On the MVP summit Curt gave me a great idea.

I started writing Geo Twitter and I was going to put it online. However I am far from finishing it. To follow with the community tradition I went with giving it to the community. The community has give me lots. Hopefully with the contribution of other people we can finish it and make it better.

I put it in CodePlex http://codeplex.com/geotwitter

I'll be ading more detail post at my blog today. http://alpascual.com/blog/al

GeoTwitter updated today, please I need feedback on the tool. http://alpascual.com/blog/al/archive/2008/05/05/geotwitter-found-a-permanent-home-and-got-already-feedback.aspx

http://geotwitter.net

I just updated the source code of geotwitter at codeplex and is ready for download

Feedback or suggestions appreaciated.

You can follow me at twitter as well.

You can add Geotwitter.NET to your website or blog with a simple JavaScript include and will provide two functions:

• You can see the last 10 users using Twitter the have a location as well as you can only show your last location.

The code to add on your website is:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx"></script>

Has a few parameters that you can modify the size to fit your website

To change the the size you can use parameters Width and Height.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx?width=500&height=300"></script>

You'll be required to create a key at Google Maps with the domain you are using, to create the key if free and you can generate it here. Then you sent it on the script like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geotwitter.net/Where.ashx?googlekey=ABQIAAAAel8IPnI5wEvR5PtOvUjVJxQNlqpZBVZoSHorPhx1jq-2Q98j_hSr8_uxZyh4Mo--_q1VGkVdnmqp6Q"></script>

The above samples will just provide the last 10 people using GeoTwitter, if you only want to provide your location you can just pass the username

Finally I released the first version, you can see the big map with all the twitters here. Added the iPhone supprt, new look and feel, contact form for your feedback as well. Please let me know what you think and where to go from here!

The biggest feature that I have been asked by many users, was to add the avatars of the people on the map, I changed the default icon now to the user avatar.

As promised a month ago, now you can see the location of all users, not just the ones using GeoTwitter.NET, you can also find the other users on the map with an approximation of the location added when they register into Twitter.

Another new feature is the button “Auto Find Me” that will set your position using your IP address, just press the button and the coordinates will be auto populated depending on your IP address. Of course you can still set your position by entering the complete address, city or zip code.

I have received a few emails from people outside of the US, asking me, why I center the map to the US only. My apologies, now the map will be centered by locating your IP address, so you can see the people around you that you are following.

A big deal on work adding support for the iPhone location services. When you use GeoTwitter.NET using the iPhone you’ll find out that your location will be found, as well as using the desktop or any other mobile device you can change your location by pressing the button “Set Address”

I need your help

Even this is the release I wanted, now I have been gathering more requirements, thanks to all the people that blog and used twitter. Having Robert Scoble tweet about it didn’t hurt at all. The first hour after he tweet, I got 600 users!

Amazing that one person has so much power, he was blamed last week for taking down Twitter. Just glad GeoTwitter was design to take a small load of people at the time without any problem. Even that I need more repeating users, so if you got a few minutes, please be kind and check out Geotwitter.NET, then send me some feedback. If you own a blog or if you would like to tweet about and help spreading the word as well . It’s very important to get at least 100 users using it in the same time.

The future is bright

What’s next for me? Well one thing looks clear, a new look and feel for GeoTwitter is in order. Improved other mobile devices support instead of the iPhone as well as creating a desktop application to track your locations. Adding the way to geotag a image taken by your mobile device to the current location. There are many features they were requested, like finding friends around you, however now that you can see the map avatar, one simple look and you’ll be able to see who is around you. Let me know what do you think!

Cheers

Al