Here's a recent post on the ArcGIS Explorer blog about refining your ArcGIS Online search. It's targeted at Explorer users but is applicable to anyone.

01/15/10–With the recent Haiti earthquake, we had many inquiries from users who want to know where they can find maps, or how they can share their maps and other content. To find maps in ArcGIS Online, type Haiti in the top right search box and click Go.

Below are steps on how you can quickly add your own content, share your content, and create a group in ArcGIS Online to share your content with others.

If you have already registered your ESRI Global account for ArcGIS Online, skip to the section on Adding your content to ArcGIS Online.

Registering your ESRI Global Account for ArcGIS Online

If you haven't joined ArcGIS Online yet, first you need to register your ESRI Global Account, then you sign in with your ESRI Global Account information. If you don't already have an ESRI Global Account, you need to create one before you can register it with ArcGIS Online and sign in.

1. Go to ArcGIS Online and click the Sign In link on the upper right.
2. Click the register your ESRI Global Account with ArcGIS Online link below the Sign In button.
3. On the registration page, enter your ESRI Global account username and password, and click Register. You will need to sign up for an ESRI Global Account if you don’t already have one. See Registering for an account in ArcGIS Online Help for detailed steps.
   
   
4. Read the ArcGIS Online Terms of Use, and click I Accept to agree to the terms. Once you accept the terms of use, you are automatically signed in, and you will see your My Content page.
   

Adding your content to ArcGIS Online

1. Make sure you are signed in to ArcGIS Online.
2. On the My Content page, click Add Item.
   
   
3. Fill in the Add Item form and click Add Item.
   
   NOTE: If you are adding content specific to Haiti relief activities, include the following in your Tags: Haiti,earthquake.
   
   
4. Once you add the item, it appears in My Content. Click the item name, then click Edit to upload a thumbnail image; to add a summary, description, and access and use constraints; or to change the item's title and tags.
   
   

For more information on adding and editing your ArcGIS Online content, see Adding items in ArcGIS Online Help.

Sharing your content

You can share your items with everyone (public), or with a group or groups.

1. Make sure you are signed in to ArcGIS Online.
2. On the My Content page, click to select the checkbox next to the item(s) you want to share and click Share.
3. Choose the group(s) you want to share the item(s) with, and click OK.
   
   
   
   NOTE: If you want your content added to the Haiti Earthquake group that is published on ArcGIS Online, go to the page for that group and click Join this Group to submit a request to become a member of that group. Once approved, you will have the ability to share content to that group.

For more information on sharing your content, see Sharing your items in ArcGIS Online Help.

Creating a group

You can create a group to share content with other users who have a common interest.

1. Make sure you are signed in to ArcGIS Online.
2. Click My Groups.
   
   
3. On the My Groups page, click Create a group . 
4. On the Group Name page, include a name, summary, description, contact information, tags, and upload an image. Tags are important since they determine if your group shows up in the search results when someone enters a keyword that matches one of your tags.
   
   NOTE: If you make your group Public, then anyone will be able to find it through the search function. If you choose to make your group Private, then only users whom you invite will be able to see your group.
   
   
5. Once you fill in all the information and upload a thumbnail, click Save. You will now see the group on your My Groups page.
   
   
   
   For more information on creating groups, see Creating and editing groups in ArcGIS Online Help.
6. If you made your group private, you can invite members by clicking your group name, and clicking Invite Users .
7. Fill out the Invite Users form. See Inviting people to join a group in ArcGIS Online Help for instructions on filling out the form.
   
   
8. A notification will be sent to the users you invite. The user(s) will be alerted that they have a pending notification via the Notification link in the top right of ArcGIS Online.
   
   
   
   For more information on notifications, see Notifications in ArcGIS Online Help.

If you have questions, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.

Contributed by Maria Lomoro of the Product Marketing team for ArcGIS Online

01/14/10–Over the past month, we've highlighted some of the new maps and applications you'll find in ArcGIS Online. This growing collection of geographic resources is made possible by community members sharing their work. We encourage you to take part in this effort by adding your own maps and Web mapping applications to ArcGIS Online and sharing them with everybody. Below are a few tips for sharing your maps and apps:

Consider the best format for your information

• If you want to share data such as shapefiles, feature classes and other data sources you use in your maps, create a layer package and upload it to ArcGIS Online. A layer package includes the data inside the package so it is self-contained and can be opened by any other ArcGIS user. People will be able to download your file and work with the data in ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Explorer.
• If you want to share a map that you have already published to the Web using ArcGIS Server, add an entry for your service in ArcGIS Online. People will be able to access your map and use it in ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Explorer, Web maps and Web mapping applications.
• Only share your map document file (MXD), layer file (LYR), etc., if the file references server-based services that the people you are sharing your file with will be able to access on the Web. When you upload one of these ArcGIS files, only the file gets uploaded, so if your map, globe or layer references any local data on your machine or your enterprise network, it does not get included and your map may appear broken to somebody viewing it in their ArcGIS application.
• If you want to share your work with the widest audience, consider creating a Web map, either from the ArcGIS Online Web Map Viewer or by developing an application with one of the ArcGIS Web mapping APIs.

