with this award. We hope wikiloc will become a global source of interesting outdoor activities at the destination available for everyone and an alternative for a more sustainable and rewarding way of travel for all of us.

You might also watch the video that we prepared for the Living Labs contest, we created it thanks to the professional help of someone who's in the NBA of multimedia content design, Toño Garcia from ShakingBox, they're great people doing great stuff.

Wikiloc at the Change Summit in National Geographic

2010-01-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to announce that we'll have the opportunity to make a presentation of Wikiloc at the Change Summit that will be held in National Geographic's headquarters in Washington DC after winning the Geotourism Challenge.

And thanks to Ashoka Changemakers we'll join the other winners, Pepy tours from Cambodia and Nature Air from Costa Rica, in a round table at the Educational Travel Conference in Rhode Island where more than 1000 nonprofit travel professionals will meet.

We hope to return from those events with many new ideas to improve Wikiloc and make it much more useful for you. If you happen to be there give me a howler, I'd be happy to meet you in DC or in Rhode Island!

--Jordi

More map layers available

2010-01-15T01:24:00.000-08:00

You have available two new cool base maps with worldwide coverage. The first one is a relief map that albeit hasn't data at big scales (you'll have to zoom out to see the map) it is spectacular specially around mountains. It is maintained and offered by the guys at http://maps-for-free.com/ and looks like this:

The second one is also a great topographic map with beautifully detailed info (contour lines, trees depicting forests, shelters etc..) I love it. We can enjoy this map thanks to the guys at http://www.opencyclemap.org/

The trail above is a summer ascent to the Mont Blanc peak in the French Alps climbed and shared in Wikiloc by Ivar Thorolfsson

If you know another public map service please tell me and I'll try to add it to the current map list. I've had several requests from you to add more maps from Russia, Canada, France etc.. and I'm still working on them since they require to dive into GIS geeky stuff including coordinate reprojections. I cannot advance a date, hope to add them to Wikiloc soon. Thanks!

--Jordi

Your trails look better in Wikiloc

2009-12-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to bring you news about a recent improvement in wikiloc.com to improve the resolution of all the beautiful photos taken along the trails.

All scaled photos and thumbnails (above half a million) shown on the site have been regenerated using a better compression algorithm and now they look nicer:

Before:

Now:

Subtle but important to keep quality high across the site

Your original photos are kept unchanged as you uploaded them, this improvement only applies to the resized versions shown at wikiloc.com.

Hope you like it!

[Update] These photos were taken by ClipperCreekWanderer along Lake Powel-Rainbow bridge /Echo camp and Bryce Canyon NP-Navajo loop trails, both in Utah (USA)

Wikiloc in Polish!

2009-10-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Grzegorz and Zbigniew Ilków wikiloc is fully translated to Рolish (Polski). As always, any help to bring down language barriers is highly appreciated, if you wish to volunteer translating to your language just drop me an e-mail at jordi A T wikiloc.com. Thanks a lot!

Please visit the about Wikiloc page for the complete list of volunteers.

New features

2009-10-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to bring you two new features recently added to Wikiloc.com:

While drawing a trail on a map, you can now work with a maximized map that covers most of your screen and also you may choose between Google Maps or third party maps like USGS topo, ICC topo, etc.. I'm working in several additional maps that you've recently suggested. Having a choice to switch between maps is useful when you know that there is a trail that is not visible in the satellite view, perhaps covered by trees. In those cases, a topographic map could be of help:

There has been some not so visual work behind the scenes too, like correcting the elevation profile graphs for all trails (that's +100.000) that now display elevation-distance (instead of elevation-time as before). Additionally elevation data has been automatically calculated to all trails with lack of height value on their coordinates. Thanks to all of you who have contacted me directly or in the forum raising the need to fix it. Now all trails in Wikiloc should have elevation data (if you discover one that do not, please tell me..)

Oh! and try to move the mouse over the elevation profile graph! hope you find it useful :-)

[UPDATE]

Another small improvement that will surely make it easier to maintain your trails. Aside from editing from "your trails" page, you may also start editing from the trail page itself. The icon is right below the trail's name, above the map:

Jordi

Wikiloc winner of the Geotourism Challenge!

2009-09-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to bring you this news. A recognition from Ashoka Changemaker's and National Geographic to Wikiloc as a community, to all of us who share beautiful outdoor trails and photos in wikiloc.com.

My sincere thanks to all of you that have voted for Wikiloc and made this huge achievement possible. The number of votes has been really high as well as the emails of support I've got from you.

Aside from a better hardware infrastructure, I hope that this will also accelerate several improvements on the site that are in the pipe.

Many thanks!

--Jordi

Tiny gadget for your blog

2009-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Do you have a blog and would like to show off your latest outdoor trails? you may do it easily: access your profile by clicking on your username at the upper-right section of Wikiloc, grab the HTML code under "Blog Widget" and paste it to your blog.

Here's mine:

That was a Sunday morning hack so if you detect some issue please tell me at jordi -AT- wikiloc.com and I'll fix it ASAP :-) I appreciate your feedback

Hope you like it!

--Jordi

Wikiloc finalist of the Geoturism Challenge!

2009-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that Wikiloc is a finalist of the Geotourism challenge organized by Ashoka's Changemakers and National Geographic.

Geotourism, "tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place -its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents" is in the heart of the Wikiloc's community and we're proud to be part of it.

I would like to encourage you to enter and vote for the 3 projects that you find more interesting (you should vote for 3 projects, marking 3 checkboxes for your vote to have effect), and needless to say that if Wikiloc is amongst your prefered ones, the better! :)

Wikiloc finalista del concurso de Geoturismo!

2009-07-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Me alegro de poder anunciar que Wikiloc ha sido seleccionado como uno de los 10 proyectos finalistas en el concurso de Geoturismo organizado por Ashoka’s Changemakers y National Geographic.

El Geoturismo, "el turismo que sustenta o realza el carácter geográfico de un lugar - su medio ambiente, la cultura, la estética, el patrimonio y el bienestar de sus residentes" es la base de la comunidad de Wikiloc y por la que estamos orgullosos de formar parte.

