Through partnership with CloudMade, we are excited to offer one of the best global mapping data sets to UMapper users. CloudMade uses OpenStreetMap map data, enhances it, and offers additional services and API’s on top. Being fans and participants of the OpenStreetMap, we are happy to see companies like CloudMade harnessing the power of open source!

As always, new map data is seamlessly integrated with our framework and is immediately available to all of our maps. Try it out by switching your map source to CloudMade!

This week’s featured map is jamietie’s The most endangered historic places in Cedar Rapids. This map shows the flooding of historic neighborhoods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. To learn more about the story behind this map take a look at the Cedar Rapids historic buildings make ‘most endangered’ list story on gazetteonline.com.

Following up on the Map Analytics module release: we are exited to announce that it is now available through our API. You can now embed the analytics viewer anywhere on the web with full interactive capabilities.

The example below shows the usage for the Fleeing businessman caught map.

To learn more about our API (and UMapper private label), please check out UMapper Developer Central. If you have any API related questions, please post them here.

The past week was very eventful, but there were two stories that stood out the most. First there was a story about Marcus Schrenker’s wild escape that landed him in jail. Then, there was a miraculous water landing in New York’s Hudson river. Both stories started with airplanes and both were reflected in UMapper maps.. Pretty cool!

Fleeing businessman caught
Merrillville native Marcus Schrenker was caught Tuesday night in Florida. He is accused of devising an elaborate plan to escape a failed marriage and financial problems.

NYC Hudson River Jet Crash
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown says the US Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport enroute to Charlotte, N.C., when the crash occurred in the river near 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.

The UMapper WordPress MU Plugin got a great review by the people over at WordPress Updates.

“For those desperate to customize and add layers to their maps, or need a geo-mapping solution for Wordpress MU, UMapper is the only choice by far…” —WordPress Updates

It definitely feels good to be named one of the Best Geo-Blogging tools, especially since we are just getting started! If you are using UMapper with WordPress MU we’d love to hear from you. Let us know if you have any comments or suggested improvements.