Solstice Sun with Google Maps

The Photographer’s Ephemeris



The Photographer’s Ephemeris is a free sun and moon planning tool for outdoor photography. The application is available as a free download for the desktop (Adobe AIR required) or as an iPad app.

 


 

The application uses Google Maps to show sunrise and sunset times and indicates the current direction of the sun based on your location. The application includes some really advanced features, including automatic time zone and elevation detection, correction for atmospheric refraction and height above the horizon.

Photographers can use this invaluable tool to plan the best times that they should visit a location to get the best light for the shot required.

 

SunCalc



SunCalc is a great Google Maps based tool for finding the position of the sun and the sunrise and sunset times for any location on the Earth. The application auto-detects your current location but you also can drag the marker or use the search function to move to a different location.

A really great feature on this app is the time of day slider. The slider lets you view the position of the sun for any time during the day. You can even change the date to see the sun’s position at different times of the year.

I can see this map being very useful for photographers, who may want to know the sun’s position at different locations and at different times of the day. I also think this is a great tool for house buyers, who can check out when gardens and different rooms in a house will get direct sunlight.

Yahoo! Maps APIs Service Closure – Due 13th September 2011

Yahoo! Maps APIs Service Closure – Due 13th September 2011

(And suggest working/moving to Nokia Maps and Nokia Maps API)

As part of Yahoo!’s commitment to creating deeply personal digital experiences, we have been reprioritizing our current portfolio of mapping products to refocus on a great consumer Mapping and Local Search experience. After careful consideration, Yahoo! will no longer support the below Maps APIs as of Sept 13, 2011. However, we are continuing to invest in our core maps offering at Yahoo! and later this year will announce more details of our strategic partnership with Nokia, so stay tuned!

We will continue to support a number of location APIs and encourage you to use our Placefinder API for geocoding, our Local Search API and Placemaker for geoparsing.

In the meantime, we have decided to close the following Maps APIs:

Supported Geo APIs and alternative services
Yahoo will continue to support a number of location APIs. We encourage you to use our Placefinder API for geocoding. The Local Search API remains available and Placemaker is still available for geoparsing.

Developers who wish to implement maps, routing and traffic into their web pages may use third-party developer networks for mapping services. We suggest using maps from our partner Nokia. Please go to api.maps.ovi.com/ for more information.

Q&A

Q: On what exact date will the Yahoo! Maps APIs be shut down?
A: Yahoo! will no longer offer the Maps API service as of September 13, 2011.

Q: Why is Yahoo! removing the Maps APIs service?
A: In order to focus on our core strengths and deliver new innovations, we are reprioritizing our portfolio of products and services – increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others. This will allow us to continue improving the Yahoo! Maps and Local Search experience and allow us to focus on providing best-in-class digital media, content and communications experiences.

Q: What Maps APIs will remain available for developers?
A: Placefinder, Placemaker and Local Search will continue to be supported.

Q: What other resources are available to developers wishing to use maps?
A: Developers who wish to implement maps, routing and traffic into their web pages may use third-party developer networks for services. We suggest using maps from our partner Nokia. Please go to api.maps.ovi.com/ for more information.

Q: What is the status of Nokia integration with Yahoo! maps and navigation services?
A: This work is in-progress and we plan to have something to announce later this year.”

Android: New features to mobile search

Our thirst for knowledge extends beyond the time we spend in front of our desktop computers. At Google, we are seeing mobile search grow at an exponential rate, increasing five-fold worldwide in just the past two years – a rate comparable to the early days of desktop Google Search. Today on mobile, we can get whatever information we’re looking for anytime, anywhere.

And I’m not just talking about looking up basic information like the weather or a stock quote, which is what people used to do in the early days of mobile search. As mobile devices have become more powerful and connected to faster networks, smartphone users are doing a surprisingly diverse set of search tasks — from simple lookups, to tasks that involve multiple complex searches.

But it’s not always easy to search from a mobile device, especially with the smaller screens and keyboards. We’ve worked relentlessly to make mobile search faster, easier, and more intuitive with features like autocomplete, Voice Search, Google Goggles, Google Instant and Instant Previews on mobile. Our work in mobile has now inspired desktop innovations like Voice Search and Search by Image, two new ways to search from your desktop, announced today at our Inside Search media event. We’re also excited to introduce two new mobile features designed to make mobile search even better.
 


 

With more searches happening when people are on the go, we’ve noticed an increase in searches for nearby places. To make it easier for people to search for what’s around them, we’ve introduced new shortcuts to commonly searched local categories, like restaurants, coffee shops and bars, in the form of icons on the mobile google homepage (www.google.com):

Shortcut icons appear at the bottom of the mobile homepage. Tap “More”, to select from additional popular categories like shopping, ATMs, gas stations, etc., a new part of our simplified Places homepage (www.google.com/m/places).

On the results page, you’ll see a map with markers for your current location and places around you. When you scroll through the results, the map remains at the top of the page and adjusts automatically to the listing you are looking at. That way, you can see the listing information while still getting location context from the map. Tapping on a result will quickly show you more about a place including reviews and other useful details. Discovering great places nearby has never been easier on your mobile phone.



Another mobile improvement we’ve introduced today is an easier way to build longer, more complicated searches. You can now add suggested phrases to the search box and “build” your search piece by piece. This feature is already available on the Google Search app for Android and iOS devices and we’re now making this available on www.google.com from your mobile browser. Watch the video below to see how you can search faster with less typing.

These new mobile features are now available on www.google.com on Android (version 2.2+) and iOS (version 4.0+) in 40 languages worldwide.

If you would like to learn more about today’s announcements, visit the Inside Search website, our new one-stop shop for Google search tips, features and an under the hood look at our technology. Check the site later today and you’ll find a recording of the event, answers to common questions and links to other blogs posts today on the Official Google Blog, Inside Search blog and the Chrome blog.

We hope you enjoy these new search features and we look forward to bringing you further improvements by making mobile search even faster, easier, and more useful.