Pass the POI (PtP) is a site where you can find Collections of Points of Interest (POI) created in Windows Live Local. You can search for collections by keyword(s) using the search box in the right margin, or browse the category tree to find Collections of interest to you. Restaurant reviews, favorite fishing holes, best places to antique in the southern Vermont are just a few examples of what you’ll find here. After surfing around and checking out other user’s Collections, try your hand at creating your own. After all, everyone is an expert on SOMETHING local to them - this is your chance to share your local knowledge with your neighbors and the rest of the world. Maybe you know the best places for photographers to shoot bands live. Or your a fan of Gaudi and want to share a collection of all of his incredible structures. This tutorial will show you how to create your own and submit it here (hint: it only takes about 2 minutes to start your collection, and you can add to it whenever you want. You don’t need to knock the whole thing out at once.)

What exactly is a Collection?

A Collection is a grouping of points on the Earth that have something in common. As the author of the Collection, you decide what goes in it. Each Point of Interest in your Collection can have a title, some notes, a photo URL, and a standard web link. You can add business listings and addresses to your collection. You can also create new points for your Collection by simply right-clicking on the map and choosing ‘Add Pushpin’ (as in this beautiful Collection of places to scuba dive). You can choose if a Collection is private and visible to only you (perhaps you want to make a Collection of Friends and Family’s addresses or a Collection detailing your itinerary for a trip to a new city) or Public and visible to everyone on the net. You can learn more about Collection by going to Live Local and clicking the ‘Help’ link in the upper right corner. And the Tutorial mentioned above is a great place to start if you want to Create your own Collections.
 

Whats with the Name?

Two ingredients - First, remember the episode of the Flintstones where Fred wins a trip to Hawaii to appear in a TV commercial? His line (which he needed to repeat about 1000 times, permanently etching it into my impressionable young mind) was “Please pass the POI”. I think he may have been playing opposite Stoney Curtis. Then there’s the obvious POI (points of interest) tie in. This site is all about sharing your favorite POI with others. Fred was sharing a different POI.

Who are you?

I work at Microsoft on the Virtual Earth team.  As you may have guessed, the feature area I focus on is Collections   You can contact me at TalkToPtP a t hotmail d ot com with suggestions, rants, whateva you like.