Mapping the Brazilian Election

The Brazilian general election of 2010 will be held on Sunday, October 3, 2010. Ahead of the election Google have produced a dedicated web page showing search trends for the candidates and a Google Map of the candidates' campaigns.

Follow the Candidates

Google have produced this Google Map to show the candidates' campaigns during the election. For each point visited by the candidates you can view content such as news, photos and videos.

Historic Elections Map
Google have also produced this Google Map that shows the results of every Brazilian election since 1994. You can select to view both presidential and governor election results on the map.

Rota do Planalto

Brazilian website Voto Certo have produced their own Google Map to help inform voters ahead of the election.

Rota do Planalto allows voters to view the campaigns of the presidential candidates since January 2010. The map shows the campaign journeys made by Rousseff (PT), José Serra (PSDB) and Silva (PV) in the months from January to July. The campaign of Plinio de Arruda Sampaio is mapped from May, when the PSOL named his candidacy.

In addition to viewing all events on a single map, you can also pick a candidate and view their calendar for the period. Another option is to compare routes between two candidates in the same month. Each marker on the map, shows the details of the event or YouTube videos or photos with a link to the news sources.

Bing Maps Revamped

The new Bing Map look, clearer (less clutter) make it easier to read and locate regions.

• Cool colours visually recede allowing warmer overlays to come forward - An elegant backdrop for information delivery and helps content ‘pop out’ on the map
• Road colour provides greatest differentiation scientifically from red, yellow, green traffic overlays. 
• De-saturation on zoom allows more continuous transition to photographic material (Aerial, Birdseye, Streetside) and allows user to focus on street level detail better.
• Designed to work in black and white and to be differentiated by those with the most common forms of colour blindness
• Crisp/easy to read font, larger font corresponds to larger roads
• Lower cognitive load – Less  data / clearer details (loads faster)
• Improved international coverage: Data updates deliver improved road and street detail across Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Oceania and Asia.

More information and source (including image)

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/08/03/bing-s-bringing-sexy-maps.aspx

Google Maps Against Bottled Water

GiveMeTap

GiveMeTap is a service to help you find drinkable tap water in Manchester, England. Restaurant or café owners in Manchester can sign up as providers to supply free access to clean tap water to those who carry a branded GiveMeTap life-time aluminium water bottle.

You can search GiveMeTap by street name and you will be shown a Google Map showing your location and the nearest GiveMeTap providers. The providers are shown with tap map markers and the information windows display the provider's address and the walking distance from your location. The providers are also displayed in the map sidebar.

Finding Great Food with Google Maps

Food GPS

Joshua Lurie's mission in life appears to be to travel a lot and to eat as much good food as possible. Consequently Joshua eats as many as a dozen restaurant meals a week. When he comes across a meal that’s really good he shares it with the world through Food GPS.

On the right hand side of Food GPS is a drop down menu that displays locations. If you choose any of the locations from the menu a Google Map will be displayed showing the food posts on Food GPS for your selected location.

If you are travelling around the USA and you want to find a good restaurant then you should definitely consult Food GPS. Joshua Lurie definitely knows his food and if he recommends a restaurant you can be sure the food will be great.

Finding illegal pools with Google Earth

The town of Riverhead, NY, located on Long Island, has recently started using Google Earth totrack down backyard pools that don't have the proper license.

So far they've found around 250 pools that hadn't applied for the necessary license. When contacted and given the choice between paying the fee or facing heavy fines, most owners have paid the fee. So far the city has collected around $75,000 in fees.

There are two ways to look at a situation like this. The first is that it's a great use of Google Earth; the other is that it feels like big brother is watching. Which side are you on?

This situation reminds me of a few other stories we've written about in the past. Nearly five years ago, Frank shared the story of a tax assessor using Google Earth to spot changes in house lots (new buildings, sheds, etc) and making sure the proper taxes were paid on them.

The other story is even closer to this one; a pool guy finding prospective customers by only sending his mailing to homes that have pools. It took quite a bit of work to develop the list (search in Google Earth, determine the address, build the list), but now he has an excellent list of targeted prospects for his business.

Find Who is Checked in at Different Venues

MisoTrendy

MisoTrendy helps you find the most popular places around any location on a Google Map. MisoTrendy uses trending data from foursquare and shows currently checked-in users, tips and mayorships from the most popular venues in real-time.

With MisoTrendy you can search around any location. You can also search for specific types of venue, such as cafes, restaurants or parks. If you click on a mapped location MisoTrendy loads the currently checked in users at that location and tips, such as what to eat or drink.

The most recent foursquare members to check-in at a venue are shown in the map sidebar. The user's profile picture is shown along with their name. If they are currently checked into the venue their name is displayed in red.

Finding Bio-Fuel with Google Maps

RouteCNGfinder

Owners of cars that have been converted into bi-fuel vehicles can often have difficulties finding gas stations that sell compressed natural gas (CNG). This can be particularly true if drivers are on long journeys in areas that they are unfamiliar with. In Europe routeCNGfinder can help drivers plan routes that take them via gas stations that sell CNG.

The service currently works in Austria, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic and Switzerland. RouteCNGfinder uses the Google Maps API's driving directions service to show a searched route with staged directions. In addition it will show all the gas stations along the route.

Users of the map can print out routes and save the gas stations found along the route or nearby gas stations as a Kml or CSV file.

Via: Le Technoblog du LAC

Open Street Map now in Bing Maps

Open Street Map is now available in Bing Maps via the 'Open Street Map' App

MapNik Tile Render via Bing Maps (OSM) APP

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.6002=
q:NYC:nelat:51.6120377517871:nelong:0.18654357910159:
swlat:51.4079622462129:swlong:-0.446543579101535:nosp:0:adj:0/5872/style=Mapnik&lat=40.65415&lon=-74.024291&z=11&pid=50735

In Addition there are some improvements to Bing Maps Explore:

• Appearance: Cool colours create a more visually appealing backdrop that helps content ‘pop’ on the map, providing clear differentiation for pushpins, labels and red, yellow and green traffic overlays. 
• New labels: Larger fonts correspond to larger roads, making it easier to identify major streets and throughways. Crisper labels eliminate the need for bolding and less-attractive glows, allowing users to quickly find locations in a relevant format.
• Improved international coverage: Data updates deliver improved road and street detail across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and Asia.
• Dynamic Labels (beta): This innovative map navigation allows you to quickly zoom to a region or location on the map with just a few clicks, making it easier to identify and explore areas or neighborhoods of a city. Turn on the dynamic labels beta from the map style selector on bing.com/maps/explore, and labels become clickable