Category: mapping

Do you know that one friend who never stops talking about their favorite activity? That’s us with spreadsheets. Excel and Google Sheets are reliable ways to store data and their data analysis features seem never-ending.

But sometimes you need something more. Enter spreadsheet-database hybrids like Airtable, which pairs a spreadsheet with database column types along with calendar, gallery, Kanban, and other views. Essentially, Airtable is all about providing its users a variety of data visualization options… including maps.

So we’ll show you two different ways to turn your Airtable base’s geographical data into a visual map using Airtable’s Map app or our online mapping tool. Along the way, we’ll highlight the pros and cons of each method. Let’s get started.

1. Use Airtable’s Map App with a Google Maps API Key

As an Airtable user, you can use the spreadsheet-database hybrid’s own Map app to plot your base’s geographical points on a map. The benefits of doing this with Airtable’s app include remaining in the same platform as your data, without the need for a new tool. However, in order to create a map of your base, you need to have a working Google Maps API key.

If you don’t know what an API key is or you just want an easier way, skip to the second way to turn an Airtable base into a map.

With that in mind, let’s jump into the most important step of getting started with Airtable’s Map app.

Get Your Google Maps API Key

First off, you’ll want to grab your Google Maps API key. You can re-use the same one if this isn’t your first time setting up a map app. Otherwise, here are the basic steps to get a Google Maps API key:

1. Create a Google Cloud project
2. Enable billing for your project
3. Enable the Google Maps JavaScript and Geocoding APIs
4. Create a Google API key

Whew! It’s a lot of jumping through the Google interface, but you’ll only have to do this once. Unless your usage is very high, you’ll likely never be charged. However, Google makes you add a payment option.

You’ll need to keep that API key handy for when you set up the Map app in Airtable.

Set up the Airtable Map App

Now that you have your Google Maps API key, you’ll want to prepare your data and add the Map app so you can add your key. To do so:

1. In your Airtable base, add a single line text field for addresses or latitude and longitude coordinates
   1. Note: you’ll need to format your coordinates in either DMS (degrees, minutes, and seconds: 44° 27’ 37.72368″ – 110° 49’ 41.295″) or DD (decimal degrees: 44.4604788, -110.8281375)
2. You’ll also want to include an empty second single line text field for the Map app’s use. You can then hide this field because you don’t need to do anything with it
3. Next, click Apps located in the upper right-hand corner of your Airtable base
4. Select Add an app, search, and then add “Map”
5. Opt to Get started and enter your Google Maps API key
6. Determine the correct Table, View, Location field, and Geocode cache. Then, Save the settings

You can further customize your Airtable map by changing the marker color, size, and shape of your Airtable map, along with three map themes in Settings.

As with setting up the API key, there are quite a few steps to get your Airtable Map working. Let’s have a look at a simpler approach to getting your Airtable data on a Google Map.

2. API Key-Free Online Mapping Tool

Even the most devout Airtable user may not wish to go to the trouble of obtaining an API key and preparing your base to use the built-in Map app. So for an Airtable map alternative with no API key required, you can try our online mapping tool. And since we can skip the steps of adding an API key, we can get right into preparing your data and adding it to BatchGeo:

1. Just like the previous method, you’ll want to ensure any location information in your Airtable base has its own single line text fields
   1. The best formats for latitude and longitude coordinates include decimal degrees: 44.4604788, -110.8281375
2. Then, download your Airtable base as a CSV
3. Open your web browser and navigate to batchgeo.com
4. Drag and drop your downloaded file to the location data box, then click Map Your Data and watch as the geocoder performs its process
5. Check to make sure you have the proper location data fields available under “Validate and Set Options”
6. Select Show Advanced Options to customize marker labels, colors, shapes, and map styles
7. After any updates, click Make Map. When you’re done, Save & Continue

View Sales Map from Airtable Base in a full screen map

Unlike an Airtable Map, when mapping with BatchGeo, your additional data will be suggested for grouping, allowing you to sort any map by that data, such as Sales, Representative, Sale count, and Rev per sale from your Airtable base. Export your Airtable to CSV, then make your own groupable Airtable map today at batchgeo.com.

