We are so busy at Klixo all of the time that we rarely have time to talk about some of the great projects that we work on on a regular basis. One thing that we are getting really good at is extending the functionality of websites with great add-ins, APIs and widgets like Google Maps, Vianet and YouTube.

This is mostly due to having an awesome content management system, based on the worldwide standard XML language, which can be extended to work with any other system in the world that also supports XML.

Add Google Maps to your Site

Google Maps is a wonderful application that allows you to put your business or any other point of interest on the map. You can add a Google Map to your website easily by using the Story Editor in Klixo; have a look at one of our favourite sites Orange Motor Co for a good example of this.

Google Maps can be integrated to great effect when you start adding geographical information to your stories in Klixo. That's a bit of a mouthful but all it really involves is adding Longitude and Latitude information. See how "geocoding" has enabled some really great local mapping on Whakatane.info.

Vianet Accommodation Availability Calendars

We have been working with Vianet for a couple of years now and I really like their straight-forward approach to the accommodation availability and booking problem. Signing up with Vianet is free, and once you have done so you can easily add a fully featured booking and availability calendar to your website, once again by pasting some code into the Klixo Story Editor.

For more advanced uses of Vianet's system, have a look at this page on New Zealand Tramping Tracks, a great example of Vianet & Google Maps working together.

Whakatane's official information centre, Whakatane.com have also made it really easy for visitors to locate and book accommodation online using Google Maps and Vianet. Have a look at this Ohope accommodation guide as an example.

Whakatane.info have also added value to their business listings by combining Google Maps & Vianet, as demonstrated beautifully by the Pacific Coast Motor Lodge listing.

Finally, my personal favourite would have to be the official Opotiki Information Centre website, OpotikiNZ.co.nz which combines great content, driving directions and availability calendars for the full visitor experience - see the Opotiki to Waihau Bay travel guide to see what I mean! In my opinion this is rich content at its best.

Add YouTube Video to your site

Finally a quick nod to YouTube who have made it so easy for websites to add video to their site and share it with the world. See how a Whakatane tourism business have used YouTube to demonstrate their dolphin swimming trips and get new customers on the Whales & Dolphin Watch Website. The beauty of this is that your video also shows up in searches on the YouTube website.

So if you are interested in extending your website with some great new functionality talk to Klixo, we are the Google Maps, Vianet and YouTube integration experts!