2007
- As of Tuesday, May 13, 2008, this site is home to
3,191,125
web pages describing
1,362,770
plants and
1,471,899
animals,
257,414
photos taken by
1,364
photographers,
1,104
sound recordings, maps showing
54,827,292
field observations, and definitions of
45,203
terms.
- Nov 7, 2007: ZipcodeZoo Rangers can now print their own Membership Certificate from their home page here. Rangers must be 18 years old or younger, and must agree to abide by the Ranger Code: I vow to study, learn, and grow in my knowledge of nature, always to ask questions and sometimes to challenge answers. I will treasure and protect the natural world, remembering to treat its plants and animals with kindness. Above all, I promise to work to ensure that all living things and the environment in which they dwell will have a safe and healthy future.
- Ocober 28, 2007: ZipcodeZoo's Observation database moved past 30 million records today, a milestone in the site's development. The observation records, largely drawn from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, each contain information on what species was observed, the latitude and longitude and date of the observation, and other info. The data comes from over 28,000 data sets prepared by over 1,500 data Providers. The Observation database forms the basis of over 1,220,000 maps showing the distribution of plants and animals.
- October 28, 2007: ZipcodeZoo Home page now with Syndicated News and Slideshow. A Syndicated News section of our home page lists headlines of stories of interest for ZipcodeZoo users, including stories of threats to species, new species discoveries, and info on climate change and other emerging problems. In addition, our home page now features a slideshow featuring photos of plants and animals from ZipcodeZoo.
- October 26, 2007: ZipcodeZoo.com/MyHome now includes declining populations near you. For U.S. users, MyHome now includes information on species in decline near you. The info includes a sample photo, a short list of some of the plants and animals in decline, and a link to a page of all those local plants and animals known to be in decline. This feature will be implemented soon for non-U.S. users.
- October 19, 2007: We've begun adding pages for Archaea and Viruses.
- October 16, 2007: We've improved the formatting and usability of Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Extirpated, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Threatened, Special Concern, Data Deficient, and Declining Populations indexes for Animals, and Extinct, Extinct in the Wild • Extirpated • Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Threatened, Special Concern, Data Deficient, and Declining Populations Indexes for plants.
- October 14, 2007: We've replaced the slide show on our 1,699 Photographer pages with our fast-loading image browser that includes a "filmstrip" of thumbnails, a slideshow with pace control, and optional full image display. When the photographer has provided a very large image, you'll be able to pan and zoom this image.
- October 12, 2007: Our search function is now improved, with greater speed and forgiveness for spelling errors. Enter a scientific name, unique common name, unambiguous synonym, glossary term, or taxonomic group, and Search has a good chance of finding it. You'll find our new search form uses a smaller footprint, and is located under our mascot at the top of each page.
- October 8, 2007: We've begun adding pages for the Kingdom Chromalveolata.
- September 27, 2007: Marcus Coltro and Carlos Henckes are named Photographers of the Month for October for their contribution of 32,462 incredible photos to ZipcodeZoo and their important work in carefully cataloging the world of Mollusks.
- September 26, 2007: Our
257,414
photos are now displayed with a new fast-loading image browser that includes a "filmstrip" of thumbnails, a slideshow with pace control, and optional full image display.
- September 19, 2007: We are pleased to report a new alliance with OLPC -- One Laptop Per Child. OLPC users will be invited to become ZipcodeZoo Rangers, and have many new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. Our Rangers will have their own private section of this site, here.
- September 15, 2007: We've begun adding pages for Bacteria, Chromista, Fungi, Monera, and Protozoa.
- September 7, 2007: Our 2050 Project is now online. The mission of The 2050 Project is to provide accurate, useful, long-range forecasts and information about the future of the planet. Our favored forecast interval is to 2050 and beyond, because we believe that shorter-range forecasts cannot portray the magnitude of our impending problems, and thus can only guide half-steps toward solution. In the coming days, its format will improve, and in the coming months, we'll be adding much more content. Reach it here or here.
- July 21, 2007: We have
69,493
large photos that you can now zoom and pan, as if you were using binoculars or a microscope. Controls work like those of Google Maps. For an example, see the first image here.
- July 1, 2007: A milestone: this site now has web pages for over 2 million plants and animals.
- June 21, 2007: We've added a forum for identifying plants and animals. Use the forum to help other users with identifications, and to get free help in identifying what you've seen.
- June 10, 2007: We've added the capability for you to upload images of any of the
3,191,125
plants and animals on this site. Click on the link in the footer of any page to upload an image for that plant or animal.
- June 6, 2007: The U.S. government is planning a border fence through an important wilderness area. We join those opposed to this. Read more.
- June 4, 2007: Since switching to Verizon's FIOS for Business, we had a full month in which our Internet connection was down more than up. Things seem to be recovered.
- May 7, 2007: We've migrated to a new faster server, and Verizon FIOS for business.
- May 1, 2007: Gilberto Quintanilla has been named ZipcodeZoo's Photographer of the Month for May, 2007.