Os animo a que entréis y voteis por los 3 proyectos que encontreis mas interesantes (debes votar por 3 proyectos marcando 3 casillas para que el voto tenga efecto), y si Wikiloc es uno de ellos mucho mejor! :)

Wikiloc in Russian!

2009-06-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

маршруты и путевые точки по всему миру!

Thanks to Herurg wikiloc is fully translated to Русский (Russian). Any help with new translations is highly appreciated, if you wish to volunteer translating to your language just drop me an e-mail at jordi A T wikiloc.com. Many thanks in advance!

Please visit the about Wikiloc page for the complete list of volunteers.

Draw your trails by hand

2009-05-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

Whether you are planning a new trail for your next trip or willing to share a cool route you know by heart but haven't in your GPS receiver, you may find interesting a new feature of wikiloc that allows you to draw tracks manually on a map:

The link to access the tool is on the right side of the upload page

You may also add up to 25 waypoints along the route. And the elevation data and graph will be also calculated automatically for you.

Hope this will be an useful addition to your trail mapping toolbox! :)

Best,
Jordi

Wikiloc now a "preview layer" of Google Earth!

2009-03-09T04:06:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to write about this new milestone that will surely make it easier to explore and discover great outdoor trails with Google Earth.

From now on several trails from Wikiloc will be shown automatically just after opening Google Earth:

That makes the layer easily discoverable since it may be activated by clicking on the "Show this layer" button on the balloon:

You may also choose to turn it on/off from Google Earth's Gallery section as before (see former post)

Enjoy and happy trails!

--Jordi

Wikiloc in Serbian!

2009-02-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Alex Milanovic we have Wikiloc in Serbian (Srpski (BiH))

With Serbian Wikiloc is already available in 13 languages, but needless to say that more translations are very welcome. If you wish to help in bringing language barriers down, just drop me an e-mail at jordi A T wikiloc.com

You can visit the 'about Wikiloc' page for a complete list of collaborators.

50000 trails from around the World

2009-02-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

Today we have reached another magic number in Wikiloc. This time not related to traffic but to the number of trails all of us have shared so far in Wikiloc: 50.000

I hope that this will help you find trails in your favourite areas but also discover amazing outdoor spots like mountain bike trails in Rapa Nui, tracks in the Hawaii's Volcanoes N.P., snorkeling spots in Mozambique or mountaineering routes in Patagonia. We have a beautiful World to explore!

And that's just another step in the long trail we have in front of us. I'm working hard improving the site with your suggestions and hope to continue getting you on board. Stay tuned, more news are coming.

Enjoy and happy trails!
Jordi

New logo!

2008-11-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

As you may have already realized, wikiloc has a brand new logo. The former logo was gimp'd by me in the early days of wikiloc and was, simply put, quite 'plain' :)

Luckily Toño García, a happy wikiloc user that works as a motion graphic designer and partner at www.shakingbox.com and collaborates with web design in www.biotive.com offered to upgrade the old logo into a better one.

After several tweaks, adjustments and fixer-uppers (thanks Toño for your patience!) in the 3D sphere:

we were almost convinced in showing the ball on the left side of the name, like:

but finally, after some deep thinking and a few beers we agreed in the final version:

and yep, we're proud of it

Hope you like it :)

New office

2008-11-10T00:40:00.000-08:00

Wikiloc has moved to the Scientific Parc in Girona. I'm excited to be in this location with plenty of space, nice views and all kind of IT facilities.

The mountains on the background are one of our favourite spots for hiking and mountain biking with many options to ride after work :)

If you're in the area drop me an email!

Oh! and the carpets on the floor with the Wikiloc logo are hand made by Montse. Thanks Montse! :)

Stay tuned, more news are coming!

--Jordi

Wikiloc uses Geonames

2008-10-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

I could say many things about the Geonames.org web services and all good.

If you are doing something 'geo' I highly recommend you to take a look at what Marc Wick offers you in geonames.org

The only thing that could be improved in the free web services is the response time. Wikiloc relies heavily in geonames so it was time to switch to the commercial version, speed up wikiloc and at the same time collaborate in keeping the initiative lead by Marc in good health.

So from now on when you look for a place name in Wikiloc.com, you'll get results much faster.

Enjoy!

1 million page views

2008-10-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Last month Wikiloc reached the magic number of 1 million page views per month.

I am very honoured by all of you that visit Wikiloc and contribute to the community uploading your tracks.

Thanks guys!

Wikiloc trails now in Google Earth!

2008-08-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

The trails from Wikiloc have been added to Google Earth! See post in official Google Blog

Now the millions of users of Google Earth can watch your trails just by clicking on the Wikiloc icon in the Gallery on the left menu (picture below). You can also use Google Earth to explore the more than 110.000 trails from Wikiloc.

Fig. Google Earth's screenshot showing how to activate Wikiloc layer (click for a larger view)

If you still don't have Google Earth, you may download it for free here

BTW: Please expect a delay of a week or so until the trails you upload in Wikiloc's website appear in Google Earth

Enjoy!

Wikiloc in Deutsch, Greek, Ukrainian...

2008-06-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to André, Arion and Larry Wikiloc is available in Deutsch, Greek and Ukrainian! and more translations are coming soon.

Btw:please apologize to those of you that didn't get the sign up confirmation email during the last few days. I'm working with the ISP to ensure that this won't occur again.

Thanks!

View your trails in 3D within the browser

2008-06-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've just released a new feature in Wikiloc that allows you to visualize trails in 3D without leaving the browser. The following screenshot speaks by itself:

Obviously the great news is that it is a 3D view of a GPS trail within the browser

If you want to give it a try you may do so by clicking on the "Earth" button (red circle at the top of the screenshot) while viewing a GPS route and GE will appear embedded in the map window. For me it's a dream come true.

Btw: if you use Linux or simply prefer to visualize the GPS tracks with Google Earth, you still have the handy link "View in Google Earth" (red circle on the right side of the screenshot) to get the KML file.

Enjoy! :)

Wikiloc featured in Natural de Aragon magazine

2008-05-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

It's an honour for Wikiloc to appear featured in this Spring's edition of "Natural de Aragon" magazine (edited by the Spanish Environment Department of Gobierno de Aragon).

