Christchurch Aerial View on Google Maps

Christchurch Post-Earthquake Aerial Photos

The Royal New Zealand Air Force flew a C-130 Hercules at 500 feet over Christchurch two days after the 22nd February earthquake, capturing imagery of the damage suffered by the city. As you can see from the shot of Christchurch Cathedral above the imagery provides an incredibly close aerial view of the city.

Koordinates has created this Google Map that lets you view the aerial imagery on Google Maps. Using Google Maps means that you are able to find locations in Christchurch using the underlying map tiles and zoom in on the new aerial imagery.

Donate to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

Live Mobile Videos on Google Maps

GeoCam.tv

GeoCam.tv is a Google Map of webcams from around the world. The site has recently added live streams from Qik.com. The videos from Qik.com are real-time video streams from users' mobile phones.

What I like about GeoCam.tv is that all the webcams can be viewed directly on the map. Currently the map shows over 1000 webcams from around the world, as well as the live Qik.com feeds. To view a cam just click on a map marker and the webcam image will open in an information window.

What is Trending on Google Maps

Trendero

Trendero is a new Google Maps based application that allows you to report on and follow trends around the world. Users of the application can report local trends and search the world to find what it is popular in other locations.

You can browse the map to search for trends in a number of categories. For example you can search for trends in music, film, books, fashion etc. Trends are assigned a trendiness score based on several factors, including: who reported the trend; how recently the trend was spotted; how actively users are updating the trend and how many people are looking at the trend.

Friday Fun with Google Maps

Justin Bieber & Google Earth

I think I've found someone with a better knowledge of Google Earth than Frank Taylor and Mickey Mellen from the Google Earth Blog.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on in this video. I think the guy has to guess from a zoomed in image what the satellite image is of. To try and put him off a small boy called Justin Bieber has been brought in to grin inanely in his direction.

Whatever is going on, from the reactions, the guy seems to be able to name every part of the world from a very zoomed in shot of Google Earth.


Mapping London

Using the before and after visualisation technique, used by ABC Australia and the New York Times to show photographs of the impact of the Japan Tsunami, Mapping London has put together an app to compare the recently updated imagery on Google Maps in London with imagery from 2002-6.

The new imagery clearly shows the the development in east London for the 2012 London Olympics.

Grrrr!

Google Sightseeing have discovered a baby black bear on Street View. The bear is spotted crossing the Stewart-Cassiar Highway in British Columbia, Canada.

Lights Out for the Sky at Night

GLOBE at Night Webapp

The GLOBE at Night organisation are endorsing the Earth Hour event on March 26 and would also like you to help them gather data as part of their research into light pollution.

To take part in the research you simply need to check the night sky and see if you can identify the constellation Leo or Crux. To help you find the constellations GLOBE at Night have provided a Google Map to determine your location and present you with several magnitude charts of the night sky.

All you need to do is determine which of the magnitude charts of the sky most resembles what you see and complete a short form.

Real-Time Instagram on Google Maps

Mapstagram

Mapstagram is a super-fast real-time Google Map of photos taken with the Instagram iPhone app.

When the Mapstagram map first loads it displays the most recent photos from a number of U.S. cities. After the initial photos have loaded Mapstagram goes into real-time mode. As photos are uploaded by users in these cities, they are immediately displayed on the map in real time.

Gramfeed

Gramfeed uses the Instagram API to present the best photos from Instagram on Google Maps. It also allows users to view their own photos, a time-line of those they follow, read comments on photos and Tweet about photos and much, much more.

Social Network - The Google Map

Xuland

Xuland is a Google Maps based social network that lets you share comments, pictures and links with those around you and search for venues, events and deals around your location.

Using Xuland you can comment on any location. If you like the comments of other Xuland users you can choose to 'follow' them. Xuland also has plans to offer comment badges soon to reward you for adding your thoughts.

You can also view nearby venues from Yelp, view deals for local venues from third party sites such as Groupon, and search for local events from Eventful. 

How Manhattan Grew on Google Maps

How Manhattan’s Grid Grew

In 1811, John Randel created a proposed street grid of Manhattan. The New York Times has created a Google Map that allows you to compare Randel's map to modern-day Manhattan.

The map also includes an 1836 map of the farms of Manhattan, a map of street openings since 1642 and historic census data. Each of the maps is supplemented by a transparency slider that allows you to view the modern map underneath.

The map of street openings since 1642 allows you to visualise the growth of Manhattan. If you use the time-line control you can watch the spread of Mahattan from just a few streets to the present urban sprawl.

Radiation Levels Mapped - Updated

Japan Radiation Maximum by Prefecture

The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, warned today that the situation remains 'very serious' at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Many Japanese citizens are therefore obviously worried about radiation levels.

This TargetMap creation uses Google Maps to show the real-time radiation levels by prefecture. The data comes from the the System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information(SPEEDI). The results shown are the maximum values recorded in the latest update.

RDTN.org Japanese Radiation Levels

RTDN have created a Google Map of radiation level readings in Japan with data from Pachube and Marian Steinbach.

Each marker on the map displays the radiation level and the time of the reading. RTDN are also looking for people to submit their own accurate readings to the map, which you can do via a short form.


To provide context for these map you should also check out O'Reilly Radar'sOpen Street Map visualisations of radiation levels in Japan. The O'Reilly maps compare two days of recent radiation data with the normal radiation levels in Japan.

Friday Fun with Google Maps

 Limerick Crime Map


There was an Old Person of Cromer,
Who stood on one leg to read Homer;
When he found he grew stiff, he jumped over the cliff,
Which concluded that Person of Cromer.

The classic limericks of Edward Lear are full of appalling incidents (and even more appalling rhymes). Staircase3 has therefore decided that it is only fit to present his limerick's in the form of a crime map.

The limericks are marked on this Google Map by the given location of each main culprit.

Postcards from Google Earth: Bridges

Artist Clement Valla has created a series of postcards created from satellite images of bridges captured from Google Earth. The strange distortion of the bridges in the images does create some interesting and surreal views.

Drag & Drop Street View

This little Street View application lets you find the Street View for any location in the world and drag & drop images to create your own montage. The images available mainly consist of cartoon cars and women.