Mapplets to transition out of Google Maps

Earlier this year we announced the deprecation of Google Mapplets. As part of the deprecation plan for Mapplets we will shortly be switching from rendering Mapplets within Google Maps, to rendering them on a dedicated Mapplets page:

http://maps.google.com/maps/mapplets?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/geoscratchpad.xml

In conjunction with this transition the Google Maps Directory will be closed, and links to Mapplets will be removed from the My Maps tab in Google Maps.

Bookmarks for existing Mapplets will continue to work. They will be automatically redirected to the new Mapplets page for the relevant Mapplet. The Mapplets page also has the minimum necessary UI elements so that it is better suited to embedding in third party sites using an iframe.

However because the Mapplets page is not part of the Google Maps application, Mapplets will no longer have access to Google Maps user profiles, which means that User Preferences will no longer be stored between sessions. Users accessing Mapplets will now always see the default behaviour when the Mapplet first loads.

The above changes will be made on or shortly after Wednesday December 8th 2010. If your web site recommends one or more Mapplets by linking to the Directory we recommend that you update your site to link directly to the Mapplets page, or embed the relevant Mapplets page in your site, as soon as possible.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Google Maps API Product Manager

Architectural Viz: Transitions between Real and Virtual, Shopping City Sued

Produced by Telegram71 and commisioned by Atp Architekten Ingenieure, the video below shows a possible future renovation of the Shopping City Sued, a shopping mall extending for nearly 2 km in the periphery of Vienna. The insertion of 3d modeled and rendered sequences into on site shootings gives a clear idea of the transition between the actual stage and the future development:

Central to the visualisation are the transitions between real world and rendered, we especially like the staircase sequence 3 minutes into the clip. Its not easy to make a clip based around a shopping centre interesting, but Telegram71 seem to of pulled it off.

Head over to http://www.telegram71.com/ for more examples.