Aragon is a beautiful region of Spain near the highest mountains in the Pirinees with many good options to do outdoor activities in the region surrounded of gorgeous landscapes.

Wikiloc available in Dutch!

2008-04-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Chris Boogmans wikiloc is already translated to Dutch. More translations are very welcome, from the beginning of wikiloc I've always tried to bring down language barriers and any help in doing that is highly appreciated, just drop me an e-mail at jordi A T wikiloc.com.

You can visit the about Wikiloc page for a complete list of collaborators.

New server upgrade

2008-03-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

Tonight I've been busy migrating wikiloc to a faster box. After almost 2 years of good service, it was already time to give a break to the former server. From now on looking for our next GPS trail or just browsing photos and maps will be much faster :)

Enjoy!

Btw: if you're getting the 'plumber' page, pages not found or other issues, please be patient since DNS refreshes may span several hours

YouTube™ videos of your routes

2008-02-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Seeing photos of a trail it's a great way to get an idea of how the surrounding and landscapes of the route look like, you may even see which terrain you'll find. And since more and more authors are adding nice photos of the routes (almost 10.000 photos already) I'm glad to announce that we may additionally add YouTube™ videos of our GPS tracks. This is a new feature that we may use to better describe our routes.

Here you have one of Tom's kayac trips in Norway:

You may watch the video by clicking on the video thumbnail above.

New updates

2008-02-01T23:47:00.001-08:00

Well... frankly this time I don't know where to start. Recently we've released a major redesign of Wikiloc with so many improvements that I think the best way for you to see them is by doing a tour by yourself :)

You may find specially interesting new features like:

- New map page: improved browsing experience to discover new tracks
- A revamped upload process: now it is easier and faster to upload tracks
- A new KML feed to explore and easily discover routes with Google Earth
- Almost 9.000 tracks uploaded until now, 9000 photos and we're already a growing community of nearly 10000 members.

So thanks to you all that make possible wikiloc. So far we've received many great suggestions that are the basis for upcoming improvements, so feel free to contact me at jordi ,at, wikiloc.com or in the forum

and... stay tunned, more changes are coming :)

Jordi

New map layer available

2007-12-07T09:44:00.002-08:00

Recently Google added a new Terrain (Physical) map layer to Google Maps and I immediately received a request from a user (thanks Potxoki!) in the wikiloc's forum to add it to Wikiloc. It's ready and you may activate it by clicking on the "Terrain" button in the top-right area of the map.

And of course you may choose to show this layer as default in your embedded mini-maps (aka: miniwikiloc) Read here to see how easy it is to embed and customize your trail maps on your website or weblog:

Enjoy!
--Jordi

Wikiloc available in French

2007-09-17T01:10:00.001-07:00

Thank you to Eric Klinger for his effort reviewing the French translation of wikiloc's UI and also for translating wikiloc's help page to French.

More translations are very welcome, just drop me an e-mail at jordi A T wikiloc.com.

You can visit the 'about Wikiloc' page for a complete list of collaborators.

Wikiloc available in Swedish / Wikiloc en Sueco

2007-07-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

[Text in English below]

Gracias a la colaboración de Pontus Olénson Wikiloc está disponible en Sueco.

Puedes visitar la página de agradecimientos de Wikiloc para ver la lista completa de colaboradores.

Y más buenas noticias: a partir de ahora puedes buscar rutas y puntos de interés que contengan una palabra o texto en su nombre, descripción, etiquetas o nombre del autor. Espero que con esta nueva opción nos sea a todos más fácil encontrar datos GPS para la próxima salida!

[English]

Thanks to Pontus Olénson Wikiloc is available in Swedish!

You may visit the about page for a complete list of collaborators.

And more good news: from now on you may search by specifying a keyword. Search results will include all trails and waypoints with that keyword in their name, description, tags or author's name. Hopefully with this new feature it'll be easier for everyone to find GPS data for our next trip.

Descubre rutas GPS directamente en Google Earth

2007-06-18T03:51:00.000-07:00

Si quieres saber cómo encontrar rutas GPS directamente en Google Earth, en este post de SandyDay lo describen perfectamente; muestran cómo utilizarlo y las posibilidades del feed KML de Wikiloc (incluso cómo navegar a lo largo de una ruta) con un vídeo.

En este post pasado también presentaba el feed KML de Wikiloc, aunque sin vídeo y en inglés... :-)

How to speed up Firefox (in 30 seconds)

2007-06-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

If you thought Firefox was fast before, try it after this tweak:

1 - Open Firefox (really, required)
2 - Open URL: about:config
3 - Find (CTRL + F): network.http.pipelining. Double click on it so it changes to true
4 - Find: network.http.pipelining.maxrequests. Double click on it and change it from 4 to 100 or so

That's it. This makes FF use more threads to each page. You'll realize the difference specially on sites that use Google Maps like Wikiloc :-)

Enjoy!

Improvements in Google imagery and DEM

2007-06-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

This is good news. Mark from the UK reports that he finally can visualize his GPS trails in Wikiloc overlaid on good quality imagery after a Google Earth's update of his area. Hopefully updates for Scotland and Wales will arrive soon and will filter down into Google maps in a few days :-)

In addition I'm very excited regarding news for Spain. The Canary Islands are covered with high quality image layers provided by the Canary local mapping agency GRAFCAN, and in addition, Google Earth covers the islands with a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of 10 meters. High resolution imagery and DEM produce realistic views (at lava flow level) like the following of a trail that climbs up to the Teide's volcanic summit:

(You may check it out by yourself, just open Wikiloc's Google Earth's Feed and fly to "Parque Nacional del Teide" and the GPS trails nearby will show up)

The dynamic mini-map for that GPS track from Wikiloc:

It's good to be surprised so often with such great news :-)

Ortofotos del Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya en Google Earth

2007-06-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

En Google Earth ya aparece por defecto el territorio catalán cubierto por la ortofoto 1:5000 color del Institut Cartografic de Catalunya (ICC). Por ejemplo, El Pedraforca - Espectacular:

Si deseas ver rutas GPS sobre los topográficos del ICC, IGN o ortofotos SIGPAC, Gobierno Vasco... lo puedes realizar de forma fácil desde Wikiloc, en este post pasado contaba cómo hacerlo.

