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The Grey color for Google Places

Since Nyagoslav of Optilocal first spotted the grey pinned local results a week ago, there have been a number of other sitings of the change in the wild. There is still a fair bit of variability in the layout and arrangement indicating that Google has not yet picked a final design and they are still testing. The widespread sitings would tend to argue that ultimately the change to grey is likely.

Here are screen shots from Optilocal, LocalBusinessRockstar and LocalvisibilitySystem that capture some of the variety still presenting. Besides the grey pin, you will note that on some screen shots the pin has moved to the right. Most significant to me was the change of the Branded One Box. In moving the images to the right, Google is reducing the space given to a brand at the top of the page. We still need to see this result with SiteLinks to ascertain the full impact.

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Google Earth: 2012 London Olympics

The 2012 Summer Olympics, to be held in London, are getting closer all the time. As they’re working hard on preparing the various venues for competition, you can use Google Earth to follow their progress.

A handful of venues already have 3D models in Google Earth, including the London Aquatics Centre (model details), seen here:

Another great model is the London Velodrome (model details), which will house the indoor track cycling events:

A great overview of the venues can be found in this Google Sightseeing post from last week. In particular, you can grab their KML file to quickly find the venues in question.

Google added fresh imagery just prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, so I expect we’ll see some great new imagery in London sometime before the games begin next summer.

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Customized Google Maps for Android

Custom Maps is an essential app for Android phones for any serious off-trail hikers, sailors or anyone else who needs detailed off-line maps.

The app lets you quickly create a custom map for your Android phone from any map image or photo file. The image can be a photo or scan of a paper map. It could even just be the photo of a map posted at the beginning of a trailhead or at the entrance to an amusement park, which you can capture with your smartphone camera.

To create a custom map all you have to do is choose two (or more) points in your map image and plot them on a Google Map. That’s all it takes. Your finished map can then show your GPS location and will work even when a data signal is not available like in a state park or when abroad.

I have a boat that is moored on a river with lots of tributaries and creeks, some of which are navigable and some of which aren’t. When you start exploring these backwaters it is very easy to quickly lose a sense of where you are.

Using Custom Maps I made an off-line map for my phone in less than five minutes using a scan of a river chart. Now I should never get lost on my boat again.

The source code for Custom Maps is also available on Google Code. Several new features are also planned for the app including distance measurement, marking map locations with icons and making it possible to geolocate map images without Google Maps or a data connection.

Via: Open Source at Google

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Google Maps Masups 18

Julien Levesque is a French artist who has created a number of interesting Google Maps experiments.

Street Views Patchwork mixes together three different Street View images to make a new imaginary landscape. Once the page loads – keep watching, as after a few seconds a new imaginary landscape will appear.

Some of these imagined landscapes are truly beautiful. It must have taken Julien an age scouring Street View to find partial Street Views that match so perfectly.

Rock Around the World is a Google Map shaped to look like a record. Click on the map and the record spins around and plays Rock Around the Clock. Once you take your mouse off the map the record slows its spin and comes to a stop and the song slows and grinds to a halt.

Marker Attack is a simple map that uses the marker animations in the Google Maps API v3 with lettered map markers to attack the world with an avalanche of Google Map markers.

Yellow Road places a large number of different Google Maps in a chain. Each map is centred on a different location but each location has been carefully chosen so that it contains a horizontal road across the map. Each road connects with the road in the map to the left and right of it. The result is one long imaginary yellow brick road.

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Google Maps Street View 2

Google Maps Street View – Sonny Kwan Real Estate and the importance of utilizing Google for the buying and selling power of real estate in today’s market. Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was launched on May 25, 2007, originally only in several cities in the United States, and has since gradually expanded to include more cities and rural areas worldwide.

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