How it works
Points of Interest & Placemarks
Bluemapia features two different kinds of content to describe geographic places: Points of Interest and Placemarks. A POI is built with the contribution of multiple users (Wiki style) while a placemark is owned by a single user (Flickr style).
Point of Interest
A Point of Interest (POI) is a description of a geographical rectangular area, whose content is maintained and modified by multiple users; descriptions can be made of text along with pictures. POIs, being rectangular areas, can overlap. The POI icon is positioned at the center of the area.
Placemark 
A Placemark is a description of a geographical point instead, whose content is maintained by the user who created it. Similar to POIs, descriptions can be made of text along with a picture or a link to a video. Placemarks and POIs are classified by categories.
Bluemapia is very simple to use. There is no need to register to start using it. Any web user can explore map, placemarks and POIs without registering. If you additionally decide to register (and we strongly suggest to do it!) then you can start socializing with other sailors by creating your network of friends, contributing to POIs and sharing trips, placemarks and comments with the bluemapia community
See how to:
Explore the map
See the Placemark Details
Add placemarks
Edit your placemarks
See User Details
See Trip Details
Add Tracks
Change My Profile
Inbox and Messages
Embedding Trips, Placemarks and Points of Interest
Additional Features
Bluemapia Mobile Help
How to explore the map
The home page is where you start most of map explorations.
1. Add Placemark – Click here and then click on the map to add a new placemark (requires login)
2. Navigation controls - Use this to move and zoom the map.
3. Map - This area displays map, placemarks, points of interest and the last position of the user’s boats
4. Category Icon – Different categories of placemarks and POIs are displayed with different icons
5. My Profile - Click here to edit your profile, your trips and see all of your placemarks
6. Info window – When you click an icon on the map this window displays the image of that place. Click again on the info window title to go to the place details page.
7. Map Type – select the map type between Sat=Satellite, Map=street Map and Hyb=Hybrid
8. Search – Enter a keyword to search. Placemarks and POIs containing that keyword in the title or in the description are returned in the results page
9. Categories – Switch from the Placemarks tab to the Points of Interest tab and select the categories you want to view on the map
10. Boats Position – Check this box if you want to view on the map the last position of the user’s boats
11. Placemark Details – Click on more info> to go to the place details page
12. Rating – one to five stars to indicate the rating. Places are voted by the users and most beautiful places are those with the best rating.
13. User Name – Click the user name to see all the placemarks and trips for that user as well as the user image
14. Comments – indicates the number of comments received by this place. Click the comment icon to go to the comment details
15. Cursor Info – This bar shows the coordinates of the mouse position on the map, the center of the map and the current zoom level
16. Geographic macro areas – Click here to start exploring one of the six macro areas of the world
17. Overview map – This view shows the location of current map view
18. Video – Click this to play a video of the latest placemark with a link to a YouTube video.
How to see the Placemark Details
To view the details of a placemark you can do the following:
1. Click on the title of a info window displayed on the map
2. Click on the Read more> link, displayed in lists of placemarks such as most beautful, nearby, user’s placemarks, trip placemarks or the result of a search.
3. Click on any thumbnail photo to see prettier pictures: a nicely framed fullscreen ‘lightbox’ will appear, along with previous & next buttons should the image be part of a users trip:
To see this live, take a look at Europe to Australia, click on one of the photos, and then easily skip through the entire collection without refreshing the page.
The placemark details page shows the map on top of the page with the selected placemark positioned at the center of the map (the red placemark icon).
Scroll down the page to see the placemark details.
Rate it!– Move the mouse on the stars and click to post the desired rating (requires login)
Original Size– Click on the image to view the image in the original size
Comment – Enter title and text to comment this placemark (requires login)
Nearby – Click the thumbnail image or the More info> link to jump to a nearby place details page
How to add placemarks
Click Add New Placemark and then click on the map to add a new placemark
To add a placemark do the following:
1. Click on the Placemark Icon 
on the map to activate the placemark creation mode. The message “Click on the map in the place where you want to create a new placemark” will appear.
2. Click on the map in the position where you want to create a new placemark. Consider zooming into the best viewing level for the desired location. Add a title (mandatory) for this placemark and complete the remaining fields. Note: if you decide not to fill the remaining fields at this point, you can still do it later while editing the placemark.
Placemark fields:
- Title for the placemark. Mandatory
- Tags separated by spaces
- Date/Time - when the photo or the video was taken.
- Image - browse to select and upload a photo from your PC.