Curso de cartografía

2007-06-06T00:30:00.001-07:00

El próximo 13 de junio presentaré la sesión "Viajes cartográficos por Internet" del Curso de Cartografia que organiza la Sociedad Geográfica Española y que se imparte en la libreria De Viaje de Madrid.

Para mi es un honor poder participar en un curso de la SGE, donde comparto con todos sus miembros la pasión por los viajes, la exploración y en definitiva el disfrute de este maravilloso planeta.

Agradezco a la Sociedad y en particular a José Antonio Rodríguez Esteban por haber confiado en mi para el curso.

Schools use Wikiloc to teach environment & ecology to children

2007-05-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

[versión en español y texto completo a continuación del mapa]

The following map is the result of the field work done by teachers and 13-14 year old children from two schools. The nice part is that the schools are in different countries (France and Spain) and are using Wikiloc as a platform to complement, show off and communicate their work.

Each waypoint has been taken with a GPS and has a description in three languages (Spanish, Euskara and French) and up to 6 photos, each with its own description (about flowers, trees...).

I'm proud of this use of Wikiloc (teaching children about environment) and glad to show off a mini-map as a sample of their work:

(by clicking on a flag you may see it in Wikiloc)

[Español]

Wikiloc utilizado en un proyecto para enseñar medio ambiente y ecologia a los chavales

El minimapa anterior muestra el resultado del trabajo de campo realizado por profesores y alumnos de dos escuelas de secundaria. Ambas escuelas se encuentran en diferentes paises (Francia y España) y utilizan Wikiloc como plataforma para complementar, mostrar y comunicar su trabajo.

Cada punto de interés ha sido tomado con un GPS y le acompaña una descripción en tres idiomas (Español, Euskara y Francés) y hasta 6 fotografias, cada una a su vez acompañada de su propia descripción (sobre flores, arboles, fauna...).

Para mi es una satisfacción este uso de Wikiloc (enseñar a los chavales tematica medioambiental).

Koldo, uno de los profesores de la escuela Hirukide-Eskolapioak explica el proyecto:

"El trabajo se enmarca en un proyecto de colaboración entre las administraciones transfronterizas de uno y otro lado de la frontera vasca. Es interés de ambas crear lazos que permitan optimizar recursos. En este sentido uno de los problemas con que se encuentran a la hora de la utilización, por parte de los ciudadanos, de determinados recursos (léase, por ejemplo, aeropuerto) es, aunque parezca mentira, de índole cultural. Es por ello que desde que se creó la llamada Agencia Transfronteriza uno de los ámbitos en los que han incidido con mayor fuerza es el escolar, favoreciendo el encuentro de escuelas de uno y otro lado de la frontera. Con lo que eso supone: diferentes currículos y otros modos de enfocar la enseñanza. La concreción de todo esto supuso que hace tres años se determinase el día 18 de mayo como Día del Medioambiente de la Eurociudad Vasca.

Bianualmente los colegios que quieren participan en un intercambio de experiencias en educación medioambiental. De modo que dos colegios de uno y otro lado, acuerdan realizar conjuntamente un trabajo sobre medioambiente. En nuestro caso los dos colegios son respectivamente Colegio Jean Poujou de Baigorri (Pais Vasco francés) e Hirukide-Eskolapioak de Tolosa (Comunidad Autonoma Vasca). Acordamos realizar el trabajo sobre la biodiversidad de unas pequeñas turberas que se localizan en el llamado col de Elorrieta.

El trabajo ha sido realizado por alumnos de entre 13 y 14 años y ha tenido dos partes. Por un lado la recogida de muestras (GPS, fotos, datos…) in situ y su posterior procesamiento para incorporarlo a wikiloc (GPSTrackMaker, Picnic,…).
Y por otro lado el tratamiento de todos los textos que se han realizado en tres idiomas (euskera, francés, castellano). Y la preparación de los Power points para la presentación del trabajo en público. Ha sido necesario realizar dos visitas, una a Tolosa y otra a Baigorri para el mutuo conocimiento de los alumnos y para el intercambio de experiencias e información; y numerosos contactos a través de correo electrónico.

Así mismo hemos participado en el mismo los departamentos de Lengua Castellana y Ciencias Naturales del colegio Jean Poujou y los de Francés, Euskara y Ciencias Naturales del colegio de Tolosa.

Todo lo trabajado ha tenido su concreción en un acto celebrado el pasado 18 de mayo (2007), Día del Medioambiente de la Eurociudad, en Hendaya. En el encuentro participamos 5 equipos (10 escuelas de secundaria) y cada uno expuso sus trabajos, durante aproximadamente 20 minutos, ante el resto."

Titan Desert 2007 en Wikiloc

2007-05-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

[text in English below]

"ESPECTACULAR CARRERA POR EL DESIERTO EN MARRUECOS
Lo que verás, es una combinación de paisajes de ensueño,lugares entrañables y gente amable
Lo que sentirás, es soledad, satisfacción, y dolor
Lo que viviràs es convivencia, compañerismo, aventura y competitividad
Lo que aprenderás es humildad, empeño y fuerza
Lo que recordarás no lo sé, pero seguro que no lo olvidarás."

Con estas palabras describe Eduard, usuario de Wikiloc, la dura carrera de mountain bike Titan Desert 2007. Si quereis ver las rutas GPS de las 4 etapas, con fotos y experiencias aquí teneis el enlace.

Ah! Ha sido un detalle por parte de Eduard poner el logo de Wikiloc en su camiseta :)

[English]
"SPECTACULAR RACE THROUGH THE MOROCCO DESERT
What you will see, is a combination of landscapes of dream, awesome places and nice people
What you will feel, is loneliness, satisfaction, and pain
What you will live, companionship, adventure and competitiveness
What you will learn is a humility, determination and endurance
What you will remember, well I don't know, but I'll assure that you will not forget it."

