Recruiting MGoGoogleMap!

Submitted by Deep Under Cover on

Someone in the "2012 Recruiting Map" comments section mentioned they hoped it would never get to this point... But it has.  I present our very own Recruiting MGoGoogleMap!

http://www.tomjacoby.net/home/MGoGoogleMap.aspx

Give it a try and tell me how you like it and any changes you'd like to see! These points are dynamically created so the map can be easily updated in the future.

If it runs a little slow its because Google's GeoCode server sometimes gives the wrong coordinates for the points, so I have to keep requesting new coordinates (which is time consuming).

GoBlueInNYC

May 8th, 2011 at 1:57 PM ^

All that taught me was that, unlike MSU who recruits nationally, UM can only recruit at home and is therefore doomed to slide into mediocrity and irrelavence.

But seriously, that's a cool map. I don't follow recruiting super closely, so it's nice to poke around something like that map to kind of catch-up.

Deep Under Cover

May 8th, 2011 at 2:45 PM ^

It's cool, but when I hit 'Defence' I get commits to Texas, USC, TCU, PSU...none for UM.

Only 'commits' seems to be us.

I should have clarified in the controls box, commits are those committed to UM, others are outstanding offers.  I based it off the 2012 Recruiting Map's dataset.

Only can see one pushpin for the same school (FH)

I will look into that. All the pins are there, but since the pins are mapped to a single city, one is in the front and hides the rest. I will try to implement a tab system on the info window for the tab if multiple recruits are locatedi n the same city.

 I will try to find time to make the updates later, but some Spring work is at hand for now.

Hill.FootballR…

May 8th, 2011 at 3:01 PM ^

I laughed when someone commented by saying that last night, thinking someone might actually do it now, but you have done it much faster than I thought possible. Great work.

Tozmo

May 8th, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^

Is your website down?

Wouldn't it be easier to go to google maps, add the data points, save the custom map and post the link(s) here?  It would save you bandwith

Deep Under Cover

May 8th, 2011 at 3:24 PM ^

Looks as though my server has choked up, not sure exactly why. I am currently restarting it.

Eh, bandwidth is not a huge concern to me.  The page itself is really quite light from my side. Loading all the Google maps images only taxes Google's server.

Deep Under Cover

May 8th, 2011 at 4:01 PM ^

So it seems I forgot that Google limits the number of Geocode (converting addresses to Latitude/Longitude) requests per IP addess to 2500 per day, which we seem to have already exhausted.  I am working on a workaround.

Deep Under Cover

May 8th, 2011 at 4:56 PM ^

Site is back up. Working much faster now that I have cached all of the Lat/Long coordinates.  I am going to work on the tab thing as well as some sort of icon color/size coordination.

Deep Under Cover

May 8th, 2011 at 6:38 PM ^

Thanks, I appreciate it.

That's interesting about James Ross. Likely what happened is the source I use for the Geocoding is not producing accurate results (I am currently using USC's service. Figures).  I will switch it back over to Google probably tomorrow and refresh the database coordinates cache. It appears to be much more accurate.

Next on the list of changes is I want to make it easier to find individual players on the map. I have a plan, so hopefully I can get it implemented sometime soon.

Snidely Doo Rash

May 8th, 2011 at 7:13 PM ^

Thanks so much for doing this.  If we send a search party to the shark infested waters of the Atlantic on the equator south of Ghana, I believe MgoBlog can secure the commits of Ken Ekanem and Ty Darlington.  

The recruiting blurbs give me about everything I have wanted but never had access to at a recruiting paysite all in one place.  This is MONEY!  

ryebreadboy

May 8th, 2011 at 8:34 PM ^

This is cool!  One idea though.. under offensive and defensive offers, maybe color the players who've committed elsewhere red?  That way I can see a field of yellow and green waiting to commit, and the red indicates that they've gone elsewhere.  Just an idea; it's not really that essential.

jshclhn

May 8th, 2011 at 8:36 PM ^

Awesome stuff - I would love for something like this to be incorporated into "Useful Stuff" on an annual basis.  Perhaps even have historical perspectives as well at some point.

JohnnyV123

May 9th, 2011 at 12:56 AM ^

What ryebreadboy suggested. Still nice to know who Michigan has offers to even if they are committed somewhere else and nice to know which players Michigan has a chance with.

Deep Under Cover

May 9th, 2011 at 4:23 AM ^

Thanks for all the feedback. I am working on some major features to allow for some community interaction with the map to help keep it up to date and interesting. It will probably take a few days to complete, at which time I will probably have a diary post for it!

EZ Bud

May 9th, 2011 at 2:43 PM ^

This is really picky, but I couldn't help but notice that James Ross is being placed on the map at St. Mary's School up by Traverse City, as opposed to Orchard Lake St. Mary's, which is in Orchard Lake (near West Bloomfield, MI).