Include source and descriptive information

If you're adding an ArcGIS file, such as, a layer package, be sure to fill out the general layer properties within ArcGIS Desktop since this information is carried over when somebody downloads your file. You should also take the time to review and edit the item properties that are created in ArcGIS Online when your add your map or Web mapping application. Be sure you have accurate credits and a useful summary and description. Within the description, you might want to add details about the data, how you created the map or app, and hyperlinks to additional information.

Be sure your URL works

ArcGIS Online references your ArcGIS Server services and Web mapping applications through URLs. When you share these with everybody, make sure your URL link works and doesn't require a login. If you take down the service or application, you should remove the reference from ArcGIS Online.

If you have questions, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.

01/13/10–The recent devastating earthquake centered near Port-au-Prince in Haiti has lots of GIS responders scrambling for data and other information. As a quick start, the Bing Maps aerials provide a pre-quake substrate for other data and analysis.

We also found this recently posted Web app by searching for "haiti."

The application shows the locations of the earthquake and related aftershocks.

Visit ESRI's disaster response and assistance site to request help and locate other resources or to contact the ESRI Disaster Coordination team.

01/11/10–Last week's GeoDesign Summit was a landmark gathering of professionals and academics involved in applying technology, engineering, and planning in a rapidly changing world. One of the fundamental themes of the meeting was the pairing of GIS and design, and how the design process could be enhanced by GIS. Several of the demonstrations utilized ArcGIS Online content and tools to underscore those themes, and showed how ArcGIS Online could be used as a substrate for GeoDesign.

ArcGIS Online can play a key role in providing an excellent substrate upon which to work, whether you're a GeoDesigner, GIS user, or Web mapper looking for great content to build upon. A recent post highlighted some of the content additions and updates, and we received some additional questions about those after the GeoDesign Summit. Here's a quick review of some of the latest content updates and some highlights of things that were shown last week.

The updated World Imagery map now compiles the best available imagery for the United States plus high-resolution imagery around the world. At the GeoDesign Summit we took a closer look at some of those cities, including London and Geneva, which is shown below. High resolution imagery is included for thousands of cities outside the United States.

Bing Maps for Enterprise aerial, hybrid, and roads add yet another dimension to worldwide high resolution imagery and street data available via ArcGIS Online. Shown below is a section of London:

The new World Street map includes building footprints for major cities worldwide with contributions from a variety of sources including ESRI users. Shown below is a section of Rome:

And here's an even more detailed (1:1K) section of Philadelphia:

The World Topographic map was highlighted, with a new cartographic presentation of data from the best available sources, such as the USGS, EPA, TeleAtlas, and local sources. Shown here is a section of Pennsylvania:

And here's a very detailed section of Pasadena, California, with highly detailed buildings and terrain from LIDAR data.

These new basemaps (and others we've not mentioned in this post) provide great maps you can use as-is or to represent a great canvas for your design or GIS work. The best way to experience these is to try them for yourself - just follow the links to preview them or add them directly to your ArcGIS desktop.

01/05/10–Once you upload something to ArcGIS Online, how you can create a direct link to the item that opens it? For example, suppose you upload a layer package and want to send someone an email that will let them open the layer package in ArcGIS. You don’t want the link to display the item description; you want the layer package in ArcGIS Online to open directly in ArcMap or ArcGIS Explorer. Here’s how to do it.

Navigate to your item in ArcGIS Online. For this blog, we’ll use a layer package that’s published by ESRI:

http://www.arcgisonline.com/home/item.html?id=84dbc97915244e35808e87a881133d09

Notice that the URL to the item contains an ID (e.g., 84dbc97915244e35808e87a881133d09).

To create a direct link to the item, substitute this ID in the URL below:

http://www.arcgisonline.com/sharing/content/items/<insert ID here>/data

So in the example above, the URL for the direct link would be:

http://www.arcgisonline.com/sharing/content/items/84dbc97915244e35808e87a881133d09/data

One very important note: In order for this direct link to work, your item must be shared with everyone.

You can email this link or embed it in a Web page like this:

<a href="http://www.arcgisonline.com/sharing/content/items/
84dbc97915244e35808e87a881133d09/data">ESRI World Regions Layer Package</a>

If you have questions, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.