With these words Wikiloc user Eduard describes the challenging mountain bike race Titan Desert 2007. If you wish to see the GPS tracks for the 4 stages, with photos and the author thoughts follow this link.

And it's been nice to know that Eduard was wearing the Wikiloc's logo on his t-shirt :)

Wikiloc @ Ona Mallorca Radio

2007-04-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

[I don't write this post in English since it's about a radio appearance held in Spanish]

El viernes pasado tuve la oportunidad de participar en una charla sobre Wikiloc en el programa Mallorca en Xarxa de Ona Mallorca Radio. Está disponible en MP3 (en catalán) desde este enlace.

Fuí invitado por Benjamí Villoslada (sí, coautor de Meneame.net) y lo mejor fué que en el plató estaban dos autores mallorquines de rutas de Wikiloc: Sinto Sanz y Xisco.

De la isla vecina de Menorca estuvo a punto de asistir Tiago Ametller, uno de los primeros autores de rutas de Wikiloc y autor de la mayoria de las excelentes rutas por Menorca.

En sus páginas web teneis mucha información, enlaces interesantes y rutas por Mallorca y Menorca, tanto de bici de carretera como de montaña.

Agradezco desde aquí a todos ellos (también a Alfred Comin) por haber hecho posible la tertulia.

--Jordi

Wikiloc en Conector 2007

2007-04-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

Es una satisfacción comunicaros que Wikiloc ha sido elegido, junto a Aquamobile, eFinanzia, GolfEngine, Just in Mind, nVivo y Shoomo para dar una presentación en Conector 2007. Antonio Mas, uno de los organizadores del evento da los detall es en su blog.

Antes de presentar los 7 proyectos, habrá presentaciones por parte de las personas que hay detrás del éxito de 'proyectos' como Antevenio, Atrapalo, DVDgo, eConozco y Panoramio.

Es una suerte para todos los que estamos en este mundo y para el futuro tecnológico del país, que haya organizadores como Baquia, First Tuesday y Thursday y patrocinadores como Acens que posibiliten eventos como Conector. El jurado de Conector lo componen Rodolfo Carpintier, Antonio Mas, Emilio Márquez, Carlos Blanco, Enrique Dans, Eduardo Berrocal y Sixto Arias.

Mi agradecimiento a la organización de Conector, a Javier Martín de Loogic y por supuesto a todos los usuarios de Wikiloc por confiar en el proyecto.

Conector se celebra el miércoles 25 de abril en el Palacio Municipal de Congresos de Madrid, a las seis de la tarde. La entrada es libre, si estas por Madrid y quieres pasarte puedes obtener tu invitación inscribiéndote aquí.

Nos vemos el miércoles.

--Jordi

Photo overlays / Capas de fotos

2007-04-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

[Versión en Español mas abajo]

Today I'm excited to bring you a new cool feature of Wikiloc: from now on you have the option to visualize additional photos from Panoramio that are located near the trails. I hope this will be useful to get a better idea of how the surroundings of each trail look like, as a sole source of information or in addition to the pictures that the trail author has already offered.

If you wish to activate this feature just check "Photos from Panoramio" from your account.

Enjoy! And as always, I'm glad to receive your suggestions or opinions about it :)

[Español]
Acabo de incorporar una nueva función en Wikiloc que permite visualizar fotos de Panoramio cercanas a las rutas. Espero que sirva para hacernos una mejor idea del paisaje por el que transcurren las rutas, ya sea como única fuente o como complemento a las fotos de la ruta que ya haya proporcionado el autor.

Si deseas activar esta función lo puedes hacer accediendo a tu cuenta de Wikiloc y marcando la casilla: "Fotografías de Panoramio.com" en la sección de capas adicionales de información.

Espero que lo encuentres interesante, y como siempre cualquier comentario o sugerencia al respecto será bienvenida :)

Wikiloc available in French and Italian

2007-03-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you very much to Joaquín Muñoz and Marco Giulio Giolfo for their effort translating Wikiloc to French and Italian respectively.

Translations to Brazilian and Dutch are ongoing. More translations are very welcome, just drop me an e-mail at jordi A T wikiloc.com.

You can visit the 'about Wikiloc' page for a complete list of collaborators.

SpaceNavigator and airport customs

2007-02-19T00:13:00.000-08:00

As a result of the Google Maps mashup contest organized by OJOBuscador and Google Maps Spain, I have had the opportunity to visit Googleplex. During one of the meetings I received a cool present from Peter Birch (PM of Google Earth): a SpaceNavigator, a 3D mouse device. Needless to say that it works great with Google Earth. Thanks Peter!

The device is highly sensitive, with movements of a few degrees/few millimeters (you won't be tired using it) and the more you get used to the six degrees of freedom it offers, the more you appreciate the smooth movements that you can easily do and the possibility to perform actions in Google Earth simultaneously without stopping repeatedly to change the action type.

With SpaceNavigator you can literally 'fly' inside canyons and amongst mountains. I'd recommend Yosemite National Park and the Grand Canyon as good places to practice :). I've used it a lot lately while working in the new features of Wikiloc for Google Earth.

The only downside: airport customs. I have to say I got as many blank-faced WTF-is-this looks as anyone could want. In San Francisco airport they asked me to open the box and after a while of examining the 'thing' the policeman said...

And this is...?
A kind of 3D mouse -I replied
A mouse uh?
...

Back in Heathrow airport in London, where they have very strict security measures lately, the same situation happened: weird faces staring and fingers pointing to the X-Ray panels (I'm not kidding), me saying “It's a mouse device...” but that time they even asked me to plug the thing in my laptop and use it. Luckily, I already had the drivers installed and everything went fine :)

Frankly I understand perfectly the security measures since the device is small but its weight to size ratio is huge since it's made of solid metal (zoom out is performed by pulling up the control) and the aspect is more of a detonator than a computer device or mouse. So expect that situation if you travel with such devices onboard. Perhaps from now on in San Francisco or Heathrow you'll hear something like 'everything's ok, it's just another SpaceNavigator'... :)

If you want to read more and even see some videos of SpaceNavigator in action, visit Stefan Geens or Frank Taylor posts about the subject.

