WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org, although they may sound like the same thing, they have many major differences.

Wordpress.com had a guided set up process that is easy to understand for beginners with different themes other customizable features. Once your site is set up, you can use the portal to see your site, a feed of other wordpress sites, and stats about your blog.

Pros

• Easy to set up
• Easy to customize. 
• Free

Cons

• Paid upgrade needed for more features and customization   
• No plugins
• Limited number of themes

Wordpress.org is a website dedicated to wordpress community. on this site, you can download the wordpress software. Although it is much less restricted, you have to have experience and knowledge
in web design.

Pros

• Free software
• Plugins
• You can use any theme
• Unlimited customization 

Cons

• You have to pay for hosting 
• Install it yourself
• You are responsible for managing and maintenance of your server

Although not one os objectively better than the other, it is up to you to pick which features you value the most.

Source - WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

Embedded Maps

In class we have been researching maps embedded into websites with custom pins that show personalized information for a potential client. We looked at three different sites and how they worked to understand how we can make our own version. 

Zillow-

Zillow is a real-estate website. The map makes it easy to find houses in an area and all of the information that may be needed.  I couldn't find exactly how they made the custom pins, but they embedded Bing Maps into their site to create the map.

Century 21

Century 21 is also real-estate website. This map has highlighted red areas to show what area is selected and also has similar pins to Zillow.  I couldn't find exactly how they made the custom pins, but they embedded Bing Maps into their site to create the map.

T-Mobile

This site shows all of the T-Mobile stores on the map. This one is created with Google Maps and also has custom pins providing information about each store.

I will use Google Maps to embed a custom map onto my site with custom pins.