Contributed by Mike Minami of the ArcGIS Online development team

12/30/09–Earlier this morning several of us sitting in our offices felt the roll of an earthquake - where could it be? Visiting the USGS Natural Hazards Support System site we quickly learned that the quake we felt was located in Baja California, measuring in at hefty 5.8 with a number of aftershocks, one measuring 4.9.

The USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center, based in Denver, recently released the Natural Hazards Support system application which is built using ArcGIS Online's JavaScript API (one of several ArcGIS Web mapping APIs available via ArcGIS Online), several ArcGIS Online basemaps, and additional services powered by ArcGIS Server.

12/22/09–As announced in November, the ArcGIS Online servers were updated late last week (services.arcgisonline.com, server.arcgisonline.com, premium.arcgisonline.com), and the hosted ArcGIS Online map services were migrated to the Google Maps/Bing Maps tiling scheme in Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100). These map services may be used for both 2D and 3D display.

New (updated) maps

The following new maps were published in Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100) using the ArcGIS Google Maps/Bing Maps tiling scheme. The new maps are listed in the table below along with the existing maps and globes using the ArcGIS Online tiling scheme that are updated with these new maps.

Summary of updates to these maps

The new World_Imagery map consolidates the best of the USA Prime Imagery map and earlier World Imagery map, including the best available imagery for the United States plus high-resolution imagery around the world. The map includes more recent and detailed imagery for the United States, including i-cubed Nationwide Prime 1m or better resolution imagery featuring Aerials Express 0.3 to 0.6m resolution imagery for metropolitan areas, and Getmapping 1m imagery for Great Britain.

The new World_Street_Map includes enhancements to cartography at all scale levels, and updates to the latest AND global road data and Tele Atlas street data at large scales. It also includes additional coverage for large scale maps for other countries and regions such as South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Colombia, and Hong Kong.

The new World_Transportation, World_Boundaries_and_Places, and World_Boundaries_and_Places_Alternate maps include updates to the latest AND global road data at large scales.

New demographic maps introduced

Seven new demographic services featuring 2009 data from ESRI's demographic data team were also published in Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100):

• USA_Median_Net_Worth
• USA_Owner_Occupied_Housing
• USA_Percent_Male
• USA_Percent_Over_64
• USA_Percent_Under_18
• USA_Retail_Spending_Potential
• USA_Tapestry

Maps updated to Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere

The following maps previously published in Web Mercator (WKID 102113) were updated to Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100):

• DeLorme_World_Base_Map
• World_Reference_Overlay
• World_Terrain_Base
• World_Topo_Map
• USA_1990-2000_Population_Change
• USA_Average_Household_Size
• USA_Daytime_Population
• USA_Diversity_Index
• USA_Labor_Force_Participation_Rate
• USA_Median_Age
• USA_Median_Home_Value
• USA_Median_Household_Income
• USA_Population_Density
• USA_Projected_Population_Change
• USA_Recent_Population_Change
• USA_Unemployment_Rate

3D globes removed from the Premium environment

The following 3D globe services were removed from the Premium environment (premium.arcgisonline.com). Subscription users who want to use these 3D globe services in a production environment can access them on the freely available servers (services.arcgisonline.com and server.arcgisonline.com):

• ESRI_Imagery_World
• ESRI_ShadedRelief_World
• ESRI_StreetMap_World
• I3_Imagery_Prime_World
• NGS_Topo_US
• NPS_Physical_World
• ESRI_Elevation_World
• USGS_Elevation_US
• ESRI_Boundaries_World
• ESRI_BoundariesPlaces_World
• ESRI_BoundariesPlacesAlt_World
• ESRI_Transportation_World
• EVC_Topo_World
• NGS_PlaceNames_World
• NGS_Political_World

Note about maps and globes in the current ArcGIS Online tiling scheme

The existing map and globe services in the ArcGIS Online tiling scheme will remain available for at least six months on the ArcGIS Online servers and, depending on need, may remain available longer. Although the map and globe services will remain available, the content in these services will no longer be updated.

Additional information

For details about the migration, see Migrating map tiling schemes in ArcGIS Online Help.

Note for ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 users: The Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere coordinate system is not supported in 9.2. ArcGIS Desktop 9.3 or more recent is required to use these new services.

If you have questions, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.

12/14/09–Last week the British Geological Survey (BGS) launched a new web site - OpenGeoscience - a service where users can view maps and access a wide variety of other information. According to a recent GeoConnexion article the site provides the world's first open-access application providing street-level geological mapping for an entire country, with on-the-fly viewing of bedrock and superficial geology overlaid on street maps and aerials.

The Geology of Britain viewer uses ArcGIS Online basemaps and JavaScript API to deliver access to detailed geologic information to anyone via the Web. The app features a toggle for streets or aerials, a transparency slider, and popup information with links to detailed descriptions of bedrock and superficial geology.