Dynamic overlays in Google Earth / Capas dinámicas en Google Earth

2007-02-13T02:16:00.000-08:00

[Versión en Español mas abajo]

A few months ago I wrote about how you can use Wikiloc to visualize your GPS tracklogs and waypoints overlaid on third party imagery and maps in 2D on Google Maps and later on how to do the same in 3D with Google Earth. Regarding the latter, I'm glad to announce that from now on those 3D overlays are dynamically updated to a better level of detail when you zoom in. You get detail only when you need it, thus saving bandwidth and resources to you and also to the Web Map Service providers registered in Wikiloc (14 at the moment) that offer those additional image layers.

This new feature of Wikiloc, together with the Wikiloc's KML Feed, work only with Google Earth version 4.0.2737 and up (you can download it here).

If you want to check it out by yourself follow these steps:

1- Open for example Porcupine Rim mountain bike ride in Wikiloc.

2- Click "More Maps" (upper-right area on the map)

3- From the servers list that appears, click on the WMS server "TerraServer USA WMS - Topo Maps"

4- Up next click on "3D View" next to the 'More Maps' button and open the KML file with Google Earth.

5- Once in Google Earth, fly closer to the ground and you'll see the Topographic map updating to a better level of detail.

The following video shows off the process but since the quality is quite bad (Google Earth and CamStudio is too much for my laptop), I encourage you to check it out following the steps above :)

[Español]

Hace unos meses escribia un post sobre como utilizar Wikiloc para visualizar tus rutas y puntos de interés GPS sobre mapas e imágenes de servidores WMS externos en 2D sobre Google Maps y posteriormente como hacer lo mismo en 3 dimensiones con Google Earth. A partir de ahora los mapas e imágenes externas que visualices en Google Earth aumentan automáticamente de detalle al acercarnos (zoom in). Obtienes el detalle cuando lo requires, economizando ancho de banda y recursos tuyos y del proveedor de servidores WMS registrados en Wikiloc (14 hasta el momento) y que nos ofrecen esas capas de información. Por cierto, no he podido hacer funcionar SIGPAC para toda España y por eso ya no aparece en la lista; lo seguiré intentando)

Esta nueva funcionalidad, y también el feed KML de Wikiloc, requiere de la versión 4.0.2737 o superior de Google Earth (puedes descargarla aquí).

Puedes probarlo tu mismo siguiendo estos pasos:

1- Abres por ejemplo ruta de bici de montaña por el Puigmal.

2- Clic en "Otros Mapas" (parte superior derecha del mapa)

3- De la lista de servidores WMS que aparece, haz clic por ejemplo en "Base Topogràfica Catalunya 1:50000"

4- Pincha en "Ver en 3D" al lado del botón de 'Otros Mapas' y abre el fichero KML resultante con Google Earth.

5- Ya en Google Earth, aproximate a la ruta y verás que el mapa topográfico se va actualizando a mejores niveles de detalle a medida que te aproximas.

El siguiente video muestra el proceso pero es de muy poca calidad (Google Earth simultaneamente con CamStudio es demasiado para mi portátil). Seguir los pasos de arriba te llevará menos tiempo que ver el vídeo y lo podrás apreciar mucho mejor.

Buscar por tipo de actividad / Search by outdoor activity

2007-02-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

[Español] Tal como muestra la figura de abajo a partir de ahora en Wikiloc puedes buscar rutas y puntos de interés del tipo de actividad que desees, bici de montaña, senderismo, alpinismo... Para ello haz clic en el icono de 'todas las actividades' (el del simbolo de asterisco) de la barra de búsqueda, selecciona el tipo de actividad que desees del panel que aparece y clica en 'Buscar'.

[English] The screen shot below shows a new feature of Wikiloc that will allow you to search GPS tracklogs and waypoints of your preferred outdoor activities, be mountain biking, ice climbing, hiking... to check it out just click on the 'all activities' icon (the one with the * symbol on it) from the search bar, select the activity you wish from the panel that appears and click 'Search'.

Regional government chooses Wikiloc!

2007-02-09T01:21:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to announce that the Consell Comarcal del Baix Empordà, a regional government agency from Girona (Spain), has chosen Wikiloc as a way to show off and promote the fourteen mountain bike trails that they maintain around the region.

To see what this region offers to be chosen as a preferred place to live by people like Michael Schumacher (F1 world champion) or Lance Armstrong (who has his European training headquarters in Girona and so do several of his US Postal Service team colleagues), you can visit CCBE or Girona web sites.

Search GPS tracks and waypoints with Google Earth

2007-02-04T03:00:00.000-08:00

I've just added a new feature to Wikiloc: a KML feed for Google Earth that let you explore the world discovering GPS tracks, routes or waypoints while you fly around in 3D. Basically think in a 3D browser for Wikiloc.

If you want to check it out by yourself just open Wikiloc's KML Feed, fly to an area of your interest and stop moving for about 2 seconds, if there are GPS tracklogs and waypoints within the area you're viewing, they'll start to show up.

If you click on the icons you'll see elevation profiles, images and descriptions for the track or point of interest.

It's beta (of course) so please let me know whatever suggestion you have or things you like or dislike, that will help me evolve this feature to a better one for all of us. Thanks!

[UPDATE]: This link is no longer active since you can access all the trails in Wikiloc directly from Google Earth, +info: http://wikiloc.blogspot.com/2009/03/wikiloc-now-preview-layer-of-google.html

Mashup, sumando en la red

2007-01-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

Este es el título de la conferencia sobre mashups que tuve el privilegio de impartir recientemente en Zaragoza invitado por Ibercaja Zentrum. Agradezco desde aquí a Marisa Borao, directora de Ibercaja Zentrum y a Alfredo Hernández, Jefe de Nuevas Tecnologías de Heraldo de Aragón, por haber confiado en mi para el evento.

De entre los asistentes pude conocer a Toño García y su mujer Mamen; Toño es un autor de rutas de mountain bike de Wikiloc de Zaragoza y sólo habíamos tenido contacto por email. Toño y Mamen están detrás de la empresa de diseño ShakingBox.com; viendo la demo de ShakingBox se percibe rápidamente el nivel al que trabajan.

