About using web maps
Web maps can be used in standard web browsers, mobile devices, and a desktop map viewer. The ArcGIS web map clients let you navigate location-specific places, view information about the attributes on the map, choose different basemaps, view legends, and add additional layers. See Web map client capabilities for more information.
Web maps can be shared through links, embedded in websites, and used to create browser-based and device-based applications. For creating web mapping applications, ArcGIS includes configurable templates, configurable viewer applications, web APIs, mobile APIs, and options for hosting your application in the Esri cloud.
Sharing web maps
You can immediately share any web map that you find in the website by posting it on a social networking site such as Twitter, e-mailing a link, or embedding it in a website or blog (no programming required). Open the map in the built-in ArcGIS.com map viewer, click the Share button, and choose an option for sharing the map. You don't need to log in to share maps that others have shared publicly.
For example, you could share this short URL link generated by the ArcGIS.com map viewer that opens the National Geographic map: http://bit.ly/zhL8lX.
You could also share a web map you found in the website by embedding it in your own website. For example, below is an embedded web map that shows changes in access to drinking water.
Another way to share a web map is to create an application that showcases one or more maps. Use one of the configurable templates included in ArcGIS Online and publish the application to the Esri cloud. Below is an example of an application created with the configurable Swipe template that lets you compare two maps.
You can also create and share your own web maps. Use the ArcGIS.com map viewer to open a new map and add data to it or find an existing map that you want to save into your account so you can enhance and augment it with your own data. See Sharing web maps for more information.