Show HN: MapScroll – Map a story from one prompt (opens in new tab)

(mapscroll.ai)

10 pointsshekharupadhaya8mo ago8 comments

Hi HN,

I built this after getting frustrated trying to map out things like “Ancient mayan ruins” or “James Bond movie locations” on Google "My" Maps. You basically have to drop pins manually, hunt down photos, copy links, it’s slow and never feels like an actual story.

With MapScroll, you just type something like “Marco Polo’s route” or “forgotten WWII sites in France”, and it geocodes, grabs images + articles, and plots everything into a shareable story map. Each marker comes with a little gallery and sources tied to your prompt. You can also refine the first draft which AI creates before sharing, because good maps are all about precision

I’m still tweaking things. Happy to hear edge cases or annoyances.

Give it a try: https://mapscroll.ai/

8 comments

rco87868mo ago

It's a neat idea, but having a hard time getting useful results (the forever plight of AI). I asked about a road trip from Atlanta to Houston with 3-5 interesting stops along the way. First it sent me to south Georgia, then to northern Alabama, then finally going west. I asked it to refine and it sent me east to Augusta and then 500+ miles past Houston to a steakhouse.

shekharupadhayaOP8mo ago

Thank you for the feedback! I completely get what you mean. This is exactly the issue with open-ended discovery use cases, the AI just isn’t at a point yet where it can be fully trusted for stuff like road trips or similar things. It’s also kind of an open question on which use cases can be sharper and which ones the AI will completely mess up.

That’s why I’m positioning this more as a way to curate map-based content, where the AI is tasked with plotting something using the supporting data from your prompt, so it can give a more precise first draft. Then it can be refined more using the edit feature before sharing it with confidence. Instead of expecting it to magically handle any random map question. That whole space of “unknown unknowns” still needs to be explored.

Not sure I explained that perfectly, but I’m figuring it out too. Definitely needs more brainstorming and experimentation.

yamatokaneko8mo ago

I tried your example prompt with “Create a 1-week itinerary for XX trip” and was really happy with the results!

It mapped out which day to visit where, which is usually the hardest part to visualize when planning.

It reminded me of the first time I played around with Airbnb’s map + search UI.

shekharupadhayaOP8mo ago

Thanks for giving it a try. Appreciate it!

ibdf8mo ago

As a person who loves to research where I am going and what's on the way there.. this could save me a lot of time. It's not 100% accurate, but good enough for researching a trip, or locating places mentioned in an article.

shekharupadhayaOP8mo ago

Yes exactly! That’s pretty much how I see it too. As of now, it’s not going to give you a perfect map every time, but if you’re researching a trip or trying to quickly plot places from an article (either pasted snippet or from web search agent), it does save a ton of manual hunting. I’m hoping the refine + reorder features make it even easier to dial it in. Thanks for sharing how you’d use it.

blinding-streak8mo ago

Needs a demo of what a sample looks like.

shekharupadhayaOP8mo ago

Hi! Here are some examples you can check. (:

30 days Japan Itinerary: https://www.mapscroll.ai/post?queryId=iP7i2n4SDeQGB6wZUglv Active Volcanoes in Iceland: https://www.mapscroll.ai/post?queryId=s0qscaLHkRm53oxngIBS Casino Royale Film locations: https://www.mapscroll.ai/post?queryId=mswdiyxJRGYtRKGiPHVR

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