Ugly Map

My first play with the new Styled Maps feature in the Static Maps API is this ugly map.

This map uses eight static maps with different styles applied to each map. I think you’ll agree this is one ugly map.

We Fade to Grey

This one is a little more attractive (but no more useful).

Again the map contains eight static maps with different styles applied to each. This time the colour is gradually taken away in each map to end up with the last map tile being entirely grey-scale.

Flashing Map

In this one I’ve used the same map styles as in the previous example, only this time I’ve animated through the images to create a flashing map.

It’s a strange effect that I can’t really seeing having much practical application.

Zoom in Static Map

I’ve long admired the use of static maps on Flickr. On Flickr geo-tagged photos are accompanied with a small static map that when you mouseover zooms in on the location.

I’ve tried to create something similar with this example. If you roll over the map with your mouse the map will zoom in. To achieve this I’ve just used two static maps with the same map style. One map however has been set to a higher zoom. When you rollover the first map a bit of javascript replaces the zoomed out static map with the zoomed in static map.

MapMyFollowers

Do you want to know where your followers on Twitter live? Log-in to MapMyFollowers with your Twitter account and you can view a Google Map showing the location of all the people who follow you.

The screenshot above represents the geographical distribution of people who follow my @KeirClarke Twitter account. I’m pretty happy with the distribution. I’d like a few more followers from the southern hemisphere and I don’t know what I’ve done to upset the Japanese. I seem to have upset all but one of the Japanese population, judging by my one Japanese follower.

As well as showing you a map view of your followers you can view a word-cloud of ‘common follower terms’. You can also click on any of your followers and view a Google Map showing the location of their followers.

Risikovirksomheder

Danish journalist Nils Mulvad has created a Google Map which shows the location of 170 dangerous Danish companies. The companies have been designated dangerous by the Danish authorities because they process chemicals, fireworks or produce weapons etc.

At first the authorities refused to release the list but Nils submitted a Freedom of Information request and the government were forced to hand it over. Nils has now published the list and this map of the companies – it is the first time the list of companies has been published in Denmark.

Nils has also published an open Google Fusion Table of the data, here.

Via: www.microformats.dk