World Orca Day comes each year on July 14th. The day celebrates wild killer whales mostly abundant in the cold waters of Antarctica, Norway, and Alaska. But it also includes the 103 orcas—living and deceased—held in captivity.

At the time of writing, 59 captive killer whales are alive around the world, one is classified as “escaped,” and 43 have died in captivity since the first orca was captured in 1961.

We’ll dive into where most of the list of captive orcas are located, how many are held in various SeaWorlds, and the most common breed and origin of the world’s captive killer whales.

You can sort captive orcas by gender, breed, origin, age, status, cause of death, and more on the map below.

View Mapped List of Captive Orcas in a full screen map

Where Most Orcas in Captivity Are Located

Of the 103 captive killer whales on the map, nearly 60% are or were located in one of eight places—and not all are SeaWorld. So let’s dive into the list of captive orcas and where most reside.

• SeaWorld San Diego – 14 orcas
• Washington U.S. – 10
• SeaWorld Orlando – 9
• Loro Parque, Spain – 8
• SeaWorld San Antonio – 6
• Kamogawa Sea World – 5
• Marineland of Antibes – 4
• Chimelong Ocean Kingdom – 4

While not all are SeaWorld, it’s still the top location. In fact, all three U.S. SeaWorld locations have held or currently hold at least six killer whales. Of course, San Diego (the first location, which opened in 1964) has held the most.

SeaWorld’s Captive Killer Whales

As for the SeaWorld orcas names: Corky II (the longest-held captive orca in the world and largest female in captivity), Ikaika, Kalia, Keet, Makani, Nakai, Orkid, Shouka, and Ulises (the oldest and largest male in captivity) reside there at the time of writing. Amaya, Baby Shamu ll, Kandu, Kasatka, and Winston lived there prior to their death.

SeaWorld Orlando houses Makaio, Malia, Nalani, Trua, and Katina (Kandu 6) currently, and was the home of Kalina (Baby Shamu), Kayla, Taima, and the infamous Tilikum of Blackfish. San Antonio’s SeaWorld whales names include Kamea, Kyuquot, Sakari, Takara, and Tuar, along with the deceased Kyara.

Very little is known about the 10 orcas that were captured and later died near Washington state, though all were between September 1962 and August 1970. Let’s move on to different waters: breed and origin of these captive killer whales.

Twelve Breeds of Orcas

Many are surprised to learn there are different types of orcas. But within the waters of the world and among the many different species of ocean life swim killer whales of various breeds.

As 62 of the world’s captive orcas were captured or rescued from the wild, different breeds of killer whales can be found in the same tanks at SeaWorld and other marine parks. So let’s see which breeds we’re actually seeing when we visit these parks.

Breed	Number of captive orcas
100% Icelandic	33
100% Russian Transient	21
Unknown (Southern Resident?)	10
100% Southern Resident	5
75% Icelandic – 25% Southern Resident	4
100% Japanese	4
87.5% Icelandic – 12.5% Southern Resident	3
50% Icelandic – 50% Southern Resident	2
50% Icelandic – 50% Northern Resident	2
100% Russian	2
100% Northern Resident	2
100% Argentinian Transient	2

The table above shows the breeds of more than one captive orca. Most (~87%) of the world’s captive orcas are Icelandic, Russian, or Southern (from Washington state’s Puget Sound) Resident—or at least some part of the three.

When describing orca breeds, Resident typically indicates those that eat fish while those that eat seals, sea lions, and other mammals are deemed Transient.

Notable captive Icelandic whales include Keiko (Free Willy) along with Tilikum and Katina from SeaWorld Orlando.

Of the Russian variety are Tyson and Nukka now located in Zhuhai, China’s Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. In fact, all four of the park’s killer whales are 100% Russian Transient. Southern Residents Winston and Kandu were kept at SeaWorld San Diego.

This leaves 13 captive killer whales of another breed such as Japanese, Northern Resident, or Argentinian Transient.

