Google Maps Mashups 13

GIS Cloud

GIS Cloud is a powerful free cloud based GIS service, that allows users to create, edit, analyze and publish data from only one GIS service. When creating a map with GIS Cloud users can choose from a number of base tiles, including OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps and Google Maps. Users can then add GIS data to the map, either from data already hosted on GIS Cloud or from their own files. Because the application is web based GIS Cloud enables centralised access to projects. Teams can work together on a project, with each member having their own account. Any changes then made to a project are available immediately to every member of the team. GIS Cloud projects can be shared, either by sharing the GIS Cloud URL of the project or by embedding the map in your own website. GIS Cloud also comes with a REST API and a JavaScript API.

Street View Image API

Google has released a Street View Image API to quickly and easily add a static image to a web page. The API provides a simple method for adding a Street View image or thumbnail to any application without the need for JavaScript. The API simply constructs a URL for the required Street View, which you can add to a web page as you would any other image. The API returns the corresponding Street View panorama as an image in JPG format. A quick example is the Street View of the Eiffel Tower above, which I added to this post with the URL http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?size=523×200&location=48.852733, 2.303183&heading=315&fov=90&pitch=5&sensor=false The API should prove very useful in particular for real-estate, hotel and restaurant listing sites, providing a quick and easy method for providing images of houses, hotels and restaurants.

DVRPC Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission collects traffic volume counts at over 5,000 locations each year. The DVRPC Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts Google Map allows users to select and view pedestrian and bicycle counts taken within the Philadelphia region. The data for the map was collected by the DVRPC over a one week period with detailed hourly reports linked to each location. Using the map it is therefore possible to view bicycle and pedestrian traffic at different locations in the city for the year in which it was collected. If you select an individual map marker you can click through to read a detailed report of the pedestrian or bicycle count at that location, showing the data for every hour within a one week period.

savethepostoffice.com map

The U.S. Postal Service announced this week that it will be studying 251 mail processing facilities for consolidation. If all of these plants were to close, it would reduce the area mail processing network by over half, presumably at a huge cost to delivery times. The website Save the Post Offices has created a Google Map showing the location of the 251 mail processing facilities that may be closed down, Processing Facilities Under Study for Consolidation Map. Save the Post Offices has also created Google Maps to show the location of Post Offices Closed in 2011, 3,653 Post Offices Under Study for Closure under RAOI and 727 (non-RAOI) Post Offices Under Study for Discontinuance.

Obsidian Portal

Obsidian Portal is an online platform for running and organizing table top role-playing games. Using the platform gamers can can build campaigns and find other RPG gamers. The platform also includes an option to easily create a Google Map of your campaign world. Users can create campaign maps from any JPEG image. The map can include map markers to show the position of cities or other important locations in a campaign. The map markers can also include links to a users Wiki page for the mapped location.

Digital Typhoon – Track Forecast Map


Agora’s Digital Typhoon – Track Forecast Map tracks tropical cyclones in and around Japan. The map shows the historical tracks of current typhoons and also shows their predicted path.

The map is currently showing the paths of typhoon Roke and Sonca. When the map first loads an animation of the typhoons’ path is displayed on the map. Different coloured markers indicate the typhoon’s wind speed at different points along its path.

The numbered red map markers show the predicted path of a typhoon. Each marker includes a radial polyline showing the probability circle of the typhoon’s location. You can also click on the markers to view the predicted wind speed.

Submarine Cable Map


TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map is a real thing of beauty.

The map depicts 188 active and planned submarine cable systems and their landing stations around the world. Both the cables and their landing points on the map are interactive. Clicking a cable provides access to data about the cable, including the cable’s name, ready-for-service (RFS) date, length, owners, website, and landing points. Clicking a landing point reveals a list of all submarine cables landing at that station.

The map makes great use of Google Map styles and custom info windows to create a map that is both functional and great to look at.

Planefinder.net


Planefinder.net, the real-time plane tracking website, has made some very impressive updates to their Google Map.

Now as well as tracking thousands of planes in real-time around the world you can also play back a whole day’s worth of flights. The playback option allows you to select a date, the number of hours you wish to view and even the speed of the animation. You really should zoom out on the USA, set the time to 23 hours and the speed to 120x and watch a day’s worth of flights.

Another nice update in this new release of planefinder.net is the custom information windows. If you select an individual plane you can view a picture of the plane, the flight and flight details, download a KML of the flight path, zoom the map to fit the entire flight path and share the track on Twitter and Facebook.

Google Map of Speed Traps


Blitzer.de is a new Google Map, and Android & iPhone app which has a huge database of speed traps around the world.

Blitzer.de is the latest application from the ever impressive Ubilabs. The app allows you to view the location of speed traps in your region and around the world. More than 2,000 mobile speed traps are reported by the blitzer.de community per day.

The application allows users to search by location and filter results by fixed speed traps, mobile cameras and all speed traps. The speed trap markers include speed limits where available. Users of the map and the mobile apps can also add speed traps that are missing from the map.

via:googlemapsmania

Hack4Transparancy for everyone

A few weeks ago we told you about the Hack4Transparancy event, bringing techies together November 8th and 9th in the European Parliament for an all-expenses-paid good time eating, talking, and making important data accessible to everyone.
Well, now we’ve got more exciting news. We’ve broadened the scope of the event and extended the application deadline for those wishing to make data on Internet performance visible and meaningful.
What’s changed?
The application deadline for the Internet Quality track has been extended through noon, CET, Friday October 21st (that’s this coming Friday).
To diversify the skill-set of interested hackers, we’ve added a data visualization option to the Internet Quality track.
We’ve expanded the criteria — now, eligible hackers from anywhere in the world can apply.
And, we’ve increased the prize money. One winning team or individual on each track will now receive €5.000,00.

