As you've probably noticed, we recently rolled out some significant updates to our map viewer. We have dubbed these updates "MapViewer 3", which represents the latest in our continuing effort to improve HistoricAerials.com and remain your favorite source for historic aerial photography.

The major focus of this update is map navigation. We agree with many of you that having to manually change between navigation tools (Pan, Zoom In, Zoom Out) is unnecessary and annoying. MapViewer 3 completely does away with the concept of navigation tools and works much more like many of the other maps around the internet. You can double click anywhere on the map to zoom into that point. MapViewer 3 also responds to mouse wheel events. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Finally, MapViewer 3 introduces a new "Zoom" menu that allows you to jump directly to any zoom level you want at any time. We think these changes make navigating through our collection of imagery a much more efficient and pleasant experience.

MapViewer 3 also makes some subtle changes to the way the Survey Tools work. In the past, you could make some survey marks on the map and then inadvertently pan or zoom the map beneath them, making your survey marks irrelevant to the imagery they were drawn on. This situation could cause confusion and we wanted to find a way to make sure that survey marks always apply accurately to the imagery they are drawn on. MapViewer 3 introduces the concept of a "surveying mode". Any time you begin using the survey tools, the imagery you are marking up will become static. To end a surveying session and return to navigation mode, simply choose "Survey Tools Off" from the "Survey Tools" menu.

Finally, MapViewer 3 makes some changes to our watermarking scheme. We are in business to make money and to make money we have to sell imagery. Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to take some reasonable steps to prevent users from stealing imagery from the free viewer. Watermarking is a necessary evil and we recognize that the biplane watermark we used previously was overly intrusive and unattractive. We think the new scheme strikes a better balance between allowing users to browse our collection and preventing them from stealing imagery.

We have tested MapViewer 3 in the latest versions of FireFox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer; but your mileage may vary. If you come across any issues with the new map viewer, please report them here or you can email itdept@netronline.com.

Thank you. We hope you enjoy MapViewer 3!

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