Orcas’ Origins into Captivity

Where these whales came from before captivity is also of interest. Two of the world’s most famous orcas: Free Willy‘s Keiko and Blackfish‘s Tilikum were wild-captured. But the same can’t be said for all of the 103 killer whales on the map. Here’s a breakdown:

• Captured: 60 killer whales
• Captive born: 41
• Rescued: 2

Whether whales are your favorite or not, here are four more animal maps to check out:

• Endangered Animals on a Map (which includes eight whales)
• Weird Sea Creatures Found Around the World
• National Animals of Every Country
• Every US Shark Attack Fatality Since 1900 on a Map

Whether these animals are on the land, in the sea, or stored in your spreadsheets, you can easily map their locations with BatchGeo. Create a map for free.

Website McBroken answers the universal question of every human being on the planet: “Is the McDonald’s ice cream machine broken?”

More specifically, the site’s map informs you of the working or broken status of all McDonald’s ice cream machines near you (and every McDonald’s location in the US). Green map markers indicate the location’s machine is working while red markers mean a broken machine.

McBroken also provides a statistical overview of McFlurry makers in big cities like New York, Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, San Antonio, San Jose, Phoenix, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle, in order, along with an overall broken percentage of all the machines in the U.S. (9.13% at the time of writing).

So how does McBroken do it for every person’s nearest McDonald’s at any given second to ensure you get your McDonald’s ice cream cone? Let’s take a look.

McBroken Behind the Scenes: A Background

First, a bit of background. The site was created by software engineer Rashiq Zahid. In October 2020, Zahid announced via Twitter that he “reverse engineered mcdonald’s internal ordering api. . . to figure out which locations have a broken ice cream machine.”

His method? He “plac[es] an order for a mcsundae every minute at every mcdonald’s location in the US.” This can total up to $18,752 each time.

The response was immediate. Twitter users thanked Zahid for his soft-service and some said he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize (check out his Nobel Prize competition here).

So why is McBroken such an innovative idea? The $1 vanilla soft-serve ice cream at McDonald’s (along with all McFlurries, McShakes, and other treats) is almost universally popular. Yet, as shown by this McDonalds ice cream machine meme, everyone knows successfully getting ice cream cones McDonalds is a gamble. The ice cream machine always seems to be broken. And when it happened to Zahid in July 2020, he started working on McBroken. So let’s explore how the API works.

McBroken’s API Explained

We’ll start with the basics: what is an API? API stands for “Application Programming Interface.” They give applications the ability to exchange data and functionality with other applications. Any time a website or application you’re using pulls information from another source, it’s likely doing so via that source’s API.

For example, when you use a travel aggregator to find a flight, the service is getting those results by using the providers’ APIs. While website pages are limited by their purpose of displaying information to us humans, our applications can skip past that limitation and get immense amounts of data quickly from a source’s API.

In McBroken’s case, Zahid first identified how McDonald’s communicates with their online ordering mobile app. It refuses orders for any items that are unavailable at a specific location. So, if a customer can’t add ice cream to their cart, it’s because the app reads that the location’s ice cream machine is broken from the API.

To know which locations’ ice cream machines were working vs. broken, Zahid must periodically order ice cream at every North America McDonald’s location, which he does automatically using a bot. Based on which locations accept his orders, he can identify those with working ice cream machines, which he shares on McBroken.

Applications can levy the power of companies such as McDonald’s thanks to their APIs. Other tasks made possible with APIs include signing in with your Google account on non-Google sites, and, of course, maps.

Make an Easy Map Without an API

Luckily, if you want to make your own map, like the one below, you don’t need to use an API yourself.

View McBroken Los Angeles in a full screen map

If you have any location data, here’s how to make an interactive map by simply copying and pasting from the spreadsheet tool of your choice (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.)

1. Open your spreadsheet
2. Select (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) and copy (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) your data
3. Open your web browser and navigate to batchgeo.com
4. Click on the location data box with the example data in it, then paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V) your own data
5. Check to make sure you have the proper location data columns available by clicking “Validate and Set Options”
6. Select the proper location column from each drop-down
7. Click “Make Map” and watch as the geocoder performs its process

You can customize your marker colors to match your map’s content (in our case, green for “Working” machines and red for “Broken.” Plus, you have your choice of the shape of your markers along with six different map styles for the ultimate customization.

Find out more about making your own Google map here.