Time to Freshen Up

We're working on a new look & feel for RinkMapper.com that our friend Sean Walker came up with. The site will be going live over the next week but if you'd like a sneek peak take a look at http://www.rinkmapper.com/RM2.php . If you have any comments or feedback I'd like to hear them too.

Brent

Improved Search Engine

I've been tracking the number of times people search for an arena and don't find what they were looking for. It helps me in two ways - identifying new arenas that are not already in the database so that I can add them and informing me of how people are trying to use the website so that I can make improvements to it. What I found was that people have been experiencing difficulty finding rinks because they try to put in too much information, use short forms or mis-spell words. The good news is that I think I'm using the right type of search now which will help people find what they are looking for.

As an example, the original search was searching for exact matches and sounds-like matches of the word or phrase that was typed in against the city and arena name. This works fine if you just put in the city or part of the arena name like "Ice Palace". People entering "Columbus, OH" wouldn't match on the city of Columbus using this method. The new search engine is based on matching the relevance of the phrase that was typed in against the city and arena name which will consistently find Columbus even if you add the State.

You may find that you are receiving more arena listings than your previous searches but what you are looking for is more likely to be at the top of the list - like Google or Yahoo provide with their responses. I've limited search responses now to the 100 most relevant matches against what was searched for so that search response times will also be quicker.

Let me know if you noticed the change or if you have an opinion on this.

Brent

HockeyLunatics.com

Met with Paul Satran last week from HockeyLunatics.com. Paul publishes a hockey newletter and website for the minor hockey player audience and is looking to partner with RinkMapper.com on some cross promotional initiatives. Check out his website and sign-up for his newsletter - there are some interesting articles to be found there which you don't see anywhere else.

Brent

Starbucks Canada Locations on RinkMapper

Starbuck's Canadian locations have now been added to RinkMapper.com. This news was posted on the message boards for eteamz, OMHA and Youth Hockey Forum
which resulted in a surge of traffic last Friday.

Hopefully this will have an impact on my Alexa ranking - during the offseason RinkMapper's ranking dropped to over 4 millionth place but in September it has moved up the rankings to 1.8millionth with a 1-month ranking of 418,000. As more and more hockey organizations and teams link to RinkMapper for arena listings and directions this will continue to drive our Alexa ranking lower. I'd love to see it break the 100,000 mark this year!

Thanks for using RinkMapper!

Tournaments & Camps

RinkMapper.com has now added hockey tournament and camp listings to it's arena maps database.

Tournament Convenors can added their tournament to the database for free by filling out the form at http://tournaments.rinkmapper.com. Basic tournament information will be displayed for free and for $2.95 or a link from the tournament website to RinkMapper.com the full listing will be displayed.

Hockey School and Camp listings can also be added to the database for free by filling out the form at http://schools.rinkmapper.com. Basic information about the school will be displayed for free and for a fee the full listing will be displayed.

Printing Maps Problem

I received an email from Andrea informing me of difficulty she was having printing RinkMapper maps - especially since I had changed to the 3 column formatting. I've introduced a printable page link from the map view which should help. I've switched off advertising and navigation on this page giving you a larger map picture for printing. I have also added an image which can be used as a ruler to approximate the width of portrait or landscape map views when printed.

Brent

Tim Hortons and Starbucks on RinkMapper

I've just finished adding Tim Horton's (Canada & USA) and Starbucks USA locations to the RinkMapper.com database. Now when you are viewing the arena that you are looking for for directions you can also plan your coffee stop. The restaurant locations are not officially from Tim Horton's or Starbucks but were picked up from a GPS Point-of-Interest site and translated for use with RinkMapper. If you discover a missing location I'd be happy to add it but ideally I'd like to negotiate with Tim Horton's and Starbucks to provide a feed of their stores to me.

Brent

Welcome to the RinkMapper Blog!

RinkMapper is a database of hockey arenas across Canada and the USA which provides Google satellite images, road maps and directions to each rink. We have located thousands of arenas located across North America and are adding more listings daily. Our target audience is hockey and figure skating parents and players who are looking for directions to arenas for league, exhibition, playoff and tournament games and events.

In addition to our database of hockey arenas RinkMapper has developed two new databases for hockey parents, players and coaches. RinkMapper Tournaments and RinkMapper Hockey Schools & Camps give you searchable listings of events and programs across North America. Our advanced search feature allows you to quickly target and search for specific age groups, regions, competition levels and more.

Camp Directors and tournament convenors also have the ability to add and manage their free listings on our websites, provide detail information and (of course) provide directions and mapping services to their programs from RinkMapper.com!

Look for events and programs in your area by clicking on the following:

RinkMapper Tournaments
RinkMapper Hockey Schools & Camps