Anyone for Cricket?

Both forms of the World Cup are over and the Northern Winter looms over Great Britain. But for those of us you a little further South, a sensational summer of cricket is just getting started.

Domestic competitions have kicked off in Australia, South Africa, and The West Indies (and starting soon in Pakistan); and one-day and test series are already underway in South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, and Australia. With so much cricket spread so far around the world, what better time to launch a mega cricket maps mashup?

Live Cricket Map
See exactly where every game is being played with links to live ball-by-ball commentary.



Cricket Calendar Map
Shows you all the upcoming cricket fixtures, mapped out around the world.



Cricket Venue Map
Find out more about cricket grounds around the world. These lists are updated and growing every day as we get more details about more grounds around the world. Want to help? Send us the details on a ground near you.



iGoogle Gadgets
All the cricket-map goodness in convenient gadget form. Add the Live Scores Map Gadget and Cricket Schedule Map Gadget to your iGoogle homepage.

Hit for Six was written entirely in the Google Mashup Editor with data coming from Dapper, Google Calendar, and Google Spreadsheets. It makes use of a few cool new GME tricks (like real-time geocoding) so I'll write a follow up post early next week explaining some of the tricks I learned putting it together.

The Absolute Cricket Calendar

If the train-wreck that was the 2007 Cricket World Cup hasn't terminally deadened your enthusiasm for the clash of leather on willow, you're probably ready for a return to some real cricket.

And because too much cricket is barely enough, prepare to thrill at The Cricketing Yak's Ultimate Cricket Calendar. A Google Calendar with every game above junior level for at least the next 4 weeks -- domestic and international -- from all over the cricketing world. If that's more than you can handle, there's the International Cricket Calendar with just the matches involving international sides.

Both calendars are conveniently available on the newly redesigned Cricketing Yak, or you can add them straight to your own Google Calendar [Absolute Cricket or Internationals Only].

Of course with all this cricket being played around the world, you'll need to be reminded of where it's happening, so check out the Live Cricket Map while you're at it, or add it to your iGoogle homepage.

2007 English Domestic Cricket on Google

The World Cup is (finally) heading in to its final stages and after yesterday's performance, England aren't going to be part of the proceedings.

Luckily the County Championship kicks off today and I've updated my English domestic cricket calendars with the full fixtures for 2007.

• The County Championship (Domestic First class championship)
• Pro40 (Limited overs championship)
• Pro20 (Twenty20 competition)
• Friends Providence Trophy (50 over competition -- last year's C&G Trophy)

For a different view of who's playing where the World Cricket Map Google homepage widget is updated daily and shows cricket being played around the world, with each match pinpointed on a map. Zoom out to see England, then zoom in to see satellite footage of each venue.

As usual CricInfo's Australian Irish English commentary team will be covering all the matches for your reading pleasure.

Google My Maps World Cup Venue Mashup

If you're watching the World Cup and you haven't yet used any of my resources to see where the action is being played out, I've decided to add one more way of seeing the venues.

Using Google Map's new 'My Maps' feature, I've published a Google 'My Maps' hosted mashup of World Cup 2007 venues.

For mashup developers, the process of porting the data from an existing mashup into a 'My Maps' mashup took about an hour. The main thing I missed was the ability to change the alignment of text within the description balloon -- otherwise the process was quick and straightforward.

Cricket World Cup 2007

World Cup 2007 is upon us; the squads have landed in the West Indies and a flurry of warm-up matches are already underway. The real action starts Tuesday March 13th, when host nation The West Indies take on Pakistan at Sabina Park.

As part of my preparations, I've scoured satellite footage for the exact location of each World Cup venue. Considering that construction hadn't started on some sites when the satellite imagery was taken, this was no trivial task! The good news is that Google Maps / Earth imagery for the West Indies is pretty freaking good. The better news is I'm sharing my results!

Tour the Venues in Google Earth

Fly to each of the 12 venues hosting matches in this years World Cup in Google Earth using the World Cup 2007 Venues KML file.

Live World Cricket Map

The Live World Cricket Map Google Homepage module is a Maps mashup that's updated constantly to show every cricket match for that day on a world map -- pitch perfect positioning shows you exactly where the games are being played. For the duration of the World Cup the World Cricket Map is centered directly on the West Indies. There's also a bigger version of the same mashup available at The Cricketing Yak for your viewing pleasure.

I'm embedding this widget into my blog for the duration of the World Cup - check out the top right!

World Cricket Calendar

Keep track of the action on the World Cricket Google Calendar that now includes updated map references for all the World Cup venues. I'll be updating the Super 16's and finals details once we know who's playing in them.