Google Maps Mashups 16

They Draw & Travel – World Map

They Draw & Travel is a collection of wonderful user submitted hand drawn maps.

The World Map lets you browse the maps submitted to They Draw & Travel on Google Maps. You can click on any of the map markers and view the hand drawn map submitted for that location.

One Day on Earth

On 10.10.10 One Day on Earth asked people around the world to create a video of their world. The goal of the project was to “create an open shareable archive and documentary film of the world on 10/10/10.”

You can browse and watch the thousands of videos that were contributed around the world on this Google Map.

#rorschmap

I only found this map yesterday and it has already become a firm favourite.

#rorschmap uses the Google Maps API to create a kaleidoscope for any location on the Earth. Essentially the application displays the Google Maps satellite view of a location and, using the same principle of multiple reflection that you find in kaleidoscopes, creates an animated Rorschach test effect.

Great British Picnics


The Guardian newspaper is increasingly working with partners to produce useful Google Map based guides. The newspaper are collaborating with lastminute.com to create their City Guides. They have also worked with Enjoy England to create a Google Map based guide to great destinations in the UK.

The Guardian has now partnered with Country Life Butter to create a Google Maps guide to great picnic spots in the UK.

The map helps you search for a picnic spot by activity, for example spots that are good for hikers, photographers or wildlife fans. You can also search by environment, such as by beach, riverside or country park.

If you have a favourite picnic spot of your own you can add it to the map.

Maersk Fleet – Live Map


This Google Map allows you to track in real-time the the huge shipping containers of Maersk as they travel around the world.

The position of the ships are displayed live on this Google Map. You can click on any of the ship map markers to view a photograph of the ship and read further details, such as the ship’s destination and current speed.

This map presumably uses the Automatic Identification System (AIS), an automated tracking system used on ships to plot real-time positions.

Integrate Google Maps and Flickr into a Real-Time App


.net magazine has published a great tutorial on how to create a real-time animated Flickr map. The tutorial was written by James Christian and Ben Gannaway the creators of the excellent Net-a-Porter Live Google Map.

The tutorial explains how to create a Google Map that animates in near real-time through images posted on Flickr. The tutorial includes how to work with the Flickr API and how to customise the look of your map.

Alongside the tutorial is a demo map and a link to download the full source code.

Rendezview


Yellow Pages in Canada has released a useful application to help two or more people find the best place to meet.

To find a place to meet you need to enter your address and the address of the person you plan to meet. You can then select the type of venue where you wish to meet, for example a restaurant, a bar or a cafe.

Rendezview will then create a Google Map showing you the most convenient venues that you could meet (based on your selected preferences), roughly half-way between the two locations.

Japanese Castle Explorer


Daniel O’Grady’s excellent Japanese Castle Explorer has been updated to take advantage of all the new wonderful Street View imagery available for Japan.

This year the Street View trike has been very busy in Japan capturing a lot of beautiful new off-road imagery, particular in the grounds of some of Japan’s castles.

The Japanese Castle Explorer is a great map that shows the locations of Japan’s most famous (and plenty of lesser known) castles. The map allows you to view Japan’s castles in Google Maps satellite view. Now it is also possible, where available, to view the castles in Street View.

The map is available in English and Japanese versions. You can view an example of the Street View at Himeji Castle (use the link to ‘Other Castle Panoramas’ in the sidebar to navigate to view other castles in Street View).

The Bath Schools Map


The Bath Schools Map is designed to help parents choosing schools in Bath, in the UK, by displaying local schools and admissions and performance data on Google Maps.

In Bath parents are only allowed to indicate 3 schools as a preference for their children. Using the map it is possible to find the nearest ten schools and compare their academic mini-league tables on a range of metrics with a sidebar. This helps parents make school choices from a broad base of information rather than gearing towards a single metric.

GeoBus
Geobus is a nice little app that can find the nearest bus-stops for any location in the UK. Just enter a postcode or use the ‘locate me’ button and the nearest bus-stops to your current location will be displayed on a Google Map.

The application was developed as part of the recent Young Rewired State initiative.

England’s Health Data Map


The Guardian has used Fusion Tables to map the latest Health Profiles data from the Department of Health and the Public Health Observatories.

Using the Google Map it is possible to compare a number of health indicators for regions in the UK. For example, it is possible to view child obesity throughout the UK or view where the most people die from smoking.

There are still quite a lot of gaps in Street View’s coverage around the world. Luckily a number of other providers have created their own Google Maps based Street View applications to try and plug these gaps.

China – with City8


In China City8 have created extensive interactive 360 degree panoramas in 45 of the country’s biggest cities.

MapJack


As well as providing Street View type imagery in the USA, Canada, Singapore and Sweden Mapjack has also ventured where Google Street View has so far feared to tread. MapJack has great coverage in Malaysia, Thailand and Puerto Rico.

Norc


Norc has great coverage in central and eastern Europe, including in Poland and Austria, where Google’s Street View cars have yet to drive.

via:goglemapsmania