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Has Topozone.com been bought out?

DavidMac

By DavidMac
in General geocaching topics

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DavidMac

+DavidMac

Posted
Posted

Over the last few hours, it appears that topozone.com has been bought out by trails.com and is now a subscription service. Links to this site from cache pages take you to a small map, and if you try to click *anything* you go to a membership signup page.

 

This site will be sorely missed. :o

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Too Tall John

+Too Tall John

Posted
Posted (edited)
The topo map view on the Geocaching.com maps is still working fabulously, and can be zoomed and panned. I'll survive, but I'll miss the convenience of TopoZone.
Me too, and...
I sent them a message through their contact form to let them know what I think. It's a shame that such a great free service is no more.
... Me too. :o Edited by Too Tall John
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dha5446

dha5446

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :lol:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

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tomfuller & Quill

+tomfuller & Quill

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :mad:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

It would be neat to have the geocaches in a "layer" that could be turned on and off.

Can you get linked to the cache pages like Topozone is/was. Trails.com's commercialism sucks.

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jholly

jholly

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :mad:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

Very nice Doug, Thank You! and tell your company Thank You!

 

Jim

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edscott

+edscott

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :laughing:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

Will you have the aerial photos at 1:10000 with Black & White, Infrared, and High Rez color available that topozone offered?

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briansnat

+briansnat

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :mad:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

That's actually pretty nifty. I like that it can give you coordinates and you can pan the maps like Google maps. My chief complaint is that the display is way too small. Might be nice if you guys could work with GC.com to see if we can get these maps to replace Topozone on the cache pages.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :sad:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

Very nice Doug, Thank You! and tell your company Thank You!

 

Jim

 

Awesome Doug, you da' man! Yes, many services are using Terraserver (or of course you can just use Terraserver yourself). But they are terrible in my area, from 1962 or 1983 USGS maps, and with a 10 meter (that's over 30 feet!!) contour interval. Your company appears to be offering for free (at least in my area), what those money grubbing people at Trails.com want $49.99 a year for. I need gas money for caching, for petes sake. :D

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Decoski

Decoski

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :sad:

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

Doug,

 

Thanks for posting good topo maps. I use them with a compass for hiking to geocaches and planting new ones in backwoods areas. I didn't see a magnetic declination number and arrow like on topozone and USGS topo maps. If I missed it, where is it? If not, please add to your maps. A lot of us use topos with a compass to get from point A to point B and to use with a GPS as a backup in case the GPS breaks.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :P

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

Doug,

 

Thanks for posting good topo maps. I use them with a compass for hiking to geocaches and planting new ones in backwoods areas. I didn't see a magnetic declination number and arrow like on topozone and USGS topo maps. If I missed it, where is it? If not, please add to your maps. A lot of us use topos with a compass to get from point A to point B and to use with a GPS as a backup in case the GPS breaks.

 

Yes! The old Topozone web pages had a declination diagram. You'll just have to believe me and Decoski, because those web pages are gone forever. :D I'm sure this would be a nice feature to add to mytopo.com for "compass people".

 

I'm thinking of starting a thread in the website forum to lobby for Mytopo.com to replace the Topozone.com links on cache pages. Anyone agree? Should I do it?

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m^3

+m^3

Posted
Posted

I've been too busy to do much cacing lately and didn't notice Topozone's demise (as far as I'm concerned) until I tried to pull up some maps last week in New Orleans to do some caching. I ended up caching with just my GPSr and cache description (horrors!) :blink: . Now today I'm headed out again and trying to figure out how to get a decent map.

 

Seriously, I much prefer to cache via map, and I hope that mytopo.com's option is made a little more useful and is linked from geocaching.com. I'm a huge fan of mytopo already - I buy their huge (36X48) printed maps on waterproof paper for areas where I cache/explore frequently. So hopefully they'll make their online topo map viewing more useful, like adding an X marking the spot of the search, and allowing various scale and printing options. I'm not likely to ever pay for a online topo map viewing and printing (in small format) service, but I am likely to continue to buy printed maps. So if mytopo.com can provide both services, I'd be very happy.

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Dan and Taya

+Dan and Taya

Posted
Posted

Groundhog123,

 

I use UPM religiously for caching. I just started a topic concerning Terrafetcher called "Is Terrafetcher still working?"

 

I haven't had any replies to it yet.

 

Using Terrafetcher along with UPM I can download topo and aerial photos by county, which I perfer for house keeping purposes. As of today, Terrafetcher goes through the download process, but no files are found in the destination folder.

 

I wonder if this has to do with the topic of this discussion.

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nikcap

+nikcap

Posted
Posted

This site will be sorely missed. :)

 

That really is a tragedy.. I've been using TopoZone ever since they splashed across the web. Remember what a big deal it was when all topo maps were suddenly available on-line, free? Time flies.

 

The company I work for, MyTopo.com, has decided to step in and provide free browsable topo maps similar to what TopoZone had. We have Canada as well. They're all here, free, no ads:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

 

I know there are a number of sites with topo maps using Terraserver as a source. One advantage to our system is that we have all of the newer U.S. Forest Service maps that show inholdings, forest routes, etc.

 

Our main link above doesn't have a lat/lon search, which I'm sure many of you use. I just added this page so you can search by DD.DDD or DDMMSS:

 

http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

 

- Doug

 

That's actually pretty nifty. I like that it can give you coordinates and you can pan the maps like Google maps. My chief complaint is that the display is way too small. Might be nice if you guys could work with GC.com to see if we can get these maps to replace Topozone on the cache pages.

 

Hey, mytopo is pretty neat.