The Cricketing Yak's World Test Venues Map

This Google Maps mashup features all the official Test cricket venues for each test playing nation, and now also includes the precise location of all 12 World Cup 2007 venues. As well as the exact location of each venue, you'll see live weather forecasts, seating plans, live webcam links, and a picture of the stadium.

Just The Venues

If you want the venues without the fruit, here they are for your viewing pleasure:

Three Ws Oval, Arnos Vale Ground, Trelawny Stadium, Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium,Kensington Oval, Queens Park, Providence Stadium, Sabina Park, Warner Park, Beausejour Stadium, Queen's Park Oval.

Other Resources

For everything else CricInfo have created an outstanding dedicated World Cup 2007 microsite that's an unparalleled resource for all things cricket, so be sure to check that out.

For expert commentary from a member of the CricInfo commentary team, check out Will Luke's personal cricketing blog, The Corridor.

And finally, there's a distinct possibility that Google will be providing some tools to cover the action, check out http://www.google.com/cricket on Tuesday!

Live Cricket Map Homepage Module Updated

I've finally gotten around to updating the World Cricket Map Google Homepage module.

I'm now including almost every cricket match played in the world above club level, so now you can follow Internationals, Twenty20, women's internationals, and your domestic sides battle each other for glory with the World Cricket Map on your Google homepage. The latest release uses version 2 of the Google Maps API, so there's better imagery, more road maps, and it works properly in IE.

If you've already got the moduleo n your homepage you don't need to do anything, you should already be seeing better results.

It's been a while since I looked at the Google Hompage Module code, turns out there's been some big improvements since then. Of note is analytics support using Google Analytics. If you've written a module add the analytics code and see how popular your gadget is, and where it's popular. I had no idea that over 100 people were keeping an eye on the cricket with my humble module! Now I feel bad for not improving it sooner -- maybe I should look closer at supplying live scores...?

Also of note is the much enhanced Scratchpad that works as a real-time web-based development environment for you modules. It makes development and bug fixing a breeze and I can't recommend it enough.

English Twenty20 Cup Calendar

With the English Domestic season well under way, it's almost time for the Twenty20 cup. To keep track, I present the English Domestic Twenty20 Cup calendar for your scheduling enjoyment.

In other cricket news, Google Maps have just rolled out a major satellite imagery update. Check out my Test Match Venue map page and see most of the world's test grounds in 10cm per pixel high resolution goodness.

This update is big - South Africa, New Zealand, India, and Pakistan - have nearly all their cricket grounds visible at high res.

Test Cricket Venues on Google Earth

To round out my recent adventures in Google code, I've made a start on a Google Earth version of the Test Cricket Venue map from The Cricketing Yak.


The linked cricket venues KMZ file contains a network link that will update the test venue placemarks, the moment I add new ones (or change existing details). So far there are beautifully chosen views of the Test cricket venues in England and Australia.

I must say, it's quite something to fly around the world shooting from venue to venue. So if you've got Google Earth, download the file now and check it out.

Cricket Subscription Links and Google Coop: A How and Why Guide

The Short Version

Cricket ground details and fixtures in a Google onebox, now available via my Google Coop subscription links.


The Long Version (Including the 'How' and 'Why')

Google had a big day Wednesday, announcing the release of Google Trends, a new Google Desktop release, the upcoming release of Google Notebook, and most excitingly -- Google Coop.

Philipp has already provided a good Coop overview, so rather than rehash old ground I'm going to explain the reasoning and process behind creating the International Cricket subscription links.



Note: My Google Coop Profile provides live previews of these links along with the ability to subscribe to them.

What and Why

As frequent readers will know, I'm a cricket fan, enough so that I created The Cricketing Yak.

The site includes a Google Map of test cricket venues, and while building this I found it unusually hard to find fairly basic information about many of the grounds -- things like official web sites and precise stadium locations took far more than just searching for the ground's name or city.

Now Coop let's me provide a better solution, by putting these details where I expect them -- in the search results. Coop subscription links let you define a search query pattern, and then a onebox result. Anyone subscribed to your profile gets this onebox when a search they execute matches your pattern.

What to Show?


Each onebox can have three lines of text (with links), plus a title and 'more link'. This limits the information you can display, though as a user it ensures you're results are uncluttered.

As a guide I'd suggest:

1. No spamming! (more on this later).
   
2. Show only the information people are going to find useful for this specific query.
3. Save users time by linking to related services (maps, calendar, email, etc.).
4. Only link back to your site if it provides useful additional information.
   

My philosophy is to keep the result concise and relevant -- and I've done Google's job for them, by providing links to related Google services (map and calendar).

For the cricket venue box, I chose to display:

• The full ground name with a link to the official web site as the title and more link.
• The type of cricket venue it is, with the city/country location.
• An exact Google Maps view of the ground.
• A link to local weather observations from the venue's city .

