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Is there a way to view my contacts loations on map? In other words if I were somewhere I might want to see what customers are close so I can visit. I know that I can create a My Map and enter them one by one, but I already have 460 contacts in my phone and i just want my phone to say who is around the corner that I am not thinking of. Anyone?
 
If you want the real live location you could use the Google latitude in the maps.

You would have to have all of them sign up for the service(free), Or you could

"Via Google maps!"
Import KML
Add map data from a KML, KMZ, or GeoRSS file to this map. This may take a few minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Maximum size: 10MB

Now if you had the location of said 460 people via GPS or Address something digital. I know some one that could make this into a KML,KMZ file to be up loaded into your maps.
 
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I thought this was an obvious thing for it to do, I guess Droid doesn't!

How do I input stuff like this to the developers?

Do you have this info in a digital format of any kind? XY,GPS something like that.

They have the option in the software you just have to have the data to put it in the map.

Sorry guys i work as a Mapping Specialist for a living so this is right up my alley.
 
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help me understand..

you want a way that you can pull up google maps and it will show the location of your contacts on the map. so if i was in your contact list, somehow it would obtain my location and display it on your map? Basically making your phone a GPS tracker for all your friends.

He wants this (i think)

TVEC_Subs - Google Maps
 
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help me understand..

you want a way that you can pull up google maps and it will show the location of your contacts on the map. so if i was in your contact list, somehow it would obtain my location and display it on your map? Basically making your phone a GPS tracker for all your friends.


I believe the request is asking to show the location of an address already stored for a particular contact, not so much tracking their live/current position.
 
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help me understand..

you want a way that you can pull up google maps and it will show the location of your contacts on the map. so if i was in your contact list, somehow it would obtain my location and display it on your map? Basically making your phone a GPS tracker for all your friends.
That is how I would envision it. The contacts that I have are all business contacts with address, city, state, zip information. When I travel to a city, it would be nice to bring up maps and navigation and see all the contacts as pushpins. It sounds like "Jestexman" has ways to make this happen, but it would be really nice to have an app that would stay synced with your contacts. Even better if it could import multiple lists of addresses. I have customer sheets that contain over 7000 locations. Geez would it be useful to be travelling and have them all on my map as POI. I understand the limitations of what is out there, but I think it would be a great software add on if someone would create and app to handle the backend work.
 
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That is how I would envision it. The contacts that I have are all business contacts with address, city, state, zip information. When I travel to a city, it would be nice to bring up maps and navigation and see all the contacts as pushpins. It sounds like "Jestexman" has ways to make this happen, but it would be really nice to have an app that would stay synced with your contacts. Even better if it could import multiple lists of addresses. I have customer sheets that contain over 7000 locations. Geez would it be useful to be travelling and have them all on my map as POI. I understand the limitations of what is out there, but I think it would be a great software add on if someone would create and app to handle the backend work.

Ok, you want to track fixed positions with a specific address. The way I was reading it, sounded like you wanted to creep on your friends and follow them on the map.
 
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help me understand..

you want a way that you can pull up google maps and it will show the location of your contacts on the map. so if i was in your contact list, somehow it would obtain my location and display it on your map? Basically making your phone a GPS tracker for all your friends.

No. One of the possible fields in your contacts is address. It stands to reason to expect Google to let us actually make use of this in Google maps (espescially since contacts are backed up on Google's GMail). When you go to a contact you can choose to call them, message them, talk via GTalk, look at their facebook profile etc...there should be an easy "navigate to their address" option. And just like you can have multiple phone numbers, you should be able to have multiple addresses.
 
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Ok, you want to track fixed positions with a specific address. The way I was reading it, sounded like you wanted to creep on your friends and follow them on the map.

OK, my phone is about making a living, not tracking friends, I don't have 460 freinds, I have 460 contacts stored, most are buisness contacts and they are fixed addresses. When I bring up a contact it I can see where it is on the map, what I want is when I am in maps to be able to see what contacts are nearby. Sort of like being on Google Maps and selecting "Hotels" and it shows me the locations of all the nearby hotels.

Thanks
 
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OK, my phone is about making a living, not tracking friends, I don't have 460 freinds, I have 460 contacts stored, most are buisness contacts and they are fixed addresses. When I bring up a contact it I can see where it is on the map, what I want is when I am in maps to be able to see what contacts are nearby. Sort of like being on Google Maps and selecting "Hotels" and it shows me the locations of all the nearby hotels.

Thanks

Ok if you have the addresses in a digital format then this will do the job.


Map Multiple Locations by Address


Put your info in the right format. Follow the directions and you will have all your contacts in your Google maps online and your phone.

If you need help let me know.
 
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OK, I suppose that exporting your contacts from GMail would be the first step, then specifying the format for export, then importing into this page....then what?
(in case you have not got this far) how to export your gmail contacts to excell
Ok if you got that far the rest is real easy... Download to kml - import into Google maps

In Google maps on your pc

My Maps
Create new Map
Name it
Description
Edit

You should see a import button

Use the KML file you made from the webpage and import that into your Google maps.

Save done

open up maps on the phone- layers-more layers-my maps

And you should see a lot of extra place marks in the map. From what i am reading you can get fancy with the place marks and data you add to it.

I don't know about you but even if you had to hand key 20-30 address and names this would be dam cool!

If more then make you a csv and put it in the right format and your good to go.
 
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Thanks

I don't know how to export this from my outlook contacts, but I guess the problem is Droid Does Not. A fancy phone like this should just do this sort of thing.

A fancy phone like this can't do everything that every customer might want at launch, unfortunately. Time and resources are limited, and prioritization of what gets in initially has to focus on what most customers want first. This would be a cool feature, but isn't going to make the "most customers want this" list.

Droid is a 1.0 HW device w/a 2.0 SW release...give them some time to get their momentum up. :) If there's enough demand, an app will arise, or Google will add it to the OS. If the phone doesn't meet your needs you may have to find another that does what you need. I believe the 3GSiPhone provides some level of automated contact mapping...
 
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Thanks

I don't know how to export this from my outlook contacts, but I guess the problem is Droid Does Not. A fancy phone like this should just do this sort of thing.

Remember it is a beta application, give it some time. I am surprised you are still using the phone. Getting hooked?

What is a good crackberry type word for the Droid.
 
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Download to KML?

How do you convert?


Map Multiple Locations by Address
This site will let you add addressee via copy and past and then export to kml.

I am going to try something crazzy (the other guy thought he had it bad)

I have 60,000 customers that i need to know where they are and i am going to attempted to add a few thousand to my phone.
 
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Map Multiple Locations by Address
This site will let you add addressee via copy and past and then export to kml.

I am going to try something crazzy (the other guy thought he had it bad)

I have 60,000 customers that i need to know where they are and i am going to attempted to add a few thousand to my phone.
Jest: Let me know how your experiment turns out. I just tried creating a KML file with over 900 locations, imported into My Maps, and was able to add the layer on Maps on the droid. What I am seeing is that it only displays the first 100 locations in the KML list. There will be an icon on the bottom left of the screen that shows a list of locations when you select it. When you get to the bottom, it will allow you to see the "Next 100" and then view them on the map. This does not really look that useful for what you or I are trying to accomplish. I guess it is a limitation of how many pinpoints maps can display. Would work well if you can create multiple lists and keep them under 100 locations, but something like displaying over 1000 on a map doesnt look like it will work. If you have different results, let me know your secret.
 
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