Thanks for getting this going. I'm not really satisfied with Trail.com.

What's it gonna take for GC to redirect the TopoZone link from the pay site trails.com to another free site?

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1trueamerican

1trueamerican

Posted
Posted

thank you and thank you to my topo.com...i used topozone for everything from work to play....and found it to be the easiest...looking forward to supporting mytopo now...i agree that mytopo should be linked instead of topozone.

 

my only complaints are there are no cross at the location and when you go to print it does not give you the coords printed on the map...

 

but i really appreciate the free service...

 

mike

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edscott

+edscott

Posted
Posted

FYI I was totally dependent on Topozone for GPS-less caching. I waited for about 2 weeks after the change working from maps that I had already printed. I talked with the new people about what was needed to make their site usable. They finally admitted that it might be months before they were ready to roll out a new version and they did not know at that time what features they would continue to offer and what was going to be dropped. They offered to terminate my yearly membership at that time and refund the unused time. I countered with them refunding from the time they tore down the old site and they agreed to do that. For the past month I've been using Google maps directly from the Geocaching.com link on the cache page. It's far from perfect, but my DNF rate has not suffered; however my search time per cache might have. I know my time staring at the computer waiting for a map has increased dramatically.

 

If mytopo.com wants to replace Topozone they will need to do the following:

 

Offer aerial photos at 1:10000

 

Offer Hi Rez aerial photos at 1:10000 where available

 

Mark the coordinates, preferably with a small ring so the actual spot is not hidden under the symbol.. (maybe scaled to a 20 foot radius so I don't have an advantage over the GPS users. :unsure: )

 

Keep it as fast as topozone was, not sloooow like google.

 

New feature to consider:

 

Offer multiple waypoints on a single map

 

Do all this and I would gladly pay double the membership fees that topozone asked.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted (edited)

FYI I was totally dependent on Topozone for GPS-less caching. I waited for about 2 weeks after the change working from maps that I had already printed. I talked with the new people about what was needed to make their site usable. They finally admitted that it might be months before they were ready to roll out a new version and they did not know at that time what features they would continue to offer and what was going to be dropped. They offered to terminate my yearly membership at that time and refund the unused time. I countered with them refunding from the time they tore down the old site and they agreed to do that. For the past month I've been using Google maps directly from the Geocaching.com link on the cache page. It's far from perfect, but my DNF rate has not suffered; however my search time per cache might have. I know my time staring at the computer waiting for a map has increased dramatically.

 

If mytopo.com wants to replace Topozone they will need to do the following:

 

I don't know that they want to, just a suggestion by myself, as made in the geocaching.com website forum yesterday.

 

Offer aerial photos at 1:10000

 

Offer Hi Rez aerial photos at 1:10000 where available

 

This was available on the old topozone? I wasn't aware.

 

Mark the coordinates, preferably with a small ring so the actual spot is not hidden under the symbol.. (maybe scaled to a 20 foot radius so I don't have an advantage over the GPS users. :huh: )

 

Agreed. This is a must.

 

Do all this and I would gladly pay double the membership fees that topozone asked.

 

I'm sure you would, in your case. But I'm not aware of a precedent of geocaching.com linking to paid content for supplemental cache data, such as online maps, or the since disappeared Jeeep coordinate translation. I remember stumbling on Trails.com years ago (perhaps even before I started geocaching), and I said they could pound salt if they thought I was going to pay for the information they were providing. I am a notorious cheapskate though. :grin:

Edited by TheWhiteUrkel
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edscott

+edscott

Posted
Posted

Topozone had good fast loading aerial photos in normal resolution for most all the US, high resolution for lots of the more urban and suburban areas and even infra red for some areas which was especially good for GPS-less caching in some forest types. They were scaled at 1:5000 (...too grainy to use), 1:10000 (Really 1:9000 and something but close enough, 1:24000, 1:25 000 1:50,000, 1:100,000 ...) they all could be viewed in four different sizes so parking and the cache could usually be shown be on the 8.5x11 sheet, and for a simple cache it was possible to save ink and only print out a 4x6 map. These features required a yearly fee of $50 for an unlimited number of printed maps. I got my money's worth since I used one or maybe two for each cache. (574 in 2007) To use it I simply clicked on the same Topozone link on the cache page as those not buying the extras and the Topozone site gave me an extra set of options for selecting my map.

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windmaster49

windmaster49

Posted
Posted

I too was pretty inconvenienced by the Topozone / Trails.com fiasco, and was sufficiently annoyed that I started building a free replacement the very next day! I've just hit 96% coverage of the continental US 1:24K quads (the last 4% needs manual processing). I'm starting to work on Alaska and Canada. You can try TopoQuest as a replacement for Topozone:

http://www.topoquest.com/map.php

 

Additionally, old Topozone URL's can be replaced with the TopoQuest equivalent by just changing topozone.com to topoquest.com in the URL. So, if GC felt the inclination to replace the Topozone links, it would be an awefully simple tweak to the URL format! :-)

 

The usual complement of useful features are on there, including searching for places and maps, as well as downloading DRG (GeoTIFF) files of the source topographic maps for your own use / tweaking / printing (either use the Find Maps tools, or use the Map Viewer to go to where you want and then click the name of the topo to get to the map details page), map sizes up to 768x768, etc..

 

I've been reading the suggestions in this thread, and think I'll soon start working on marking waypoints, adding crosshairs on the map center coordinates, and possibly a geocache overlay layer. If anyone gives TopoQuest a try and has additional ideas what features might make it more useful for caching, let me know..

 

Cheers,

-Ryan

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