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About ZoomAtlas What is this site all about? The ZoomAtlas social map is a photo-realistic map that is created and maintained by its users. This map will be the most detailed and lifelike map of the United States ever assembled. We strongly encourage our users to edit the map and augment the basic information (such as roads, waterways, properties and points of interest) we have provided. When the people who own and care for the properties included on the map provide detail, this map will include tremendous amounts of information, both visual and factual. This site also provides spaces where users can add information and notes that will allow them to reconnect with long-lost friends. By placing notes at locations where you spend or have spent time, including schools, parks, houses of worship, workplaces, and homes, you provide the opportunity for others who were there with you to revisit that place and reconnect with you. Are you affiliated with Wikipedia? No. Wikipedia is a web site operated by the not-for-profit WikiMedia Foundation. Although (a) our board member and inventor of the Wiki concept, Ward Cunningham, is also involved with the WikiMedia Foundation, and (b) parts of the ZoomAtlas site were built using WikiMedia's public domain software, there are no other connections between ZoomAtlas, Corp. and the WikiMedia Foundation. How do I get started? The fun of this map is finding a place you are familiar with, seeing if someone else has added some information about that place, and sharing your own information and drawing on the map. Finding People How will an atlas help me find people? America is a big place and if you've moved a few times you've probably lost track of lots of people along the way. The ZoomAtlas social map allows you to reconnect with lost friends by going back in time and posting notes at the precise locations where you both lived, worked, studied, or played. I am searching for a specific person. How do I find them? Find the locations of all the places this person spent time. Start with the places they lived. For houses and apartment buildings, just post a note right at that address. If it was a college dorm or frat house, locate that specific building and post a note there. If you don't remember the specific address and can't locate it on the map or satellite imagery, try to get as close as possible by posting a note on the nearby road. Next, post notes at the places where that person spent time including their schools, workplaces, houses of worship, neighborhoods, clubs, bars, parks, ballfields, and even streetcorners. How do I help others find me? The more notes you post, the more easily you will be found. The most important step is to locate every place you've ever lived. Post notes at each of the houses, apartment buildings, and dormitories. Make sure you select the years you lived in this location to make it easier to be found. While you're at each old home, think about posting notes at the places that were important to you during that period of time. These places will include schools, workplaces, places of worship, neighborhoods, clubs, bars, hangouts, parks, ballfields, and streetcorners. How do I actually post the note? Locate the place on the map. Every address has a home page and every homepage has several ways you can communicate with others. Give it a try and you are on your way to reconnecting with old acquaintances! How do I keep my name and email from being plastered all over the web? We never publish your email address. If you create a public profile, and someone wishes to reach you, we will forward their note to you through the ZoomAtlas mail server. They will not see your email address and you will not see their email address. After the connection has been made, you may voluntarily provide your email address to the other person in the body of your private message to them. We make no guarantee that the person who contacts you is really who they say they are. This is a big, dangerous world, so do not give out any information until you are certain, from the context of the message, that the person who contacted you is not an impostor. As for your name and current address, all of your information is hidden from public view when you first set up your profile. We find that making your name and past locations publicly viewable is a good way to protect your current identity while making yourself available to friends from the past. Please note that if you indicate your current home by posting an I Live Here note to your current address, it will be visible to everyone, the same as if you had a listed phone number and address in the telephone directory. What if I'm looking for a person who doesn't use this site? Every note you place creates a unique web record of the name of the person you are looking for, your name, the city, state, zip, neighborhood, street, house number, business name, school name, etc. These pages are made available to the top search engines, so that any search for any combination of the above items is likely to result in a successful hit. How can I increase my odds of finding people? The more notes you post, the more often you will be found, so think long and hard about all the places you spent time in the past, and post a lot of notes. Be careful to get your date ranges correct, so that registered users who lived or spent time in the same places as you will see your note. Remember, if you are looking for someone, all it takes is for a mutual friend to discover your note and alert the the other person. We reserve the right to limit map clutter, and may delete your note from the map after a while. Don't worry, your note will still be active inside the Location page where it was posted. My friend passed away several years ago. How do I reconnect with other friends of the deceased? We encourage you to set up memorial pages for friends and family. Locate the cemetery where the individual was buried, and then identify the location of the cemetery plot. Using the Detailing Tool, create a plot rectangle and create a Memorial Page. The more information you enter in the Memorial Page the more easily friends and family will find it. Once the page is created, you may post notes about the deceased, as well as notes to help locate other friends and family or leave your calling card. I'm married and changed my name. Under what name should I post? Always post notes about yourself (or others) using the correct name during the relevant period of time. Of course, if you know that person's current name, include it in the body of the note. This will increase the odds of finding the person you are looking for, or being found yourself. I absolutely, positively have to find someone. What else can I do? We offer a premium People Finder service. Details will be announced shortly. Search What can I search for on the ZoomAtlas social map? Essentially any place with a name or an address, whether it is a business or residence. Our list of 140 million locations in the United States is growing every day. You can search by business name, street, block, railroad track, neighborhood, city, town, zip code, county, state, airport, park, cemetery, house of worship, school, hospital, military installation, body of water, and geographic feature. How do I search for a location? 1. You can go to our map and while there, zoom and pan until you find the location you want. Press ZOOM to get to the map. 2. You can use the searchbar, which is positioned at the top of most pages. Enter an address and pres ZOOM. What do I type in the search bar? You can use the search bar to search based on address as well as names of different locations. 1. If you want to find a location by address, just start typing the address and watch the suggestions underneath the search bar. When you see the address you are looking for, select it and click ZOOM. If the list doesn't show you a matching address, or shows you nothing, that means that either we don't know about the address you are looking for or we know it under a different name. Note: Directions in street names (North, Southwest, etc.) are abbreviated to N, SW, etc. and city/town names will conform to the preferred US Postal Service mailing address for each location. Note: If you live in a village known as Southeast Willowville but your electric bill comes addressed to Willowville, then the US Postal Service probably decided that their preferred name for your location is Willowville. In the future, both addresses will appear in the search bar, but for now it is just the preferred Postal Service town name. 2. To search by name (e.g., Major Dwight S. Cabot Park) or location (e..g., Upper East Side, New-York City), begin typing the name and watch the suggestions underneath the search bar. When you see the location you are looking for, just select it and click ZOOM. Note: The site was initially built with the official names for all parks, schools, airports, etc. Of course, these are not always the names we've grown accustomed to. Once you do locate the place you were looking for, we would appreciate it if you added the correct alternate name (or names) in the At a Glance box for the location. New alternate names will immediately be added to the search bar to help others locate it in the future. How can I find my house? Type your full address in the search bar. We may know about it, we may not. If it comes up, we at least know it exists and have created a home page for you. Click ZOOM and you will zoom in right to where we think your house is, complete with your road and a guess for your property location. If it is in the wrong spot, you can fix it. My address doesn't come up in the search bar, are you trying to tell me something? Yes, we're telling you to help us out by adding it to our database. Type just your street or town name in the search bar, hit ZOOM, and then find your house in the satellite imagery. Zoom in until you see the house numbers appear along your street. If you see your house number, click on it and you will get sent to your home page. Your house number could be in the wrong spot, but that's OK, you can easily fix that. Copyright © 2010 ZoomAtlas Corp. |
