Google Map of the Week

Athens Historical Buildings

If you are visiting somewhere like Athens, Greece one of your priorities would surely be to view some of the city's historical buildings. Using the historical monuments database from EIE (Archaeology of the City of Athens) Phil Stubbings has created this Google Map showing the location of interesting architecture in Athens.

The map includes a slider navigation control that allows you to refine the buildings shown on the map by date range. So, for example, you could choose just to view buildings erected in the city in the 16th century. The map also has a good search function that lets you search for architectural styles, for example 'neoclassical'.

As well as finding the location of historically important buildings in the city you can also overlay an historical map of the city from 1890.

I really like this map. In fact it has just sneaked in at the last minute to claim the crown for 'map of the week'.

The Decade Volcanoes

Inspired by some recent Volcano-related posts over at Google Sightseeing, I thought it'd be neat to look at the 16 "Decade" Volcanoes around the world. Decade Volcanoes, according toWikipedia are "the 16 volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive eruptions and proximity to populated areas."

Like most mountains (as we saw earlier this year), these volcanoes look stunning in Google Earth. They're listed below in alphabetical order. Click the "KML" link for each one to view it for yourself in Google Earth.

Avachinsky-Koryaksky - Kamchatka, Russia - KML

Colima - Jalisco and Colima, Mexico - KML

Mount Etna - Sicily, Italy - KML

Galeras - Nariño, Colombia - KML

Mauna Loa - Hawaii, USA - KML

Mount Merapi - Central Java, Indonesia - KML

Mount Nyiragongo - Democratic Republic of Congo - KML

Mount Rainier - Washington, USA - KML

Sakurajima - Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan - KML

Santa Maria/Santiaguito - Guatemala - KML

Santorini - Cyclades, Greece - KML

Taal Volcano - Luzon, Philippines - KML

Teide - Canary Islands, Spain - KML

Ulawun - New Britain, Papua New Guinea - KML

Mount Unzen - Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan - KML

Vesuvius - Naples, Italy - KML

Are there are volcanoes that you find particularly interesting? Leave a comment and let us know!

Seeking map data in response to Pakistan floods

According to the UN, the recent floods in Pakistan have affected over 4 million individuals - and the human toll continues to grow. Disease is an ever-increasing risk as relief agencies rush to the aid of those who have been hurt or displaced.

Google’s Crisis Response team has provided satellite imagery and KML layers to assist relief efforts in past disasters, including the Haiti earthquake and recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In Pakistan, however, the cloud cover over the impacted areas has inhibited our ability to make this valuable content available. The Crisis Response team is looking to collect and aggregate imagery and user generated KML, or other map data, with the goal of making this content more accessible to both crisis responders and the general public. We’re hoping you can help. You can submit links to KML and map data via the following form. We’ll contact you if we are able to publish your content.

Friday Fun with Google Maps

Google Earth has a New Competitor



Project MyWorld is a new video game that will be released next year. The game takes place on a stylised map of the world. From the sneak previews released so far the game looks like it will be some kind of awesome.

Mystery Airplanes on Google Maps

Gawker have been hunting out mysterious airplanes on Google Maps. They have found planes in people's backyards and a plane that appears to be submerged in the sea.

Steam Punk Google Earth




One of life's burning questions has been how would Victorians have controlled Google Earth? The answer is with the Electromagnetic Geospacial Globe and Remote View with Obligatory Goggles.

Ping Pong Google Earth


Of course in the 21st Century we are far more advanced and the boffins at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis have created a navigation control for Google Earth out of a couple of ping pong balls.

London Twitter Cloud




CASA have also created a great Google Earth based visualisation of geospatial data from Twitter.

UK SiteSeeker (Beta) Map

"Whether you're a seasoned camper, caravanner or motor caravanner, or new to taking your accommodation with you, the Club will help you to get more from your caravanning and camping holidays. "

Find Electric Hook-ups, HardStanding, Full Service within a search radius from 5 miles to 50 miles using this help map. 

Find Caravan electrical hook up sites using the Map

Modify your search even further with the 'choose facilities' option at the bottom of the map.

Try the interactive map here:

http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/siteseeker/aspx/search.aspx

Labels: Beta, Camping, Caravan, Map, SiteSeeker

Introducing the Google Small Business Blog

Most every business, including ours, starts small. These days, technology is giving businesses even more ways to grow bigger... faster.

In our recent Small Business series on the Official Google Blog, a handful of real-life entrepreneurs have shared their experiences building companies from scratch and embracing Internet tools that have taken their businesses to the next level. We’ve received fantastic feedback about these posts, and realized that there’s a healthy appetite among small- and medium-sized business owners who want to know all about the latest web tools and tricks. Fortunately, we have lots more to share with you, too!

That’s why we’re introducing the Google Small Business Blog, a central hub that brings together all the information about our products, features and projects of specific interest to the small business community. Rather than having to sleuth around in many different locations for details about templates for creating video ads on YouTube, tips for your employees using Gmail or how to respond to the business reviews on your Place Page, you can find all of this helpful information right here in one place.

Of course, we’ll continue to post relevant news about individual services such as AdWords,Apps, Google Places and YouTube on their respective “home” blogs, but feel free to visit or subscribe to the Google Small Business Blog to get everything relating to your small business needs. We’re starting small today, but who knows what tomorrow will have in store!

Best Game Since Google Maps Monopoly

Don't Go Zombie

Virgin Trains have built a fantastic Street View zombie killing game to promote train travel in the UK.

In the game you have to follow directions in Street View to your nearest train station. But watch out for those zombies because just as you think your journey is going OK hordes of the living dead suddenly appear. 

When this happens you have to grab your ticket machine and blast the zombies to kingdom come. As every zombie killer knows, just as werewolves can only be killed with silver bullets, zombies can only be killed by train tickets.

Happy zombie zapping ...

Finding Hotels Along a Route

Premier Inn Hotels Finder

Premier Inn in the UK has released a Google Map to help travellers find a Premier Inn hotel.

Users can search the map by location and find the nearest Premier Inn hotels to that location. A useful feature for travellers is the route finder. This feature allows you to get driving directions from one location to another and view all the Premier Inn hotels along the route.

If you find a specific hotel you wish to stay at you can get driving directions to the hotel and you can book a room directly from the map.

86 3D buildings from Bowling Green State University

Yesterday, the Google 3D Warehouse Twitter account (@3DWH) mentioned that Bowling Green State University had 86 3D models from their campus in the 3D Warehouse, so we had to check it out. They've since added another one more building, bringing the total to 87. The buildings are remarkably detailed, and include things such as accurate steps and realistic fences, as seen below.

None of the buildings are in Google Earth yet, but I'd expect them to arrive in the next 3D model update; probably later this week. In the meantime, you can download this KML file to see the locations of the buildings, and then choose to load the full 3D model for any that interest you.

Universities seem to be adding buildings at an increasingly rapid rate. We've recently told you about Northeastern University and Boston University, and I expect we'll see more in the coming months.

Marijuana Dispensaries on Google Maps

Medical Marijuana Shopping

Do you need to find a medical marijuana dispensary in Southern California? Well there's a map for that.

The map shows the locations of dispensaries in Southern California. The information window for each dispensary gives the name and full address, the opening hours and user ratings. You can even get driving directions to each of the dispensaries.

As well as providing a map of dispensaries Medical Marijuana Shopping includes information on the medical benefits of different marijuana strains.

Also See

Potlocator