We released a new version of the zoomin localsearch site today. Featuring a new power-orange colour scheme, cool indicative icons and simpler user interface.

Watch out for the next release (code-named Elephant) early next week.

We recieved this awesome email from Matt Purvis:

<quote style=”background: #eee; display: block; padding: 1em”>
I couldn’t find a Mycroft (Mozilla and Firefox) search plugin for Zoomin so
I’ve made one for myself and thought you might be interested in offering it to
your users….

If you want to test the plugin you can install it from my (rough!) install page:
http://beer.geek.nz/software/mozilla/plugins/
</quote>

Well – I installed it and it works great – Matt’s even built us a cool little favicon – you can now search NZ addresses right from your search toolbar in firefox.

Thanks Matt!

One of our first customers has put his own mapping interface online using Zoomin Maps.

Nz Flats allows you to view your search results in either a standard text based search – or with each point plotted on our maps embedded in their site.

It’s nice to see our maps out there getting used – 3 months from hand hitting keyboard to our first customer out there for real.

Zoomin has been mentioned around some New Zealand weblogs quite a bit over the previous few weeks. One of the coolest mentions was from Hitwise – where Sandra Hanchard did a neat article on us – thanks Sandra!

Just a quick note to say that we’ve released a new version of the Zoomin System.

The best bit about this release is that we’ve got lots of features in testing and ready for deployment over the next month. We’re looking forward to building a community of New Zealanders that want to share their favourite cafes, beaches and skate spots.

I meet a lot of New Zealanders – young and old – who do some web development projects on the side. I thought I’d put up a post I can point them to that serves as introduction to some of the “web 2.0” tools and concepts we use.

Rails

Ruby is an awesome programming language, Rails is a fantastic framework. Stop doing PHP / ASP now and start doing rails. Today. Now. Right now. Install it!

• InstantRails

Databases

Use mysql or postgresql (we use pg) and get phppgadmin / phpmyadmin so that you can easily modify the database. Normalize everything you can. It makes housekeeping simple. Keep everything in a db – don’t store any data (except for BLOBS/images) outside of the DB.

CSS

Don’t use tables for layout. Don’t put any style tags into your layout either – use CSS all the way.

• CSS Zen Garden

Javascript

Use Javascript (aka AJAX) sparingly to make your site better. Don’t put in any javascript until you’ve got the site working in a non-javascript way first. Use javascript to reduce ultra-annoying round-trips to the server. Use behaviour to apply your styles.

• Behaviour
• Script.aculo.us

Design

We like the design of flickr / odeo / 43things and Digg.

The fundamentals are big fonts – minimum of layout or markup. Make your site fun to use. I play Super Mario or Donkey Kong to warm myself up to UI design – I like being reminded of all the simple rewards you get for exploring the game. Your site should be the same – reward people for using it.

Staying current

Get a bloglines account and subscribe to some blogs that discuss topics you’re interested in. Set up your own blog and post to it regularly – even if it’s just rubbish like I post to my blog – it builds up a profile of you on the net – so that potential partners / employers / etc can see that you’ve been around the block.

Join NZ2.0 and chat with the other nz entrepeneurs. And finally – bowl up to Creative HQ on a friday afternoon and come say hello.

There’s always someone around who’s keen to chat. Especially if you’ve got something live on the net to show us!

There will be a new release of the Zoomin website on Wednesday the 11th. We’re pushing out some cool new features that will help you find and share New Zealand places with your family and friends.

We hope you’ll stop by and check it out!