zKimmer.com - Mapped Out Digital Zines

zKimmer takes Google Maps technology and rather than using map graphics as you’d usually see, it maps out publication graphics, i.e magazine photos, pictures, spreads, and covers. So what you get is a charted out magazine, in tiles, on top of the Google Maps interface. Navigation is achieved using the controls on the left hand side. You can zoom in and out by clicking, or simply use the zoom slider for incremental zooming. The arrow keys are used for moving up and down by row, and left to right. zKimmer pages can be incorporated in links in emails, blogs, and webpages; you can also open up a link to a specific place on a specific page. There’s nothing to install or download and it works across browsers.

“zKimmer is a patent pending technology that leverages the highly developed fields of graphic handling and navigation as seen in the online mapping industry.

The technology was invented by Ric Richardson in mid 2007 and has now grown into a business that he and his two brothers Raece and Sky Richardson are building to service the online magazine community and eventually anyone who wants to put a pictorial publication on the web.”

zKimmer is certainly a novel way to use the Google Maps API. Unlike other digital publication viewers, with zKimmer you get more flexibility—you can see the magazine as a whole and navigate its pages as you would a map. There are many possibilities for this sort of thing.

Will users find the navigation distracting? After all, it does take time to get used to. How is this funded?