- YouTube Link - if selected you can enter the URL of a YouTube video in the video field
- Lat/Lng to manually enter coordinates in decimal degrees (see conversion)
- Category from the available list of categories
- Trip from the list of your trips. Go to My Profile to create a new trip.
- Description including HTML text (see writing description)
3. When you are finished, click Save
If you are logged in, the placemark details page for your placemarks allows you to change the placemark details.
Click Send> when you are done.
Click on the name of the owner of a placemark to open the User Details Page and see the user image, profile and all of his/her placemarks and trips. The last known position for this user is updated by the bluemapia mobile client connected to a GPS device, or updated manually by the user from the My Profile page.
This icon 
identifies the position of user’s boats on the map.
Clicking on a trip will bring you to the Trip Details Page.
Clicking on a Placemark will bring you to the Placemark Details Page.
The Trip Details Page shows a name and a text describing the trip together with its List of placemarks.
Add Tracks
To add one or more tracks to your trip just click on the track icon 
on the map and start clicking on the map to add track points. Doubleclicking at the “final” point terminates the line.
Set the correct start and end date for your track, so that the system can calculate the average speed. Each track will contribute to the Total Length of the trip and the Total Miles for the user.
How to change My Profile
Click My Profile to open your profile page and change your image, trips and basic info
From the My Profile page you can:
• manually update the last known position. Click Send> when done.
• update your profile, including an image and your own website. The user name is the name you have chosen when registering to bluemapia. If you are a charter company, a sailing association or any other form of association, you may find useful to upload the image of your logo and set a URL to your website. Click Send> when done.
• change your password.
• manage the list of your friends. Go to the user details page to add or remove a friend from the list.
• manage your trips. Click on a trip or click the edit link to change the trip details. Click delete to delete one of your trips.
• add a new trip here by entering a title and a text describing your trip. Visibility can be Public or Private. A private trip will be visible only to you or your friends. Click Send> when done.
Additional Features
Move Placemark – Move the placemark icon to another position on the map and click Yes to accept the new coordinates
Tooltip - Mouse over the icon to view the placemark title
Tooltip - Mouse over the thumbnail to view the placemark description
To send the URL of a placemark, POI, user or trip details page, just copy the URL in the address toolbar of your browser and paste wherever you like such as into the text of an e-mail message.
Add or Remove users from your Friends List from the User Details Page.
Placemark description enriched by HTML tag.
How to send messages and check your personal Inbox
You can send a direct message only to a person who is in your friend’s list or as an invitation message for a friendiship request.
When you receive a message, we save it in your message inbox, accessible from the Inbox button in your personal toolbar.
Set your profile’s email preferences to notify you by mail if you have a new message.
Embedding Trips, Placemarks and Points of Interest
After you have added content to Bluemapia, you are then able to easily embed this content as individual placemarks, or in a ’string’ of placemarks as a trip. For example, here are the placemarks inserted as a trip from Europe to New York:
Europe to Australia at Bluemapia
Click icons to view more - Map created by Bluemapia
Alternatively, if you’d like to illustrate a useful point of interest (for example a marina, or an anchorage), you can easily embed in just the same fashion. POI maps will also show placemarks included in the POI area - Here are the details for Marina Cartagena, Spain:
Porto Azzurro at Bluemapia
Map created by Bluemapia
Specific placemarks can also be embedded - Here is the placemark for the Sotogrande breakwater:
Sotogrande Breakwater at Bluemapia
Click icons to view more - Map created by Bluemapia
You are able to click on all the placemarks, as if you were on the Bluemapia website, seamlessly popping up all photos & videos. Each trip can also have it’s own separate map, allowing you to easily categorise your media for specific voyages.
Embed - Supported Platforms
The Bluemapia embed functionality is not limited to any software or hardware restraints. If you run any of the popular blogging software, such as Wordpress, MovableType, or hosted solutions such as TypePad and Blogspot, you simple copy & paste the embed code into your new post. In some instances, you will be required to place code tags around your posts, depending on the platform. For HTML based websites, simply copy & paste the embed code into any section of your page.
Embed - How & Where
Embedding a trip: After you log into to Bluemapia, click ‘My Profile’, and then select a trip from your Trip list. Once you have selected a trip, a new option on the right appears, allowing you to select the size of the map in pixels. After selection, the box immediately below is populated with the required code - Simply select it, copy to your clipboard and paste the code into your website or blog! If you do not have any trips, you will need to first create one, and then add placemarks to the trip.
Embedding a placemark or POI: Much like embedding a trip, simply navigate to your placemark or point of interest, and from the drop-down list on the left hand side, select the size of the map you would like to embed, and then copy the newly generated from the box immediately below - Paste the code into your website, and voila!