Jeff’s Map of the Dead: Zombie Survival Map has been a welcome distraction at the Doejo offices and beyond.
Mentions on Reddit, io9, Gawker, Venture Beat, Neatorama, Geekosystem, Metafilter, Howtogeek, WebProNews and other tech blogs, including our friends at GapersBlock in Chicago, have made Map of the Dead an online sensation. Ok, so maybe not a “sensation” but we did get 380,000 visitors so far and ton of emails from fans. Even the folks at Google took notice and gave us some tips and if that wasn’t enough to get us stoked, Jeff just got calls from Mashable and Wired Magazine today!
April 11th Update: Wired Magazine profiles Map of the Dead with the likelihood of surviving in Manhattan, Chicago and San Francisco utilizing the app. We also made the front page of Mashable! They called and interviewed Jeff this afternoon. By 4 p.m. today, we were at 435,000 visits since we launched this April 9th, with more than 2,600 emails from fans, curious about our next steps.
April 16th UPDATE: It’s official, MapoftheDead.com has taken over in office conversation and gossip. “How do we build the game version?” “What zombie-lore brands should we accept partnerships with?” “Should Jeff get his own fortified office?” Etc. But we continue to work humbly on improving the map as we approach our million hit mark, currently at 903,014 visits. MSNBC’s GadgetBox tech blog, Buzzfeed, The Verge, and others have done profiles in the past few days! Meanwhile, we’ve been getting a lot of interesting calls and emails lately.
We’ve got some big plans for Map of the Dead—sign up for an interactive, multiplayer gaming app we currently have in development!
PODCAST FAMOUS: Wired today podcasted about the zombie map as a survival guide (fast forward to 4:00) on the Gadget Lab Podcast. Check it out!
Some reviews from the interwebs:
“This map is a highly creative and innovative use of the Google Places API and Styled Maps. Also invaluable tool for a “zombie apocalypse.” … The site uses HTML5 Geolocation to tell where you are, but if you need enter an address manually the Google Places Autocomplete API ensures that an address can be quickly populated automatically.”
“It’s a Google Maps overlay that highlights population-dense “hot zones,” cemeteries and other places to avoid, and the best locations to scavenge supplies.”
“Sure, Yelp and Foursquare are great if you want to find a good sushi place nearby, but they aren’t too relevant for the unavoidable zombie apocalypse.”
– Buzzfeed
“Good thing Doejo’s Map of the Dead includes sporting goods supply stores, along with retail outlets for guns, hardware, liquor and more. The digital developing agency’s interactive “zombie survival map” harvests the Google Maps “places” API to pinpoint hospitals, radio towers, military and police locations, along with locations to avoid -– such as cemeteries.”
“Enter the Map of the Dead from Doejo, which overlays zombie danger zones and potential supply locations on a Google Map of your local haunts. …The map uses Google APIs and keyword searches to determine the location types that appear on the maps. The developers at Doejo are looking into adding more location types, such as schools, pawn shops and barricades.”
“…a new digital service aims to help you navigate the zombie-infested streets should such a nightmare scenario occur. … The site mines Google‘s map data to come up with an array of color-coded icons to aid the living.”
– Mashable
“Presenting your one-way ticket to staying alive when the dead take over the world. … Luckily, a forward-thinking fellow named Jeff at doejo.com has got you covered…”
“You were foolish and didn’t make any preparations until it was too late. Now there are zombies everywhere and you need supplies. Go directly to the interactive Map of the Dead.”
“Fortunately … [here’s a] handy Map of the Dead, which allows you to plot out the hospitals, gun stores, and grocery stores in your neighborhood.”
– io9.com
“So it’s the Zombie Apocalypse … If you absolutely must survive, Map of the Dead is the site for you. Simply plug in the coordinates … and the Zombie Survival Map will direct you away from danger zones and toward all the necessary gear you’ll need to ride out the end of the world.”
“Drawing information from Google Maps, the Map of the Dead indexes all manner of important landmarks including where you might be able to find valuable to supplies to where you might be able to find fortifications, military presence, or even the residences of individuals who might have handy skills. On top of that, it also handily plots out danger zones that appear to be based on the population density of a given area, helping you decide ahead of time whether or not it’s wise to run and where it might be wise to run to.”
Jeff Merrick, Head of Zombie Related Development