Friday, 3 November 2006

Mapping US Art Galleries

MapMuse - art galleries (yellow) in Portland, Maine (size 50%)Cindy Jett of MapMuse.com e-mailed Coxsoft Art with the news that MapMuse now has one of the most comprehensive databases of art galleries in the USA: 12,000 mapped. It is interactive: 500 of these galleries were mapped by users. But its maps are very slow. The UK firm Multimap.com beats it on speed and presentation, but lacks an arts database. Multimap is a world-leader in Internet cartography and won a Queen's Award For Enterprise And Innovation this year. I compared the two by giving them the Portland Museum of Art's zip code: Maine 04101. Both centred on the zip code, but neither of them found the museum! MapMuse showed art galleries in the area, but not the Portland Museum of Art, presumably because this is called a "museum". Multimap gives you a scale. MapMuse doesn't, which is very unhelpful. Verdict: MapMuse has delivered much and promises more. Start at Maine 04101.

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