Las diapositivas de la conferencia se pueden descargar en .pdf de la web de Ibercajalav. Son unas 18 diapositivas para una conferencia de 1h 30' por lo que tenia pensado transcribir la charla para acompañar un poco a las diapositivas, pero Mamen ha publicado un post donde la resume perfectamente.

El contenido no fue excesivamente técnico y sólo al final comenté el código fuente del mashup de ejemplo que preparé para la conferencia. El mashup consiste en una única página HTML que muestra un mapa de Google Maps con fotos de Yahoo! Flickr situadas sobre el mapa. Cambiando las API keys de Google Maps y Flickr podéis adaptarlo para mostrar vuestras propias fotos; el código está comentado detalladamente y espero que sirva a quien quiera introducirse en los mashups como ejemplo para ver por dentro un mashup 100% html/javascript o incluso para utilizarlo de base para desarrollar mashups mas complejos.

Próximamente, los días 5, 6 y 7 de Marzo de 2007, se celebran las I Jornadas de Software SIG Libre que organiza la Universitat de Girona. Espero asistir a alguno de los talleres que se impartirán y también dar una pequeña presentación sobre software libre y Wikiloc.

Back online

2007-01-20T12:36:00.000-08:00

This blog's been dark for a few weeks, I've spent some time with my family over the holiday and have started 2007 with a flu bug that has decided to continue its holidays having fun inside my body. All is over now and I plan to start working in many open threads I have with Wikiloc, including writing about my recent visit to Googleplex.

More samples of topographic maps in Google Earth

2006-11-29T02:26:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around visualizing GPS trails from the US overlaid on topographic maps in 3D and couldn't resist to post some screenshots of the Porcupine Rim trail in Moab posted by Wikiloc member hikerdave:

(click on the image to view full size)

In a previous post I explained the steps needed if you want to give it a try. Basically:

1 - While viewing a GPS trail/waypoint of your interest, click on "More Maps" and choose a map server from the list. This results in loading the overlays on the map frame.

2 - Click on "3D View" to see that view in Google Earth.

I'm happy for having this functionality in Wikiloc. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

View your GPS data overlaid on topographic maps in Google Earth

2006-11-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

With this new feature of Wikiloc, you can view your GPS tracks and waypoints overlaid on topographic maps and aerial image layers in Google Earth.

A sample screenshot follows, but if you want to check it out live:

1- Open http://www.wikiloc.com

2- Find a trail or waypoint of your interest (or take this one from Scott or hikerdave's) and click on "More Maps" from the upper-right section of the map. Choose the map server you like from the list.

3- Now simply click on "3D View" next to the "More Maps" button to view that scene with the same base map/imagery but this time in 3D with Google Earth.

The sample below shows a mountain bike ride on 1:50000 topographic maps from ICC (using EPSG:23031):

In this previous post I wrote about how you can visualize your GPS tracks and waypoints on USGS topographic maps (in 2D with Google Maps). From now on the base map you're visualizing in Wikiloc (2D) will be rendered too in Google Earth when you open the 3D view.

Btw: you can control the transparency degree of these layers with the slider that appears on the sidebar of Google Earth:

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Minimaps

2006-11-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

During the development of Wikiloc I've got inspiration from many web sites; one of them is Panoramio, that immediately caught my attention for its clean and usable interface.

I met with Joaquin during the Google Maps mashups contest party held two months ago in Madrid and recently I met with his partner at Panoramio, Eduardo. Put it simple, they're great people doing great stuff.

Their idea of showing a minimap on external websites with pictures of Panoramio lead me to develop the same in Wikiloc to let users display a minimap on their site/weblog with GPS tracks and waypoints

And since a minimap is better than thousand words, here are some of my pictures in Panoramio:

And here is one of my mountain bike rides in Wikiloc:

There're more and more people that have already found these kind of minimaps as an easy and cool way to complement their weblog posts. Some examples of Panoramio/Wikiloc members:

Alex Casteleiro uses minimaps from both sites in his weblog.

And so does JM Matute in his weblog.

Regarding GPS trails and as you can easily realize by visiting their weblogs, detailed information like descriptions, pictures and even videos, fit better in the website or weblog of the trail author than in Wikiloc. In this cases, Wikiloc can be seen as a search engine to find a trail, and then navigate away to the author's website where you'll get all that additional information, including a minimap :)

Convert your GPS files to GPX format

2006-11-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

Update: There's no need to convert your GPS files to GPX before uploading your trails to wikiloc. From now on most GPS data formats are recognized automatically. Hope this new feature will save you some time.

--Jordi

Spain's topographic maps

2006-10-19T02:59:00.000-07:00

From the beginning of Wikiloc there's been external map servers available for the region of Catalonia (North-East of Spain) thanks to the initiative of the Institut Cartografic de Catalunya to open their web map services and geodata to the public. Later on I added the Terraserver-USA Web Map Services (topo/imagery) for the United States.

Today I'm glad to announce that there's already coverage for the whole spanish territory thanks to the IDEE project of the Instituto Geografico Nacional. Their web map services have been around for quite a long time, it was my fault (lack of time!) not to made them available within Wikiloc until now.

I'm glad that the public sector in Spain is opening access to geodata to citizens, freely, interoperable, useful. Good.

I'll do my best to add all the web map services that many of you have been requesting! Stay tuned! :-)

As usual, if you want to activate additional base imagery and maps for the region you're viewing, you can do it by clicking on the "More Maps" drop down list:

US topographic maps

2006-10-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

I've just added Terraserver USA Web Map Service as a provider of Topographic maps for the US in Wikiloc. Some screen captures follow but I suggest you to check it out live by yourself in Wikiloc by clicking on the links below:

Heiroglyphic Trail (Phoenix):

Rowing around Lake Union (Seattle):

Once in Wikiloc you can access these additional map servers by clicking on the "More Maps" button:

View your GPS data on multiple base maps

2006-10-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

Wikiloc lets you visualize tracks and waypoints on multiple base maps, thanks to a cool feature of the Google Maps API that allows to overlay third party's map data and imagery. At the moment there's coverage for almost the whole US (using TerraserverUSA Web Map Service) and Catalunya (Spain) using the multiple WMS servers provided by ICC (Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya). I've already received requests to add new WMS to Wikiloc and I hope they'll be available in the next few days.