Notice anything missing? No link to my site! Why? Because the other information is more relevant.

I don't have much more useful information at my site, so there's no value to the user in directing them there.

For the cricket match schedule box I'm showing:

• The next scheduled match at the ground (with the date and match description) as the title.
  
• A link to add the match directly to your Google Calendar (tricky!)
  
• And this time I'm including a link to watch the live scores at The Cricketing Yak.
  

Potential Downsides? Losing Traffic!

I'm providing useful information, previously available at my web site, directly within the search results -- and in one case, I'm not even linking back to my site. Seems like an unusual way of gaining traffic 'eh?

True, but it goes a long way towards building trust and with only four lines/links, you might have more information to share -- if so, link to it -- but make sure the link makes worth their while. Don't just spam them!

Potential Upsides? Gaining Trust and Authority!

Losing traffic may seem like a Bad Thing, but what you're trading in is trust.

Google Coop lets trusted contributors affect the search rankings by using topics and labels. As a web site owner this is a Very Good Thing. But it only works for people subscribed to you, and to get (and keep) subscribers, you need to maintain their trust -- spam them and you'll lose them.

By providing relevant, useful information, you encourage users to trust you and stay subscribed -- meaning your site labeling will be affecting their search results. It's very white hat SEO, as your success at drawing visitors towards your site depends entirely on your ability to maintain their trust.

Break that trust and they can (and will) ignore you with a single click.

Update (28/05/06): See also my Upcoming Book Release subscription link.

Test Cricket Venues Maps Mashup

The Cricketing Yak presents the worlds test cricket stadiums in one giant Google Maps mashup.


Each venue has been positioned with precision accuracy, so you have a bird's eye view of all the venues that play host to the art and majesty that is Test match cricket. Every stadium -- from Lord's, to the MCG, and Eden Gardens -- is featured, with clarity limited only by the quality of Google's satellite imagery.

Along with a breathtaking bird's eye view, we've included essential ground details, like seating plans and ground profiles. And because we like our cricket maps live and interactive, we've included live local weather and rain radar -- not to mention a link to the local webcam nearest the ground. It's as close to being there as you can be, without actually, well, being there.

To top it all off, we scour the World Cricket Schedule daily to include a list of international matches coming soon to each ground.

As a bonus, we'll be compiling all the static information in a detailed KML file for use with Google Earth in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for details.

PLUS! If this map is well received we'll start putting together a mashup that includes all 1st class grounds in each country -- what do you think, where would you like us to start?

The World Cricket Map Now Supports Internet Explorer

What, you mean it didn't before?

Well, yesterday I learned a lesson. Always test with multiple browsers. I found out very late last night that some of the JavaScript on the World Cricket Map was not Internet Explorer friendly. Whoops!

An hour of frantic coding later I've found and fixed the incompatibility, so anyone who visited the site yesterday and was greeted by a map suggesting there was precious little cricket being played -- download FireFox! Or alternatively, you could just visit the site again with IE. Just make sure you refresh!

Live Cricket Scores and Google Calendar Cricket Fixtures

For those of you that love Cricket, I've created a new cricketing website -- The Cricketing Yak.

It's home to the World Cricket Calendar, that uses the Google calendar API to maintain a complete Google Calendar of international cricket that includes tests, ODIs, and Twenty20 matches. I'm also generating fixtures with Google Calendar links to let visitors create reminders for upcoming cricket matches on your Google calendar.


The Google homepage Cricket Map module is now full blown mashup -- using the v2 API and featuring live match scores.

I've got a couple more cricket related projects nearing release. When they're ready I'll post here and at The Cricketing Yak, so stay tuned for deets.

Google Cricket Sidebar Update

The Google cricket sidebar is inching its way to release. There's not too much more to do, but free time has been scarce of late making the last stage of testing and development drag on.

One of the biggest problems is the sheer number of games available to watch at any given time. There's test matches, limited overs, and 20/20 games. Then there's the domestic competitions from all over the world including India, South Africa, and Australia. The end result is a lot of different variations to test, but which can only be tested when the games are being played!

To help get a release out sooner, I'm considering offering a reduced version that will feature the one day and test matches from only one international team. My personal preference is for my home team of Australia -- but I'm willing to consider any alternative test playing nation based on feedback.

So, post your comments here or send me an email!

Cricket + Google = Sweet

Those of you who pay close attention to Google's every release (and how could you not?) will know they recently released an API for adding modules to their customised Google homepage.

To satisfy my endless appetite for world cricket, I've put together a module that will overlay all the current matches onto a Google Map for your viewing pleasure.

To add this module to your Google Hompage, go to your Google customised hompage -- choose 'Add Content', and paste this url into the 'Create a Section' text box.

You can check out other available modules at the Google module directory, and find out about more of my cricket tracking projects here.