Film Locations on Google Maps

Movie Locations Guide

Website Movie Locations Guide has created three Google Maps to show movie locations in three cities, New York, Los Angeles and London.

As well as the three dedicated city maps each film listing in the Movie Locations Guide shows a Google Map for each of the locations listed on the site. For example, if you look up The Big Lebowski five locations used in the film are listed and you can view each on a Google Map.

Filmaps

Filmaps is a film locations website that also uses Google Maps to show the locations of movies. Filmaps want to help movie fans find the locations in their favourite films.

It is possible to search Filmaps for a particular film or it is possible to search a location to see which film was made there. For example, a search for the Eiffel Tower reveals that four films in the Filmaps database have used the famous landmark as a location.

Each film has its own Google Map. When you are browsing a film's locations it is very easy to add another location if you know of one that hasn't already been added. To do so you just press the 'add a location button' and complete a very short form.

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Real-time Alerts with Google Maps

Alert Map

This live Google Map from the Emergency and Disaster Information Services (EDIS) in Hungary shows the latest earthquakes, volcano eruptions, floods and other disasters around the world. The map also shows the major oceanic rifts and transform faults.

If you click on any of the mapped emergencies and disasters you can click through to view more details on the incident. Beneath the map there is also detailed information about earthquake and volcano activity around the world, as well as news of Earth approaching objects in the next 30 days, tsunami information, geomagnetic storms and the currently mapped emergencies.

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Google Earth: a window to greater learning

We love hearing stories about how people all over the world use Google Earth. Richard Allaway, a teacher at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations, recently shared his thoughts on the importance of Google Earth in his classroom. With Google Earth, Richard is able to create a unique experience in which he and his students can travel the world, exploring everywhere from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to the peaks of the Smoky Mountains. We loved his story so much, we want to share it with you too!

Here's what Richard had to say:

There are two windows in my classroom. One window looks past the buildings of the International Labour Organization, Geneva's Jet d'Eau, and onwards to the Alps.

Google Earth’s representation of the view from Richard’s classroom window

Through the other window we can see Mount Etna, the meanders of the Mississippi, all the way to the buildings of Ancient Rome and even significant earthquakes that have happened in the last seven days. This “other” window is Google Earth.

I am a humanities teacher at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nationsworking with students ages 11 to 18 years old. But Google Earth is an important tool in any teacher’s toolbox because it provides a free and accessible gateway to far-off places. I use Google Earth to enhance my students’ learning opportunities and help them better understand the places we discuss. From our classroom, we can visit the landscapes that we can’t normally see through the limited viewpoint of a real window.

For example, we’ve taken a tour through the limestone landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales in the United Kingdom. Guided by a Google Earth tour and supporting worksheet, my students explored the unique limestone features and saw for themselves how geological processes shape our environments.

To study the possible eruption of Mount Rainier in the American northwest, we used Google Earth to visualize the hazards and the corresponding management strategies. Students were then challenged to use Google Earth or Maps to plan an escape route for what is considered to be a low-probability, but high-consequence event.

Information in Google Earth about Mount Rainier

GeographyAllTheWay.com is the website I use to organize and deliver my teaching resources. Students can access it from any location, whether they’re at the library, at home, on their computers and on their smart phones. It’s a continually developing project, but also a service that I welcome my fellow educators to use to help support their own lesson planning.

We love hearing inspirational stories like Richard’s, so if you want to share a cool experience you’ve had using Google Earth, tell us - we’re listening!

New Aerial Imagery Released

Google have released new aerial imagery on Google Maps.

Google's aerial view is similar to Bing Map's bird's eye view, giving an oblique rather than an overhead view. The new imagery is available in Tuscon, Arizona. So far I haven't found any new imagery elsewhere but I'm sure there must be more.

This Aerial View Map now includes aerial imagery from Tucson, a number of other US locations and from Venice and South Africa.

Bird's Eye View

This application places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' aerial view. You can view the same locations as seen by Bing and Google Maps.

I have added an image from the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tuscon to the map.

