Last week we released a new Beta web site: LDS Maps.This is a web site that people use to locate LDS buildings all over the world. This will eventually (probably July) be the replacement for a tool called Meetinghouse Locator on lds.org and mormon.org.
We'd love for people (members of the Church and non-members alike) to check it out and give us your feedback! This is only a beta so you will probably see some glitches, performance problems, incorrect data or issues with the design. When you do, let us know about them!
For members of the Church, if the meeting times are wrong then please let your ward clerk know. He can change the meeting times in his system (MLS).
If you see any other problems, including incorrect locations for buildings, click on the "Feedback" button in the web page itself and let us know what you think. With your help, we'll get any incorrect information fixed quickly!
Also feel free to give feedback in the comments here.
We are integrating this technology into the next generation of our web sites so that members of the Church can easily find who lives in their ward or branch boundaries and where. We will also be working on Spanish and Portugese versions, as well as versions for mobile devices.
Awesome. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteVery slick, I'm very impressed.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I could think of that might make it a little better was that after the search results come back to put the "Assigned Congregations" above the "Closest Meetinghouses" rather than under. The assigned congregation is usually going to be more relevant/important than all the other nearby meetinghouses.
Oh, and it could be worth making the Google/Microsoft options more obvious - I didn't notice them until I went back and reread the instructions :-)
I like it! However, I don't think we'll get very many visitors to our congregation since it has meetings at 1:00 AM! (said with tongue-in-cheek). I know this is still a work in progress, just thought I'd mention what I saw.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
Jeremy in Ann Arbor
Looks great! I love that you can choose which map engine (Google or Microsoft) and it really doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteHere are some things I'd like to see change:
* Lot's of meetings all show AM times when they should be PM times
* I'd love to have my city be capitalized like Menlo Park instead of MENLO PARK
* It'd be nice if California was shortened to CA and USA was completely dropped or shortened or capitalized as mentioned above.
* My singles ward isn't listed. My zip is 94025 and two ward should show up: Stanford 1st and 2nd ward
* Boundary lines would be cool
Ditto on the boundary lines.
ReplyDeleteThe new site is great! The old meetinghouse locator has worked alright for me but this is much nicer. I agree with the suggestions above about listing assigned congregations first and showing boundary lines.
ReplyDeleteI love this new tool. It's (almost) everything I've wanted in the meetinghouse locator for the last few years. The only thing I wished it had more, as mentioned by previous comments, is the option to view ward boundaries.
ReplyDelete[...] CIO Joel Dehlin has a link on his blog to a new web site called LDS Maps that will eventually replace the LDS [...]
ReplyDeleteAdam/Kim/Nathan/Adam,
ReplyDeleteWard boundaries are coming soon!
Great site! Ward boundaries will be very welcome. Would there be a way to text (SMS) an address to the site to find which ward it is in? This would have been very valuable on my mission in Miami where we all had cell phones and unlimited texts (and where there were questions about the boundaries at times).
ReplyDeleteLooking very forward to the mobile version as well.
Any way to provide this as a layer in Google Earth/Maps? (And add photos of the chapels, etc)
I've forwarded LDSmaps.org to the site.
Thanks!
Did you intend to include bishop's phone numbers? I think it is a great idea. I just thought it was kind of bold. Are the bishops expecting to get a lot more phone calls?
ReplyDelete"We are integrating this technology into the next generation of our web sites so that members of the Church can easily find who lives in their ward or branch boundaries and where."
ReplyDeleteReading this and seeing the "Go to Website" link on the congregation balloon gives me hope that the next generation of LUWS will be global.
Looking forward to when they will be active :)
I looked up US zip code 96799 for Pago Pago American Samoa and found no meetinghouses within 50 miles, no assigned congregations either. There are actually 16 meetinghouses on Tutuila island. Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa, btw the island is about 76 square miles. Other than that I love this new site.
ReplyDeleteThe new maps site is great. I remember using the old one to help get information on the local ward when I was moving outside of Utah, but this new one has enough detail to be useful when moving inside of Utah. Great work.
ReplyDeleteI looked up my ward in London, England, and the map was very accurate, if you drive a car. Most people here, however, take the bus or the tube. Is it possible to have those directions too (or at least indicate where the tube stations are?)
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent, and it will be really cool when the ward boundaries are added. By way of feedback, in addition to 1:00 am meeting times, I noticed when searching outside the US--at least in Chile--that I had trouble getting results from a specific address or even street name, although the tool did work when I just placed a marker on the same street.
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome. I use meetinghouse locator all the time. This would be so much easier and user friendly.