- April 20, 2007: Bill Bouton has been named named ZipcodeZoo's Photographer of the Month for April, 2007.
- April 16: We are revising our pages to make them easier to read, navigate and search, and more attractive. Our appreciation goes out to our Web Developers at AnimatedBanner.com.
- April 13: We are busy adding images of butterflies and other insects generously provided by our new friends at the North American Butterfly Association of South Texas. Visit their site here.
- April 13: Please review our new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
- April 12: You can now rate any photo on this site, using the "Please Rate this Photo" link in the caption of the photo. Please rate photos as you examine them. We'll drop those with low ratings, and photographers of top-rated photos will win awards.
- April 9: Try our new Butterfly Finder to help identify a butterfly you've seen.
- Mar 29: Our tools for processing your page edits have been improved. We look forward to your edits to our pages. See here for some editing guidelines.
- Mar 15: We've begun adding Population Analysis to some of our pages. For an example, see here.
- Feb 23: Finding nearby critters with the Proximity Lister or BirdFinder is now easier with our new Location Lookup page that will find the latitude and longitude of your US City.
- Feb 22: We have begun adding an "Interesting Facts" section to the top of our pages. For a sample, click here.
- Jan 22: We have begun including Google Earth for displaying distribution data. For a sample, click here, and then click on "Show Distribution Maps".
- Jan 15: We have begun mapping conservaton status information for the U.S. For a sample map, click here, and then click on "Show Distribution Maps".
- Jan 4, 2007: We've begun a statistical look at our observations, to see what we can learn about population dynamics. Our initial results are here.
2006
- September 16, 2006: We've made improvements to Key. The main thrusts of changes are (a) ensuring that the top-of-page taxonomy is rational and contains as much of what we know as possible, (b) ensuring that the navigable taxonomic tree is intact, with neither broken branches nor orphan leaves (both a big problem formerly), (c) ensuring that each row of pictures is as representative as possible of the taxa contained in the one on the button, (d) sizing the pictures correctly, with concomitant attention to page layout, and (e) using rank and proportion to choose pictures when there are more than enough.
- February 1, 2006: Implemented Google Maps where ever we had observations to map. This begins a phase of building our Observations database. Today it stands at 303,000 records.
2005
- September 24, 2005: Completed conversion of main database to MySQL.
- September 22: Added List to permit building a list of plants or animals found anywhere in the world.
- September 1: For locations in the U.S., the home page now includes Places to Explore, which lists name, address, phone of a variety of places of interest within 50 miles of your home. Places are listed by proximity to you, and include links to an area map and (often) a link to the place's web site.
- August 21: Created InvasivesNearYou, InTroubleNearYou to list local Invasives and threatened species. Created links to these pages from the home page.
- August 20: Created AboutMyZipCode to provide users with info about their zipcode.
- July 30: Added inference of visitor location. The home page now responds to this information, providing info about the user's area (if user is in U.S. and either zipcode or city/state can be guessed), life in the user's area (different for each U.S. state, each Canadian Province, each Australian Territory, and each country). LifeList uses these inferences as a default, and allows editing the default info on where the critter was seen, storing it separately from information on user's normal location. Use of this inference will be extended to Key, Quiz, and other applications.
- July 30: Added Home button to the top menu bar.
- July 25: Added thumbnails to each Photographer's index page. See links from here.
- July 6: Added index to common names for plants and animals.
- June 22: Added "Update My LifeList" option to the bottom of pages. You will now be able to maintain your own personal LifeList if you register. Added Search Tips to our Search page, to help improve search results.
- June 20: Added "Print this page", "Bookmark this page", "Mail this Link", and "Report a Problem" buttons to the bottom of pages.
- May 18: Revised Quiz. Now you can test your skill matching the bird, mammal, fish, or amphibian with the sounds it makes.
- May 17: Quiz is now here in beta, with more to come. Quiz now includes a dozen interactive crossword puzzles that will challenge and build your vocabulary.
- May 16: Fixed bug in code that generated featured photo for custom home pages for registered users here.
- May 10: We welcome Bitinia Espinoza, our first photographer/naturalist to offer her beautiful prints for sale through this site. See our description of the Marine Iguana for links to order a print from her. Other photographers are invited to join Bitinia in this approach: a low resolution photo here, and a link to order a print directly from the photographer.
- April 20: Added U.S. distribution maps for 37,412 U.S. species; improved taxonomic information and added links for more info for most species. Added many photos. With the added photos and taxonomic info, Key is now improved.
- April 12: If you register, your home page will now show a picture of something in your area, a list of some species in your area, and a list of newly added/revised pages on this site.
- April 8: Improved Registration process. Beta version of Key goes live.
- March 20: added page rating option to the bottom of each page. This, along with the optional comments, will help us improve the pages here.
- March 19: added some page tracking, and a summary page which shows most common urls visited.
- March 17: modified our home page to display info relevant to your zip code, if you've registered here.
- March 13: Moved all pages from http://BayScience.org to this domain name.
- February 27: Today posted a Galapagos Home Page, with links to the birds and animals of the area.
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