Map choice for a Site Locator

[tom_benton]

I've got a side project which is to create a site locator and my client want to use a map to show them to their site visitors. He wants the map to be able to divide into continents, so as a filter for visitors to easy locate the store in other parts of the world. Which maps should I use to match this request? I need to decide if Google Maps or others would be more relevant for this case.

[ujjval dave]

I think gmap is best for you and you can use google analytics for visitors information.
Thanks

[faico]

Here are some samples map which might be relevant to what you are looking for. You can see the difference between Google Map solution vs Flash map solutions:

- A branch office map base on Google Map (US only but Google Map has world coverage)

- Flash world map showing dots with popup info boxes (it reads data from XML)

Not sure what you meant by filter -- maybe you mean a search function? It can be done in both Google or Flash solution, but of course you would need to do some programming to enable that. With Google you need to know PHP, with Flash you would have to use Actionscript.

[tom_benton]

Checked with my client and they want something more animated, so Google would be out. It seems like using a Flash map may be the only way to do. They also point me to this map and they want something similar:

http://analyticaltechnology.com/cms/CONTACTUS/tabid/54/Default.aspx

AFAIK they have database for the site, and the map would be a drill down to the continents and display the store locations to a panel to the right. Client said he can generate data files in XML for the map to read in. Do you know any Flash maps that I can use to start this?