The state of the Berlin Wall, 21 years later

It was exactly 21 years ago today that the Berlin Wall fell. In honor of that anniversary, Virtual Berlin has released a very impressive and comprehensive "3D Virtual City Model" using the Google Earth Plug-in.

It allows you to view a ton of data about the wall, including some great comparisons between 1989 and today. They use 3D models, historical imagery, and a variety of other tools to make it incredibly feature-rich.

Finding a lost family with Google Earth

A neat story from British Columbia yesterday; a family was hiking on Mount Tzouhalem this past Sunday when they got lost in the dark on their way back down the mountain. When calling for help, they described the area around them (fences, horses, etc). One of the search managers started up Google Earth, found an area that matched their description, and helped lead to their rescue!

As you can see in the image below, the mountain is in relatively high-resolution in Google Earth, which helped make this possible:

If you want to check out the mountain for yourself, you can fly there using this KML file. For more info, check out the full story on BCLocalNews.com.

jQuery and Google Maps

jQuery is a JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. Over the years a number of JQuery demos and plugins have been developed to help you create Google Maps for your website. Here is a quick round-up of some of the best jQuery and Google Maps implementations:

Google Maps Slider

This nice Google Maps demo applies a mouseover event to a map sidebar. When you mouseover a listing in the sidebar the map pans to the selected location.

JQuery & Google Maps Tutorial

This is a great tutorial about how map developers can use JQuery to create custom Google Maps. I particularly like Step 7. of the tutorial which shows you how to replace the default information window in the Google Maps API with a custom information window.

Rotating Map Demo

Chris Heilmann has created his own rotating map demo using CSS3 and jQuery.

Use the 'L' and 'R' keys to rotate the map. Also try and pan the map for a little added fun.

Chris has posted a brief explanation on his blog Wait Till I Come! that will help you if you would like to replicate this effect in your own maps.

Google Maps Google Maps jQuery Plugin V1.01
Shawn Mayzes has created this jQuery Google Maps plugin. The plug-in includes a lot of features including custom map markers, geocoding and adding a Street View overlay.

imGoogleMaps 0.9 - Street View

imGoogleMaps is another jquery plugin with a full set of features. I have included it here because it is one of the few jQuery plugins that allow you to display Street View and a Street View control.


If you want to explore more jquery plugins Drag & Drop has a nice post, 10 jQuery Plugins for Easier Google Map Installation.

Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 - in the Marketplace now

Searching with Google on your Windows Phone 7 device just got easier. The Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 provides quick and convenient access to a rich set of search results, allowing you to search the web, images, local, news, and more.

This initial release of the Google Search app includes several features that help you to search faster - suggestions appear automatically as you type, you can choose to repeat a query from your search history, and your current location is used to provide more relevant results.

The Google Search app is a free download for all Windows Phone 7 devices and languages. Just search the Marketplace for “Google Search”, download, pin to Start, and the power of Google Search is only a click away.

Update: we have flipped the switch for the app to go live, but it doesn't seem the app is showing up everywhere just yet.

Movember Earth

Invented in 1999 by a group of Australians, the Movember Foundation fights to raise awareness and funds for a variety of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer. The word "Movember" is a combination of "Moustache" and "November"; growing a moustache during November is essentially the trademark symbol of the group.

GEB reader 'Damien' is a participant in the event, and decide to help give it a bit of promotion. Similar to our Halloween tradition of turning Google Earth into a pumpkin, Damien turned the earth in a giant smiley face with a moustache!

You can download the model from the Google 3D Warehouse or download the KML directly.

You can learn more about the Movember Foundation at movember.com.

Virtual Tours with Google Maps

youVR

YouVR is a website that allows you to build embeddable virtual tours using photographs, videos and Google Maps.

Using youVR it is possible to create an online tour consisting of a Google Map with interactive hotspots that include photographs and/or videos. When you have created a tour you can an embed it in a website or blog by cutting and pasting a short piece of code.

You can also browse other users' tours on the Most Recently Added page on youVR.