Everybody put your hands together for JabberMaps! Before you say, “hey hasn’t this already been done?” let me answer.
No, it hasn’t. This is for servers, not jabber users! Created by CarlB of Jabberzilla fame, we have a new system for finding the fastest and most reliable Jabber server for YOU.
When choosing a Jabber server, what are the criteria?
- Location, for latency issues
- Uptime, for reliability issues
JabberMaps, by taking advantage of Google Maps (duh, isn’t everyone?), can help you pinpoint precisely where that server is located. Plus it obtains uptime data from the Public Jabbernet database so you don’t pick a dud. 
Go there: JabberMaps
Carl has now gotten this app to a stable point and it works well. Now he needs your help. Please try it out. Tweak all of the buttons, take it for a drive. Then use the feedback link and please let him know what you think.
I myself have one comment so far. I’d like to see features, like we have on the location-challenged jabber.org server list. Other than that its just great.
In case you are curious for some more background, my part in this is that jabbermaps is hosted on my server. So don’t slashdot it please. Well, I don’t think we’ve had one before so it would be educational anyways. :/
Also, there has been some new developments since stpeter announced the XMPP Federation, which aims to be a definitive network resource for XMPP. I don’t actually know this, but I suspect it will replace the server list on jabber.org. Peter is also collectiong geolocation data, so there might be some sort of interaction between this database and JabberMaps in the future. We have discussed moving it to his server as well to keep the branding that our communiity would benefit from.
Anyway, please do check it out and and report back.
seems great thx
Ideas:
* Use Software Version to know which server and server version is used. This is useful for end users that want to know if the server is up to date (features and eventual leaks!).
* Use Statistics Gatheringto get the number of registered and online users. Usefulness: users can get an idea of how big the server is; combined with the uptime information this can give him a good idea about the server load.
Good idea Sander. I don’t know if Carl has any S2S stuff going on at this pont, but this would be an excellent reason to do so.
Maybe a future version of the Google Maps API will have built-in support for this: any additional information that you add could go in a separate “tab,” just as Google Local now has a “Details” balloon tab for schools etc. It might not be possible to make the tabs stick out of the balloon’s top edge, but creating a tab switcher at the top of the balloon would keep the balloon a decent size.