Frequently Asked Questions

Who are you? What do you do?
Urban Mapping, Inc. (UMI) creates data products that support the needs of those in 'local search.' Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) represent the vast majority of employment in the US, but it is notoriously difficult to market advertising-related services to them. Estimates on the size of the local search market vary, but recent forecasts indicate a tremendous opportunity.

UMI offers products that help advertisers, publishers and others create relevancy--editorial or advertising. Our Urbanware products reflect the way users think--neighborhoods are based on informal space, but they are infinitely more useful than a postal code. Mass transit systems, including subways, commuter rail and busses are significant for planning and managing activities in urban areas--they are at the core of urban experiences but have been neglected when marketing to consumers. The Urbanware suite of products will continue to grow in geographic scope and breath to address the needs of customers.

We also offer a novel geotargeting platform that addresses the needs of advertisers and recognizes the limitations of traditional methods of geotargeting. The GeoMods tool is designed to integrate with existing campaign management platforms via an API, and a web-based version is also available.

Who are your customers?
We service leading interactive publishers, including Internet portals and Yellow Page publishers. Some of our representative customers include Microsoft, MapQuest, YellowPages.com, SuperPages.com, Pelago, InterActive Corp, ZipLocal, TrueLocal and CitySquares. Our distribution partner is Placebase.

Are you hiring?
We are always on the lookout for individuals with unique combinations of skills. While we have current openings posted on our blog.

Urbanware: Neighborhoods

How do you define neighborhood boundaries? What makes you an expert?
Neighborhoods are based on a unique understanding of space- there is generally no defining authority (eg, local government) as informal spaces lack political or administrative boundaries. While we may have individual perceptions of what constitutes (say) Tribeca, we can probably agree on what 'most' people would define as Tribeca. This is where UMI's proprietary approach lends expertise to making the informal explicit.

Our neighborhood boundaries are drawn from the perspective of the life-long resident and the tourist. No one expert is more important than the next as myriad users will access the product and bring their own subjective biases--cultural and historical--when using the product. We maintain relationships with municipal planning agencies, consult the retail, real estate, hospitality industries, research local media and work with those having expert knowledge.

Is your neighborhood database updated?
Urban Mapping's neighborhood database is continually updated, and updates are provided at least quarterly. Because we have ongoing research needs, we maintain an active globally-distributed research staff. Updates (and user feedback) come to us through one of two ways: quantitative reporting (generally through query logs) and qualitative feedback (end-users, researchers) providing specific neighborhood content suggestions.

How comprehensive is your neighborhood database?
As of November 2007, UMI counts approximately 450 US municipalities in its neighborhood database, representing more than 20,000 distinct neighborhoods. Our Canadian coverage includes 60 cities and European coverage is 70 cities. Our coverage is continually expanding.

How much do you charge for the neighborhood database?
Pricing for the neighborhood database depends on a variety of options, including scope of coverage, updates and delivery format, so please inquire.

Can you provide sample data?
We are happy to provide sample data under a confidentiality agreement. Because of the significant resources invested in developing the neighborhood database, we take great care in protecting our intellectual property.

How can I see if you have coverage for a specific neighborhood or city or country?
Our technical documentation and demo provide an easy way to research our neighborhood coverage. The service "getNeighborhoodsByName" may be most useful, but note only the first ten results are returned.

Urbanware: Mass Transit

What is the product?
Urban Mapping provides a comprehensive mass transit database for major mass transit systems. We collect spatial data at the system, station, line and entrance/exit level. This allows for 'real world' navigation, recognizing that many stations have multiple exits, varying hours of operations, accessibility issues, etc... For example, one cannot enter (say) the West 4th Street station in New York City at W4th Street and 6th Avenue (the intersecting street). This is because there are in fact four entrances--two at West 3rd and two at West 8th Street, on the East and West sides of the street. In a large, urban and complex environment, five blocks is a significant (and possibly) confusing distance to be navigated.

In addition to the spatial (ie, location) elements, UMI collects a rich collection of attributes that are associated with spatial data. This includes things payphones, restrooms, retail amenities are present at the station level, whether a specific egress is handicap accessible, hours of operation, presence of elevators, is there cellphone reception, and so on. We collect over 100 elements in a highly-structured and normalized schema.

Do you have coverage for a specific system?
As of November 2007, UMI maintains coverage for about 60 systems within the US. You can view our current coverage for mass transit and contact us if there are specific systems you require.

How much does the mass transit database cost?
Similar to our neighborhood boundary database, pricing for the mass transit database depends on a variety of options, including scope of coverage, updates and delivery format, so please inquire.

GeoMods

What is GeoMods?
Our GeoMods tool allows advertisers to efficiently target search queries when there is an inherent local intent. The approach is predicated on addressing the user intent, not the technical origination of the query. The tool utilizes standard web protocols and serves geospatial terms relevant to a specified area. GeoMods leverages the installed based user base of Urbanware Neighborhoods database, providing many of the same geographic keywords that power search portals, Internet yellow pages and mapping platforms.

How much does GeoMods cost?
Pricing is based on usage. For high-volume clients (such as large SEMs and advertisers), customers may wish to develop a programmatic interface to our API; smaller agencies and advertisers may wish to directly access our web-based client. Web-based access fees can be several dollars per listing (ie, address), but we encourage you to contact us.

Panamap

When will you offer Panamap again?
"It looks good." The plan is to offer a New York City and Chicago product in Spring 2008. Altghough we've said this before, we are much closer to finalizing the project and excited to have a return of the map!

The name was originally Dynamap but now it is Panamap. Is this the same product?
UMI was sued in 2005 over the name Dynamap; the lawsuit was settled and as a result the name was changed to Panamap, something we hope won't get us into trouble.