ReplyDeleteRe: Jamie and Daniel,
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that the details regarding bus/tube routes as well as street names would be functions from the underlying Google/Microsoft APIs and maps. A weakness of missing bus/tube routes or the mappings from visible streets to actual directions in those APIs are likely an issue of Google and Microsoft, not the Church. Those working on the project or Joel are free to correct any fallacies in my comment. :)
I look forward to ward boundaries, new LUWS that members may actually use, and the text/SMS interface would be nice.
Great step forward. I'm thrilled with this, but in my two tests of addresses in two different states, it gave me the wrong ward. In one case (in Utah), I'm fairly sure that the stake hasn't updated their information properly. In the other case, it appears that both the meetinghouse and the location are on the wrong sides of the street and therefore it returns the wrong ward (the street being the boundary).
ReplyDeleteEither way, I love having a better system than before to see the location of everything.
I'd love to see Stake Centers listed, along with which ward belong to which Stake. Plus what Temple District a specific ward/stake belongs to. Specific Mission might be nice as well.
ReplyDeleteDitto on the Stake info. I really like the fact that the closest meetinghouses are listed, for when we're on vacation. Our particular ward doesn't meet in any of the 3 closest buildings (Utah, of course), so having closest buildings AND assigned ward is great!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think the format is terrific! It's so nice to have a visual map to look at!
That's awesome that boundary lines will be provided. Great work.
ReplyDelete@Adam Findley: Meeting times are set by ward clerks in the MLS software. Unfortunately, they sometimes make mistakes. Actually, I'll change that to often since four out of six wards in my stake have their meeting times in wrong. Looks like something I ought to bring up at our next stake PEC meeting.
ReplyDeleteI'll echo the request to put the assigned congregation first. I almost missed it the first time through. My second time (next to a university), I had to scroll to see the assigned congregations since there were three buildings with twelve congregations listed under "Closest Meetinghouses."
ReplyDeleteI checked an address for the area where I served in a student stake and got the conventional, married, and singles wards that cover that block. Terrific work!
Meeting times should be fixed now everybody--check again!
ReplyDeleteAs far as ward boundaries go, it will likely not soon be added to this site, but might be added to other apps that are in the works.
ReplyDelete@Carl -- apparently when you searched on the zip code, it found the center of the zip code was in the middle of the ocean, with no land within 50 miles. If you search on Pago Pago instead, you will find your results. But I will bring up the issue of dealing with this more gracefully...
ReplyDelete@Ted Boren I don't know about the tube, but caltrain directions are available from Google. Just get directions from Palo Alto, CA to San Francisco, CA. On the left there should be a Public Transportation link. I dont know if that works in the API, but at least it's a start.
ReplyDeleteAlso google maps has been much faster than microsoft maps and probably more familiar. I know that Joel is a former Microsoftee, but can we swich it up?
Times look great. Now just waiting on my ward to show up (Stanford 2nd Singles ward) when I search in Menlo Park.
Adam, I am also a former Microsoftie -- a Geo Unit employee and MapPoint contributor no less! But I have already made the same recommendation based both on my own experience and blog posts. Microsoft has better coverage in many areas and better aerial photography in most areas, but some of the interaction quirks are really irksome. So there is not a heavy Microsoft bias in play here. Initially it was more of a toss-up based on geographic coverage, but the suggestion to switch the default has already been made.
ReplyDeletePlease note though that your last setting is saved right now; if you switch to Google, you get Google next time you come back. Ditto for km vs miles, overview map open vs closed, and a few other things.
Regarding the public transit features in Google, thanks for the heads up. I'll look at that.
I would suggest having a version with more features for those logged in on lds.org. I have no idea how difficult this would be, but having an boundry line overlay that is editable by a Stake level clerk. Would be helpful in ensuring accuracy.
ReplyDeleteNearest missionaries might be useful.
More for the LDS.org site: Have the wards provide a contact person for the ward since we all know there is not someone at the actual church at all times. If' we're trying to generate leads having a 24/7 contact would be useful. Even if it is the nearest full time missionaries.
Having a catalog of searches would be good for search engine propagation. For example a page would have links including 'Temple City, CA' linking to the Temple City, CA map search.
Instead of listing the language wards, just list links at the bottom for the nearest language wards. For example in Temple City, CA you list the english ward and underneath they see 'Espanol | [mandarin]'.
I can personally say that I know that the desire to have a Ward Map that shows member's houses is a HUGE demand. I continue to get emails from people all over the world asking me for my application I wrote a year or so ago (posted on tech.lds.org) that shows all members in a ward on a map. I continue to print the maps for my ward and stake and they are a huge asset to all auxillaries and quorums. Would love to know the progress of this for the ward websites!