The viewer, along with a wide variety of other resources, has made the site extremely popular. According to GeoConnexion it was the most popular story on BBC News Online, with over 70,000 visitors to the BGS web site from the time it appeared at 10.30 a.m. That's the number of visitors BGS normally gets in an average month. There were more than 10 million image hits (1000 a second!) and 300,000 page views.

12/11/09–A collection of interactive maps from The Nature Conservancy, ESRI, and many other contributors, showing various aspects of global climate change are featured at the ESRI Climate Change Web site, which links to a variety of other interesting and useful resources. These applications use ArcGIS Online basemaps and JavaScript API.

The Climate Wizard, shown below, has been developed through collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, The University of Washington, and The University of Southern Mississippi. The Climate Wizard enables technical and non-technical audiences alike to easily and intuitively access leading climate change information and visualize the impacts anywhere on Earth.

Another climate change demonstration allows you to interactively investigate and compare various future climate models and scenarios.

And another application shows future projected change in mean temperature from the 1961 to 1990 baseline average using the Average Ensemble climate model and includes an animation capability to look at change over time.

All are good examples of how ArcGIS Online can be leveraged along with other data to create a complete application.

12/09/09–The Geography Network was first launched in 2000, a milestone in the history of online geographic information. The Geography Network has served many users and organizations with many maps and a wide variety of geographic content over the years.

With lots of changes over time to online GIS and geographic information and the technologies used to serve them, the Geography Network has been replaced by better alternatives to publish and find data (like ArcGIS Online). Much of the same exact content, and much more content that has been updated, can now be found and used in easier and better ways. So ESRI is planning to retire the Geography Network in late December 2009.

Here's a look at population diversity with the old (ArcExplorer Web on the left connected to ArcIMS services) and the new (ArcGIS Online on the right connected to new content served as ArcGIS Server cached services). The snapshots alone don't do justice to the fact that the user experience is now far better, easier, and much faster using ArcGIS Online.

12/08/09–ESRI Data & Maps is a collection of preconfigured data and maps for ArcGIS. It is freely available for all ArcGIS customers as a set of DVDs or layer packages you can download from ArcGIS Online.

An update to the 2009 version is now available. For details about what's new, see the ArcGIS Data blog.

Detailed maps for Pasadena and Redlands, California, were added to supplement those already available. These large-scale maps were created with data provided by the City of Pasadena, California, and the City of Redlands, California.

If you have previously used this service, you may need to clear your cache in order to see the updates. If you have feedback or comments about the updates, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.

11/18/09–Last spring, ESRI announced that it would be migrating its hosted ArcGIS Online map services to the Google Maps/Bing Maps tiling scheme. This migration is expected to be completed in December 2009.

This change is in response to feedback from many ArcGIS users who have requested that ESRI use a common map tiling scheme matching other popular online map providers. The new services will particularly enable ArcGIS web developers to more easily combine popular web map services with ArcGIS Online map services including those from Bing Maps, Google Maps, and other providers that use the same web map tiling scheme. 

The existing services in the ArcGIS Online tiling scheme will remain available for at least six months and, depending on demand, may remain available longer. Although the services will remain available, the content in these services will no longer be updated.

For details about the migration, see Migrating map tiling schemes in ArcGIS Online Help.

If you have questions, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.

11/12/09–Here's a little known technique the ArcGIS Content team sometimes uses when working with cached map services in ArcMap 9.3.1. Suppose your area of interest is along the border of the U.S. and Mexico. You prefer the cartography in the ArcGIS Online ESRI World Street Map service, but you need the detailed Mexico streets that are currently available only in the Bing Maps Road service. You could toggle between each map but that is cumbersome and doesn’t allow for a printable seamless map using both services. Instead use the "Advanced Drawing Options" in ArcMap 9.3.1 to combine the best attributes of each map.

First, we will add the Bing Maps Road service into ArcMap using the Roads layer (LYR file) link for Using Bing Maps with ArcGIS Desktop in the ArcGIS Online Help.

We will use a polygon feature class to mask out Bing Maps within the United States. Add the feature class to your map document and uncheck the layer visibility setting so that it won’t display on your map.

Right-click the data frame (Layers) and select "Advanced Drawing Options".

In the Advanced Drawing Options dialog, check the "Draw using masking options specified below" option, and check "Bing Maps – Roads" in the Masked Layers box.

Click OK, and now the Bing Maps service only displays outside of the United States.

Finally, add the ArcGIS Online ESRI World Street Map service for a seamless view of both services.

We hope you find this technique helpful when working with cached map services in ArcMap 9.3.1.

Contributed by Jim Mason of the ArcGIS Content team