For the first time in history, Seznam.cz goes beyond the borders of the Czech Republic with its new map. It will offer people a foreign language mobile application Windy Maps. The current Czech internet number one has developed a user-friendly application that is primarily intended for foreign tourists. It will offer easy orientation anywhere in the world, even without an Internet connection. Without it, people in the application can search for or plan a trip on foot, by bike or by car in the downloaded map. In addition, navigation designed for all mentioned modes of transport will lead them to interesting places in the vicinity. Windy Maps now offers all of this completely free of charge to owners of phones with operating systems Android a iOS.
[appbox googleplay simple cz.seznam.windymaps]
Search, planning and navigation not only offline, but also in English
After the popular service mapy.cz, which over a million people use every day via computer or mobile phone, Seznam.cz is introducing a mobile application Windy Maps.
"The impetus for the creation of Windy Maps for us was feedback from the people themselves. In addition to Czech inquiries, we also began to receive an enormous increase in foreign language requests. This led us to the idea of creating tourist maps that we can make available to people from all over the world in the English language. For the first time ever, we will offer search, planning and navigation that works even without an Internet connection in a language other than Czech. In addition, the navigation is also designed for cars and you can choose whether it should take you on a shorter or faster route, similar to how you choose on a bike whether you want to ride on roads or go on an off-road adventure." clarifies Jakub Faifer, product manager of Mapy.cz.
Windy Maps offers users options to search for attractive places in the vicinity or provide tips for interesting trips, whether on foot, by bike or by car. It goes without saying that recommending the nearest restaurants, hotels or public transport stops is also a matter of course. For practical use, it is possible to download offline maps of the world by individual country, for countries with extensive data, only regions can be selected. Similar to the case with the Mapy.cz application, people can only save a specific area to their mobile anywhere in the world where they are going on their travels.
The most up-to-date data at the world level
Whether foreign tourists go on a business trip to the Czech Republic, for example, or decide to take a trip around the world, with the Windy Maps mobile offline application they will find their way around very quickly and will definitely not get lost. Similar to Mapy.cz, Windy Maps use the same map background and data. Thanks to this, they can complement each other and thus provide people with even better data. Not only are the map materials of all countries in the world (except the Czech Republic and Slovakia) based on data from Open Street Map (OSM), but the application also uses other publicly available open data whether technology. An example is the use of data from an online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which will be displayed to people at specific points of interest on the map, or Wikidata, which enable quick translation of information from Wikipedia into the desired language, for example. “By importing this data into our app, we offer people accurate informace world class,"zooms in on Faifer. And adds: "It is a matter of course for us that when we take information from community data and informace, we give something back. Our cartographers connect data from OSM precisely with informaceme from Wikipedia. Then they also correct reported or self-detected errors in documents and the like in the OSM database. In addition, we have Windy Maps for tourists from all over the world completely free of charge."
In addition to this data, Windy Maps also uses timetable data in countries and cities that offer them in open machine-readable formats. Therefore, with Windy Maps in London, people learn not only informace about Big Ben, but they can also find out how to get there by public transport thanks scheduler function and connecting Windy Maps to the application Time tables. "We also use the fact that some data about timetables in world destinations are publicly available on our Timetables service. We are gradually adding more and more cities where you can conveniently plan your journey by public transport. And we see no reason not to offer the same data to foreign tourists in English in the Windy Maps application," he adds Jan Stepan, product manager at Seznam.cz, who in the map team is in charge of, among other things, Time tables.
But the Windy Maps team doesn't just use open data. It is also looking for partners whose data will make it easier for tourists to travel. That is why the creators of Windy Maps have agreed with the booking portal to recommend the most suitable accommodation Booking.com and will appear in the application soon informace about the 1 accommodation options offered there in 476 countries and territories. "We are happy to have found a partner also for the accommodation segment, which is truly variable. Thanks to Booking.com, we will offer relevant data and at the same time expand the range of functions that people can use.” concludes Faifer. Other similar partnerships will gradually enrich the Windy Maps application with data.
From future plans, we can reveal that Windy Maps will go much further with offline trip planning capabilities. It will primarily focus on enriching individual routes with real data from the global tourist community.
"The Windy Maps mobile application has ambitions to deliverto people from all over the world as comprehensive and detailed as possible informace, which comes in handy whenever you hit the road. We will recommend to everyone the best of the surroundings of the chosen point or location where they are located, taking into account their preferences. All this without the need for an Internet connection. In the beginning, we count mainly on organic spread thanks to support among the community Windy.com. Initially, we expect to use it mainly in countries with strong tourism, depending on people's interest and response, we will see how we will continue to develop or support the service," concludes Martin Fuchs, who as product director of Seznam.cz oversaw the development of the Windy Maps application.
The new application is available on all mobile phones with operating systems Android a iOS in English language. Further language mutations and availability for devices with Windows 10 and web browsers.
