Google Maps-based Mezzoman prevents family fights
Written on February 18, 2008 – 3:47 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
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Problem 1: when one of my best friends and me want to meet, we always have discussion about the place to go to. Since he lives in the southern part of Amsterdam and my apartment is in the north-east, we have a mutual agreement to meet in the middle. Yet for some reason, our definitions of the ‘middle’ are always slightly different.
Problem 2: a Dutch correspondent in the US once told me that when American families meet for Thanksgiving or Christmas, they just drive to a location that is located in the middle. US visitors of the Next Web Blog can probably verify this, right? These families probably have the same discussions as my friend and me do. The result: family fights about a driving a few miles more.
Solution: As with most great solutions: they’re stupid yet brilliant ideas. This time I found one in the Museum of Modern Betas. It’s called the Mezzoman and it will prevent a lot of people from fighting. It uses Google Maps and some pre-defined search terms - such as Italian food - to show my friend, American families and everybody else out there the way to the perfect meeting point.
The service and its Facebook app are still in beta. Hopefully the guys behind this initiative will expand it somewhat, since options are very limited now. Why not use more services than just Google Maps and Facebook? Mezzoman could also show some reviews, link to blog articles about the spot and find some Flickrpics of the place. That will make the act of preventing fights even more fun.
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7 Responses to “Google Maps-based Mezzoman prevents family fights”
By Peter Robinett on Feb 18, 2008 | Reply
I think “stupid yet brilliant” is a great way to categorize this. I think it will be more useful for ‘Problem 1′, as something in the middle will be a place you want to visit. I doubt many friends on both coasts of the US want to meet in Lebanon, Kansas. Mezzoman currently thinks this way, though: if I enter New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA as my cities and Italian as my restaurant type, it suggests a Pizza Hut in Clay Center, Kansas. Regardless of what you think of Pizza Hut or Clay Center, I’m sure we can agree this trip is one not worth taking.
As for American families, I don’t know if I’m indicative but my family and all my friends’ families tend to meet for major holidays at the parents’ houses. =)
By Marc Z on Feb 18, 2008 | Reply
In response to Peter. In a lot of ways Mezzoman lacks some intelligence, it has no capacity to guess where you want to go, it only knows what little information you give it then plots where the midpoint is and surrounding places to visit are. Keep in mind the midpoint marker can be moved and adjusted to correct errors (like when it lands in water, Google doesnt have a method to determine what coordinates exist in water and what are on land). The other thing to keep in mind, is that Google supplies the search results, Mezzoman cannot filter the results. Instead, if you are unhappy with the results (ie. Pizza Hut) you can simply enter a more descriptive search phrase into the search box that appears above the map window (instead or pizza, search deep dish pizza). In regards to the family, sure a lot of people meet at their parents’ houses. That’s isnt really what Mezzoman was designed for, it was built for two people or two parties of people to get together, not necessarily during a holiday or as an alternative to a parent’s home. Sure, it can figure out a meeting spot other than Grandma’s house, but I hope people wouldn’t be using it for that. In the mean time, Mezzoman has been in Beta for almost a year, it will surely have some of these issues addressed.
By Peter Robinett on Feb 18, 2008 | Reply
Marc, I appreciate the usefulness of Mezzoman for certain cases (such as Ernst-Jan’s Problem 1) but I just wanted to point out its limitations. That being said, I hope that very little of that one year beta period was actually spent developing because, as you note, the site does very little beyond what Google Maps does!
I think to actually be a useful travel tool it needs the intelligence you note it lacks. Show me distances each person would have to travel and recommend various modes of transit. Recommend locations somewhat away from the midpoint if they are more interesting according to user ratings, algorithms, whatever. Let me add third, fourth and more originating points (then you’d have the ultimate family reunion planning tool).
For now, one simply thing to improve it would be to get rid of the limited choice of venues and replace it with the free-form field provided on the search result page (which I didn’t notice until you mentioned it).
By Marc Z on Feb 18, 2008 | Reply
I appreciate your candid remarks. When I built Mezzoman, it did not take a year. A month or two working late at night maybe, but the rest of my time has been tweaking the code for speed and making sure it works in all browsers. Developing an algorithm to determine your midpoint from two geocoded address points wasn’t easy while keeping in mind the curvature of the earth. Second, without access to the raw data (from Navtec) it is nearly impossible to suggest modes of transportation, or even stops along the way (let alone avoid water, mountains or inaccurate out of date locations). I can’t or least Google won’t let me gain access to that part of the code so I stopped further feature development until they build in some of the features I need within their API. In the mean time I don’t need to justify the time spent, I only want to let you know that your comments although well written and valid to an extent, are missing the point (I mean this is the nicest way possible). I think there is a lot of great functionality in Mezzoman, its code is streamlined and well written. But most importantly, it is simple, not laden with excess features. I compare it to the new location feature on google maps on the iphone, it isn’t very accurate, but it is close. For the most part, when people want to travel less distance, whether it be by bike, train, car or walking meeting somewhere central, even in the same city is a welcomed change of pace. I am well aware of its limitations and to be honest, I had put Mezzoman down and hadn’t looked at it for a month or two. If by some sort of freak accident gmapsmania picked it up and labeled it #34 of 100 things to do with google maps, before long it was everywhere, this page, lifehacker and what not. All this attention, praise and criticism is totally new and I can’t say I am offended by it. I just feel you should hear the whole story.
By Ernst-Jan Pfauth on Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
@Marc Z considering the fact that Mezzoman gets picked up on such a large scale, there must be something that people really like about. Congratulations for that, I’m sure a lot of developers who see their concepts dying a quit death are pretty jealous.
If it’s perfect for cities, why wouldn’t you promote that more? Add a nice city-minded tagline, give it an urban touch and much of the criticism about water, mountains and what not will fade away.
By Peter Robinett on Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
Marc, thanks for the background. I think all too often on tech blogs (including The Next Web) we’re presented with various cool but limited web apps and everyone (myself included) operates on the assumption that the sites we see are just a teaser to gather publicity and attract investors, with the ‘real’ features coming later. Therefore I think we have a hard time recognizing things that are just simple, cool projects such as Mezzoman. Keep up the good work and I’m impressed that you take the curvature of the earth into account. That’s definitely something I would have forgotten!
By Chris V on Mar 25, 2008 | Reply
Marc, Hi from Australia,
Just heard about your Mezzoman application from a friend and went to your site and tried it and looks pretty good.
I’m a 16 years old student and live in Melbourne, (State of Victoria in Australia) Currently I’m working on a school IT mapping project and trying to develop an application that will allow users to find the best central locations to hold school sporting events (football, tennis, hockey, soccer etc) that is part way between various schools.
It would be great to learn from you guys so I am writing to see see if you would help me out.
Are you developers? Is this application some sort of open source code? How does it work and can I learn from you guys as it would be awesome to work with you from the other side of the world
Please email back to me at email account I provided to you.
Thanks
Chris V. Year 11 student at
Caulfield Grammar School, Australia