Version 1.0

Not that many people read this blog, or are visiting the site much, but I'm sorry I haven't updated it in a few months. Is it not, however, because I haven't been working on it - it's because I've been trying to finish off the next major release for GoRoam. And this major release, I'm happy to announce, is finally finished and launched. I'm calling this release version 1.0, because I feel like it's now more of a real application than just a minor web tool. This, I hope, is the beginning of a real push by GoRoam to gain visibility and users. Here's the list of new features that you'll find with this release:

1. User accounts - hooray! Now you can create a personal user account, log in, and use all of GoRoam's features. This is the start of what will become a larger community based on sharing information through and on maps. Currently, users are fairly disconnected in their interactions, but in the coming months I'm planning on incorporating more of the typical features of an online community (blogging, photos, comments, tagging, etc., etc.).
2. Saving routes. If you were using GoRoam as a distance calculator before, you had to draw your route from scratch every time, but no longer do you have to do that. Now you can draw a route, save it, and refer back to it in the future. You can also share routes with your friends, since each route has its own URL.
3. New sharing menu. I decided that it was too much to keep up with the latest social bookmarking and online networking tools, so now I'm using the AddThis interface. This should make it easier for you, the user, to share pages (and your routes) from the site.

Those are the main new features. The list isn't long, but a lot went into building those features. Now that they are finished, I should have an easier time building on top of this base, so you should expect to see updates more frequently. Here's a list of features I'm planning on adding in the near future:

1. Blog entries, photos, and tags at points along the routes
2. Better in-site searching
3. Deleting routes and user accounts
4. Importing routes from GPS units

That's the short-list for now. As always, feel free to email me with ideas or suggestions at: ideas@goro.am. And, of course, if you find a bug, please report it to bugs@goro.am.