ReplyDeleteI am encouraged with this map, I live in Garland Utah and it did not find the Stake Center. Is there some thing that has to be done on the Stake level for this building to show up?
ReplyDeleteWhen meetinghouses are missing or in the wrong location you can do the following:
ReplyDelete- Zoom the map to the location of the meetinghouse
- Switch to Aerial or Satellite view so you can see the meetinghouse
- Click on the "Place Marker" icon located near the upper left corner of the map
- Using the mouse, place the icon at the location of the meetinghouse
- Click the Feedback link and include any additional information that will help to identify the meetinghouse
We are working very hard to update the locations as we receive them!
@Arlon -- it's also possible that the stake center is not one of the three closest meetinghouses, and therefore didn't show in the list. If you think this might be the case, follow Bruce's steps above, but instead of clicking "Feedback", click "Find places nearby" in the balloon instead. If you've placed the marker right next to the stake center, it should then show up as the closest meetinghouse.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most beautiful releases of software the Church has released in quite some time! Now, why can't you do this with MLS!!
ReplyDelete[Joel: Stay tuned!]
I really like the site and continue the echo to put assigned congregations up on top. I also like having the YSA and other wards there. I didn't know that if I was Cambodian, I could go to the Oakland 10th Branch.
ReplyDeleteThere is a problem with both maps showing the wrong location for the meeting house, and thus the directions are also off. I checked with Google maps and Microsoft maps and when I put the address in there, they both map correctly, so it looks like it's a problem somewhere inbetween (address of my building is 110 Los Santos Ct, Vallejo, CA).
As for lds.org, I would really like to make it easier to search for documents or policies. For example, I searched for permission slip and didn't find what I was looking for in the first several entries, but had a lot of talks with 'permission' and 'slip' in them. When I searched for permission form, it came right up. Maybe have some sort of filter that just searches for documents and policies.
Love it, I've been hoping for this for a while, I wish maps could be seen and clear boundaries in colors, Our ward lets who they want in our ward regardless of what ward they should go to and tells other people they don't know to go to another ward, its not fair. There should be visable lines that no one can manupulate. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI'd love to surf this instead of just searching. Say if I am looking to move to an area, like the LA area. I'd have to search every city in the area to get an idea of the chapels nearby. It would be nicer to just go in an just search an area.
ReplyDeleteAdding institutes, temples, church landmarks would be great.
You could get really geeky and have a search engine with time and traffic for real time searches. I've used the meetinghouse locator many times on business trips where I have 2 hours. I have to find a church close enough and with the right times to hit a sacrament meeting when I can. This would be neat...
This is a very useful tool. From a usability standpoint however, there are to many options that are not needed (google/microsoft, 3 tabs when it seems like you might be able to fit it all in 1 column that has 3 states since you will never want to find directions when you haven't already received a list of places, and you wont have a list of places unless you search for it... or you could keep the search box visible in all states and just modify the places/get directions potion.)
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that you make a choice between Microsoft or Google, not both (what is the reasoning behind having both available? Does 1 not have the same coverage as the other? it seems like this would make it harder to add additional features since you are now working with 2 APIs instead of 1).
The purpose of the green marker on the top left isn't obvious. It would be better if we could just show all meetings places when zoomed in to a certain level, and have us be able to just double click on our location (or right click or just keep cross hairs in the center and overlay a button that says "make this my location" which places your location under the cross hairs)
I love the application! Its good to see such a useful and sleek application being made!
Excellent!
ReplyDeleteI even found my ward (in Devon, England) when I had misspelled my home town.
With the new 2.0 iPod software & 'apps' being released -- the gps features will make all of this so much easier.
I've listed this new site several places on my website: http:myldslinks.com
I hope this will help get the news out. I've got quite a international viewership & I'm sure they will welcome this feature. We get people from abroad (in Europe) who visit us all the time during the summer months.
Keep up the good work...
Howard from Devon, England
@Everybody -- lots of good ideas. We'll throw it all into the hopper and see what we can do.
ReplyDelete@Todd -- Microsoft and Google do have different coverage. This is true even in the US but is more noticeable outside the US. Check Iceland and Venezuela at street level with both vendors and you'll see what I mean. Their satellite imagery is also not the same, which especially makes a difference when trying to correct meetinghouse locations.
@Howard -- Thanks for the linkage!
Thank you thank you thank you for adding ward boundary lines!!! I'm excited to see them happen. My husband and I have moved several times over the past year and we have been confused/lost for several of those moves. Including to Provo where there are several chapels in one building!
ReplyDelete