I recently relocated to Aliso Viejo. Now instead of spending three hours on the road each day driving to and from the office, my commute is about five minutes. This gives me roughly 15 hours each week to fill with more meaningful pursuits. Pursuits such as mountain biking.
Being new to the area I set out looking for some trails nearby and ran across the amazing Geoladders.com site. This site elegantly combines community, user-driven content, GPS data, Web 2.0 technology and asynchronous competition in a really special way.
I’ve used other sites like Trails.com for planning hiking routes, but Geoladders takes the cake. It does a helluva mashup with Google Maps, providing turn-by-turn directions with photos. They also merge GPS and terrain data to provide a 3-dimensional view of the trail, with elevation gain.
Although the stated purpose of the site combines GPS data from your rides with the duration to create a competitive ladder, this site is useful even for riders interested in finding and checking out potential trails.
I’ve focused on mountain biking because that’s my interest, but they also support road biking. In any case, check it out — it’s a great example of the Web 2.0 done right.
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geoladders is a really nice site. it’s great resource for finding trails in the local area. i also like http://www.rydezilla.com. it’s primary purpose is to schedule bike rides. it has web 2.0 mountain biking written all over it. it’s 3D aspect of it is not static like geoladders, but rather interactive that you can zoom in and rotate. check it out.
geoladders is a really nice site. it’s great resource for finding trails in the local area. i also like http://www.rydezilla.com. it’s primary purpose is to schedule bike rides. it has web 2.0 mountain biking written all over it. it’s 3D aspect of it is not static like geoladders, but rather interactive that you can zoom in and rotate. check it out.
Thanks for the tip, Joe. Rydezilla looks similar in to Geoladders in some respects. Just a couple notes though. It’s much more graphic-heavy, with a MTB/grunge look that makes page load times a bit slower (my unscientific, shoot-from-the-hip analysis). Also, I clicked on some of the trails but it kept taking me to an “about” page. I’m thinking I don’t get to see the trail detail without registering maybe? Grrrr….
Thanks for the tip, Joe. Rydezilla looks similar in to Geoladders in some respects. Just a couple notes though. It’s much more graphic-heavy, with a MTB/grunge look that makes page load times a bit slower (my unscientific, shoot-from-the-hip analysis). Also, I clicked on some of the trails but it kept taking me to an “about” page. I’m thinking I don’t get to see the trail detail without registering maybe? Grrrr….
you’re right, to compare the two sites in regards to web 2.0 features, one needs to be logged in. in regards to trails, i love the walk-thru photos of each trail on geoladders; on rydezilla, i love the 3D rotating/zooming capability for each trail plus the ability to draw routes that are not listed. in regards to scheduling rides, the ride detail page for rydezilla makes you want to say BEDONKADONK! joining and sending messages, viewing photos/videos/blogs is all AJAX enabled. the two sites are great, and both are USEFUL i.e. Web 2.0
you’re right, to compare the two sites in regards to web 2.0 features, one needs to be logged in. in regards to trails, i love the walk-thru photos of each trail on geoladders; on rydezilla, i love the 3D rotating/zooming capability for each trail plus the ability to draw routes that are not listed. in regards to scheduling rides, the ride detail page for rydezilla makes you want to say BEDONKADONK! joining and sending messages, viewing photos/videos/blogs is all AJAX enabled. the two sites are great, and both are USEFUL i.e. Web 2.0
Ok, Joe… you win. I’ll go register at rydezilla and check it out.
I still think the page guests get when they click on a ride could do a better job of explaining why you don’t get what you expect. Something like what Trails.com does (a tiny synopsis of the trail and a big-ass message that says sign-up for all the juicy details).
Ok, Joe… you win. I’ll go register at rydezilla and check it out.
I still think the page guests get when they click on a ride could do a better job of explaining why you don’t get what you expect. Something like what Trails.com does (a tiny synopsis of the trail and a big-ass message that says sign-up for all the juicy details).