ArcGIS.com is a Web site you can visit to begin your online ArcGIS experience. You can create maps, find and use maps, applications, and tools, and share your maps and applications with others. Within the site, you will find applications for building and sharing maps. You will also find thousands of basemaps, specialty layers, applications, and tools that you can view and use, plus communities you can join.

Simply go to www.arcgis.com. Visitors to ArcGIS.com can quickly access publicly available content without having to sign in. However, to take full advantage of the extended capabilities of ArcGIS.com, such as uploading and sharing items, you can log in using your existing ESRI Global Account information.

Creating an ESRI Global Account is FREE and usually takes less than one minute. Simply provide an account name and password, your name, a valid e-mail address, and other contact information. Your account will be created and activated upon confirmation of your e-mail address, giving you more time to access the information you need online.

An ESRI Global Account also gives you access to all participating sections of the ArcGIS.com website along with access to other sections of ESRI’s corporate site as www.esri.com main, that may require a login.

Get started with ArcGIS.com

If you are not signed into ArcGIS.com using your ESRI Global Account, you can still:

• Create interactive maps
• View free maps and applications from ESRI and the GIS community
• Develop non-commercial Web mapping and mobile applications with ArcGIS APIs

If you've registered for a free ESRI Global Account and signed in, you can:

• Save interactive maps
• Share your maps and applications
• Create public or private groups
• Use up to 2 GB of storage space for your maps and applications

ArcGIS Online are the aspects of ArcGIS that are available online. This includes maps and tasks hosted by ESRI, APIs, and GIS functionality such as address locators and routing services. Much of ArcGIS Online is built into your application experience, for example, you can share packages directly through ArcGIS Desktop and you can access ArcGIS Online services through a mobile device.

ArcGIS.com is the Web client for ArcGIS. Other components of ArcGIS include Desktop, Server, Mobile GIS, and Explorer. For more information, see What is ArcGIS?

The ArcGIS Online Services Resource Center and the ArcGIS Online Web site have been incorporated into the new ArcGIS.com Web site.

The system is secure, redundant and supports 99.9% uptime. The system is a long-term feature of ArcGIS and will grow in functionality and capabilities over time. As a software service, it can be regularly updated with no user action required.

Security is similar to other online sharing sites (i.e., Flickr). This means that only those users you choose to share with will see what you share. The application uses the public Web over HTTP. People looking at Web traffic can sniff data (like Web email). The site is best for content that is not highly confidential or proprietary.

By default, ArcGIS.com only shows Web content in search results, groups, and the gallery. This means that if you haven't set the site to show All Content, ArcGIS Desktop files such as layer packages won't appear in search results, groups, or the gallery. See Finding ArcGIS Desktop content for more information.

By default, ArcGIS.com only shows Web content in search results, groups, and the gallery. This means that if you haven't set the site to show All Content, ArcGIS Explorer files such as NMFs won't appear in search results, groups, or the gallery. SeeFinding ArcGIS Desktop content for more information.

You can share maps, Web and mobile applications, and geographic tools. For more details, see Supported content.

A map is an interactive display of geographic information, for example satellite imagery of streets, houses, and open space within Washoe county, NV. You view it within an ArcGIS client (for example, ArcGIS.com or ArcGIS Explorer Online) and use tools to change the extent, find places, and see detailed data about a specific location. In addition, you can build your own map by defining an area of interest (for example, the world or a US state), choosing a basemap and adding layers of information. You can save maps on ArcGIS Online and share them with everybody or with specific groups you belong to.

An application is an external site that is built with a Web or mobile API and shared to the ArcGIS community. It is generally developed for a targeted audience and purpose and does not reside within the ArcGIS.com domain (in other words, it has its own URL). Applications might be samples or templates for other developers to use or they might be Web sites for a general audience.

Both the ArcGIS APIs and the ArcGIS Web clients are intended for building maps. Maps created with an ArcGIS Web client such as ArcGIS.com are targeted to a non-developer, Web audience, since no programming is required but the capabilities are limited. For more information on creating maps in ArcGIS.com, see Creating maps.

The APIs, on the other hand, are intended for developers who want to build Web mapping or mobile applications. The ArcGIS APIs are programming interfaces that allow you to add GIS capabilities and map services to your Web or mobile applications. Web APIs are available for JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight/WPF. Mobile APIs are available for iOS and ArcGIS Mobile. For more information, see Developing applications.

If you are new to ArcGIS.com, this Help system is a quick way to get started. If you need additional assistance with ArcGIS, visit the ArcGIS Resource Center. The ArcGIS Online Forums brings together users for collaborative online discussions and the ArcGIS Online Blog is a good place to read news and tips from the ArcGIS.com team.

To send a message to the ArcGIS.com team about something you think is inappropriate, use the Report abuse link at the bottom of the arcgis.com site.

ArcGIS Online contains public and shared content that is typically available for your personal or non-commercial use. The specific terms of use for content items are provided in the access and use constraints for that content. For more information, see ArcGIS.com terms of use.