Monday, September 27, 2010

How Far Can You Afford to Fly?

Destmapper

Destmapper uses Google Maps to show you how far you can fly on a specific budget. The map uses flight cost data from adioso.com.

On first loading the map determines your location and begins to load the destinations you can fly to from that location for under $189 (prices are displayed in New Zealand dollars). Users can then increase the cost of flights that they are prepared to pay for by using a slider control.

As you increase the cost of flights more locations will be marked on the map. You can also load different price-range locations on the map via a number of quick links. The markers displayed on the map are even colour-coded by the price range of flights.

_____________

The World's Architecture on Google Maps

World Architecture Map (WAM)

The World Architecture Map is a database of architectural information that uses Google Maps to show the locations of architectural interesting buildings around the world. It is possible to search for buildings on WAM by location, building type, architectural style or by tags. 

Searching by location it is possible to view architectural maps for individual cities or by country. If you click on a building's map marker you can click through to a dedicated page about the building containing information, links and Flickr photographs.

WAM really excels in its tagging system. Anybody interested in architecture is sure to love the ability to view a map showing all the locations of buildings that match a specific query. For example, if you want to look at examples of geodesic domes, you just need to click on the 'geodesic dome tag. WAM will then display a Google Map showing all the buildings matching that tag in the database

WAM includes the option to submit a building to the site by completing a short form. If you work in, are studying or are just interested in architecture you can help to improve WAM by adding buildings to the database.

Every Transit Station in Britain Mapped

The Guardian - National Transport Map

The Guardian newspaper has used Google Fusion Tables to map every bus stop, train station, ferry port and taxi rank in Britain. The map uses newly released data from the UK's National Public Transport Data Repository.

The map itself is very basic but it does let you find all the public transport stops for any location in the UK. The map is also a great demonstration of how a Google Map using Fusion Tables can handle a huge amount of data. The map plots more than 400,000 locations without any marker clustering and copes reasonably well.

The Guardian have also completed some analysis of the data, comparing it to population data to work out the number of bus-stops per 100,000 people in different locations in the UK. The Guardian's analysis reveals that London has relatively few bus-stops (for the population size) and that the Western Isles in Scotland and Gwynedd in Wales are very well served.

_____________

Arctic Bathymetry Layers on Google Maps

The Ocean Mapping Group

The Ocean Mapping Group of the University of New Brunswick has created a bathymetry map for the Arctic. The map overlays a number of bathymetry layers of the region over the Google Maps base map tiles.

The transparency of the bathymetry layers can be adjusted using a slider control or can be turned on or off via a check box under the 'satellite' button. It is possible to download the data by clicking on any of the layers. If you click on a bathymetry layer an information window opens with a link to download the data.

Via: Le Technology du LAC

Crowd-Sourced Crime on Google Maps

Robbery Maps

Robberymaps is a Spanish language crowd-sourced Google Map showing the locations of robberies around the world. 

The site was launched in Barcelona and most of the user submitted reports of robberies are still submitted from the city. At the moment then the map is most useful for people who live in Barcelona or are planning to visit. The map is full of useful user submitted information about areas of the city that you should be particularly careful.

Barcelona is fairly well known for its gangs of pickpockets. This map could therefore be very useful if you want to find out the latest areas that the gangs have been seen operating in