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"Editor's Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.\nSTARTUP DETAILS:\nCompany Name: UMapper\n20 word description:  UMapper is a visual, universal, Web-based map authoring application that makes it easier than ever to create maps.\nCEO's Pitch: With UMapper, you can display geo-data and any layer on top of any map data provider (Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google, Yahoo, OpenStreetMap, etc.). This makes UMapper truly universal. UMapper utilizes advanced optimization algorithms for rendering vector shapes and displaying large data sets. These performance gains, along with the use of KML for data storage, make the UMapper maps efficient and optimized for search engines. Flexible API allows website developers to integrate UMapper into their websites and bring map-editing functionality to their users. Most of all, UMapper make is fun and easy to create and distribute interactive maps.\n\nMashable's Take: If you're ever in immediate need of an embeddable Flash map, UMapper is the service for you.  This Microsoft Virtual Earth mashup essentially lets you make one-off maps for anything you'd like to mark, and then share them across the Web.  UMapper itself is easy enough to use: choose a title and a description, and then start marking your map.  The markers are fairly customizable, in terms of color, labels' font sizes, and support for HTML descriptions.  \nIf you're not a UMapper user, your creation will be anonymous, though registered members have more options in terms of privacy settings and saved account capabilities, as well as access to community features such as comments on various users' maps.  Any public map can be shared across the Web as a Gigya widget, allowing you direct posting options to a number of sites like Facebook and Wordpress.  The embed and KML files are also available as export options.  \nUMapper competes with existing map creation services like Google, which also offer custom marker and embed options.  And as there's no shortage of map mashup makers, UMapper is another one you can add to your list of options for whatever purpose you see fit.\n\n\nSponsored by Sun Startup Essentials\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/08/01/umapper/>