Some samples:

The following images taken from Wikiloc show views of the same GPS track over different base imagery and maps. From left to right, top to bottom: Google's Map view, Satellite view (the zone doesn't have much detail by now), ICC's 1:50000 WMS topographic map and the last two pics show the detail that can be reached using the ICC's 1:5000 accurate orthoimagery (it's been taken from a plane instead of a satellite):

And another sample: the following snapshots show some waypoints taken in the way up to Mount Marathon (Seward, Alaska). In this geographic location we can use USGS imagery:

I'm personally glad of this feature since viewing my GPS tracks over multiple base maps was one of the motivations that drove me to develop Wikiloc. By then I couldn't imagine that I'll be viewing them -easily- in 3D as well. :) Hope it'll be useful for you too!

Wikiloc gana el concurso de mashups de Google Maps España

2006-09-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Wikiloc está de enhorabuena ya que ha sido seleccionado como mejor mashup hispano de Google Maps en la fiesta organizada por OJOBuscador y Google Maps España celebrada el pasado jueves en Madrid.

Fué un placer estar en la fiesta y sobretodo conocer en persona a quien hay detrás de los mashups, a los miembros de la organización y distintas personalidades que asistieron al evento.

Con esta iniciativa, OJOBuscador y Google Maps España ofrecen una gran oportunidad a desarrolladores que han materializado una idea, muchas veces con mas ilusión que recursos.

Estoy recibiendo un montón de sugerencias que espero incorporar próximamente y poder continuar mejorando la aplicación.

Gracias a todos por confiar en Wikiloc!

Jordi

Back from holidays with some improvements

2006-09-02T05:01:00.000-07:00

During my summer holidays I've been adding some new functionality to Wikiloc. Here's the most relevant improvements:

Geocoding. You can find tracks and waypoints within a radius from an address or a known place worldwide. I've used the geocoding capabilities of the Google Maps API.
Driving directions. You can get driving directions to the start of tracks or points of interest (using Google Maps routing). That way you can get a detailed guide to arrive by car to the start of routes or points of interest and start your hike/ride from there.

Support for very detailed GPS tracks. From now on tracks with many points draw fast and without freezing your browser. Wikiloc serves some tracks of near 5000 points; and this is not a limit at all. So you can adjust the settings of your GPS receiver to record tracks at its highest accuracy :-)

Performance improvements:

The response times drawing pages are better since now data is pulled from the server on demand when you first access it. For example, the content displayed on the information windows that pop up when you click on a location on the map are populated this way.

In-browser geometry caching. When you fetch a track by clicking on the eye icon, the geometry is displayed and stored in a local cache. Later on if you turn it off/on again it won't need to be fetched from the server again.
Your data is safer. I'm running daily backups instead of weekly.

Many little fixer uppers that are not worth mentioning here but I hope will make your Wikiloc experience better.

What I have in my 'to do' list:

Improve the search / zoom behavior. Including a kind of auto-search-on-pan-or-zoom feature.

Add a “questions to the author” message thread for each location (to start conversations like 'hey, is this walking trail cyclable?', 'are there bears in the zone?')

Show news and important messages on the home page. I'm thinking in pulling the RSS feed from this weblog.

Weekly/monthly *optional* Email alerts to authors with statistics of their locations (number of views/downloads/ratings/comments).

The Wikiloc's Forum

Thanks to all of you that have contacted me suggesting some of those changes. Hope you'll keep sending me your feedback!

Wikiloc on TecnoMAPS.com

2006-08-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

There's a weblog post about Wikiloc in TecnoMAPS. TecnoMAPS is a weblog about geopositioning and GIS with special interest in Google Maps and Google Earth.

Thanks to Carmen, Javier and Ignacio from Tecnomaps for the post.

Help

2006-07-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

During the development of Wikiloc (still ongoing) I've repeated some actions so many times that I eventually forgot that the first time I did those activities they were not so intuitive and easy to do.

I've received some emails from Wikiloc users asking for help. I've answered those emails the best I could but they've made me reconsider that some online help was needed. I've written a short document answering the most demanding questions, so check it out and let me know if you think there's something left. You can open the help page from the top right section in Wikiloc:

Or directly in this link.

Some improvements

2006-07-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

From now on you can control the zoom level by double-clicking on the map (use the left button to zoom-in and the right button to zoom out).

Additionally I've made some improvements in the 3D view using Google Earth. You can see the images of locations and the elevation profile for tracks. I've changed the icons that represent waypoints and tracks too.

As always, I'd be glad to hear your opinion on this.

View your GPS locations in 3D

2006-07-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

I've just added a button that generates a KML file (the Google Earth file format) of the location(s) that you're viewing on Wikiloc's map view. If you have Google Earth installed in your computer, you can open the downloaded file to view and 'fly around' the locations in 3D.

If the quality and detail of Google Earth's base imagery for the zone you're viewing is good, the results are pretty cool:

Wikiloc in your site

2006-06-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

I've just added a feature to Wikiloc to help you display a dynamic mini-map of a public location on your own site. As an example, below there is a small map showing a mountain bike track with some waypoints along it that I did a few months ago:

The html code snippet you have to paste into your HTML pages to get a map like this is simply the following:

Wikiloc is online

2006-06-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since my last (and first) post; actually it took longer than I expected to reach this point but finally I'm glad to announce that Wikiloc is online. You can take a look at what has been my nightly hobbie for the last 5 months: http://www.wikiloc.com.

I've a long list of improvements to do, but I've decided to open the service and concentrate my work on your suggestions on how to build a better Wikiloc.

I cannot emphasize enough how appreciated is your feedback. If you wish, feel free to drop me an email or use the feedback form at Wikiloc.com.

Thanks and hope you enjoy it!

Welcome

2005-11-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

This weblog is about Wikiloc, an upcoming free online service to share locations. The posts will contain news and information about Wikiloc.