Help me out TPMers.
We're going to be pushing a fancy Google Map live later today that will stream results back once the poll close on election day.
We're doing all the testing we can (and Google built it and they're pretty good at this), but I was hoping I could convince a few dozen of you to help me out by clicking over to our test site (repeat: test site, the news there is fake/old) and having a look.
Could you do me that favor? A picture of what it's supposed to look like and some questions after the break.
Does it look like this?
Are you able to click down into states and then pull back to the national level? Are you able to mouse over each state and see the percent each candidate has and the percent reporting? (zero for all at the moment). Can you see House and Senate races? Are you seeing any glitches?
Let us know. We're extremely excited about the beautiful map Google made and want to make sure it's perfect before we put it up.
Update: In case you didn't see, it's live on the front page now. Check it out and let us know if you're seeing problems. Email talk at talkingpointsmemo dot com.
Everything worked great for me with Firefox on OS X. Very slow to respond, though. If your servers can handle the load it will be great!
One minor thing I noticed. You can use the "hand" to slide the map around after you've zoomed in on one state, which seems very cool until you realize that you can't see any other results that way except for the state you originally clicked on. You have to use the menus. It would be nice to be able to just scoot around the map and zoom in and out and see all the details that way, without having to go through the menus each time. Maybe you could have that ready in 2012 for Obama/Biden vs. Palin/Wurzelbacher?
November 3, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm using Firefox with the NoScript add-on. I had to enable gmodules and googleapis before the map would show (thought I'd mention it in case there are other NoScript users out there). Otherwise, everything works great. Very fast and responsive. Only one noticeable glitch for me: The flyover data sometimes persists after my mouse is off the map, so when I go to the drop-down, the flyover box covers the drop-down list. It's not repeatable, and seems fairly random.
November 3, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
OK everything worked as described for me. Provider - cable, OS X using Safari and experienced no slow down.
November 3, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I had absolutely no problems, and it looks great.
I don't know if this is a glitch or not: when you're looking at Senate races, if you roll over a state that doesn't have one, it says, "No Senate Race This Year."
Doesn't do that for the House seats. So maybe check that - I don't know enough about the House races across the country to say if all the races are there.
But definitely cool.
November 3, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
All seats are up for re-election every 2 years. So there shouldn't be any "no election" races for the House.
November 3, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my. Can I, ahem, delete that comment for sheer personal stupidity? It's official. My brain is fried.
November 3, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, yep, and yep using FF 2 with Vista. Everything seems fine.
Thanks
November 3, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I had no problems and it's VERY EXCITING! Thanks for this tool, as well as the fine job TPM has done throughout this election. I don't know if we TPMers tell you often enough how much we appreciate having this site to hang out in, but we do!
November 3, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
FWIW: Firefox on Windows XP. Load time is sporadic, sometimes it loads, sometimes it's very slow (but the rest of the page and ads come up in a snap). Also, backward/forward testing of page (rather than just clicking directly to the page) seems to cause the map to hang and load slow.
November 3, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Firefox on XP with a fast connection at work - it works fine. But I had to sign in again to post this comment.
November 3, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Also on Firefox 3.03 (XP). It is a beautiful thing Andy. No problems on this end. Loaded beautifully and zooms worked flawlessly. Very Cool.
November 3, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
On Safari it looks bee-uteeful, except, as far as I have checked, Alaska House comes up as Alabama when I mouse over AK. Hawaii comes up as Georgia? I'll try Firefox next.
A gorgeous map, and thanks be to Google! May the wrinkles be ironed out and starched in time.
November 3, 2008 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, I posted incorrectly. Not Georgia.
Hawaii House race mouses as Arizona (sic). That is on BOTH FF2 and Safari. Safari is current version. And no mention of the House candidates by name.
November 3, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Alaska and Hawaii are rendering correctly for me using FF 2.
November 3, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
OK on HI and AK provided I use the menu. Just not mousing correctly on those two. Other states mouse nicely.
This is otherwise lovely.
November 3, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
There seems to be something wrong with the Texas District 14 race. No candidates show up. Maybe no one is running? The district map in Texas doesn't conform to my understanding of the highly gerrymandered districts around Austin, but that's probably because they are too confusing to me.
November 3, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Firefox 3.0.3, House races are showing Alaska as Alabama, and Hawaii as Arizona on mouseover (and when clicked). No House races are shown in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Presidential and Senate races look good.
November 3, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
COOL!! But Zeros are easy.
I LIKE IT. HOPE IT WORKS GREAT AND I'M LEAVING IT UP.
November 3, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks great, Andrew. I'm running Firefox 3.0 on Ubuntu. I checked several states and the pop-ups you described appeared to be working.
November 3, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can you all look on map we have on the front page of the site and let me know if you see any funkiness with the live map? We'd like to kill any remaining bugs before the data actually starts streaming in.
November 3, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
AL -
Checked front page and is working as advertised for me
November 3, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks good to me in Firefox, IE7, and Safari. But I'm seeing the following javascript errors:
GA_googleAddSlot is not defined
[Break on this error] GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-7451232131633930", "Cafe-Box");
help-me-...pmers.php (line 45)
GA_googleFetchAds is not defined
[Break on this error] GA_googleFetchAds();
help-me-...pmers.php (line 52)
GA_googleFillSlot is not defined
[Break on this error] GA_googleFillSlot("Cafe-Leader");
help-me-...pmers.php (line 69)
GA_googleFillSlot is not defined
[Break on this error] GA_googleFillSlot("Cafe-Box");
help-me-...pmers.php (line 238)
GA_googleFillSlot is not defined
[Break on this error] GA_googleFillSlot("Cafe-Skyscraper");
help-me-...pmers.php (line 1775)
GA_googleFillSlot is not defined
[Break on this error] GA_googleFillSlot("Cafe-Skyscraper-2");
help-me-...pmers.php (line 1782)
GA_googleAddSlot is not defined
[Break on this error]
November 4, 2008 1:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Works for me using latest Firefox beta on XP. Of course once you go live it will invariably ravage Pennsylvania eating houses and trees and eventually threaten the American way of life. You've been warned. Ludditism Rulez.
November 4, 2008 6:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Front page is alright, all maps work as do the transitions (although admittedly I did not try every single combination.) For all races, the House District map close-up does not draw anything but the outlines but that may be on purpose and does not really hurt anything. All figures seem correctly associated. The pop-ups disappear when moving out from the map.
The only remaining problem is a data transfer issue between me and the TPM server and occasionally Google (the hosts resolve fine) which leaves me hanging waiting for a page for 5+ minutes once+ per hour, although this is a function of some routing problem on my end rather than a symptom of the general sluggishness and other server issues described by others (I have not really experienced that.)
P.S. blogads.com should not be needed to be allowed to load the pages, but it seems this is the case.
November 4, 2008 8:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I played with it yesterday. And thanks TPM for fixing the one glitch I found last night. I could see you fixed it right away!
I've got a Mac and use Firefox and also have the no script, but must have done everything needed yesterday so that all shows up perfectly and works quickly. I'm on slow DSL but at the moment, wow, how fast it all clicks in.
Thank you TPM. Thanks to da google also!
November 4, 2008 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
test
November 14, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink