Community Action on Google Maps

Creek Speak

Creek Speak is an oral history project that uses Google Maps to present the stories of people and places near Newtown Creek, New York. The map is part of the Creek Speak Project which has been designed to inspire community action by identifying shared health and environmental concerns and demonstrating the possibilities for positive change.

To listen to the stories of Newton Creek or read about some of the places mentioned in these stories just click on the map markers. When you click on a marker an information window opens with texts, photos and audio provided by Newtown Creek citizens.

Creek Speak was created using HabitatMap, an online mapping and social networking platform designed to maximize the impact of community voices on city planning and strengthen ties between organizations and activists working to build greener, greater cities.

Create Your Own Google Map

CartoView

CartoView is a free map creation tool from CartoLogic. CartoView allows you to easily create maps using Google Maps, the Google Earth browser plug-in or Openlayers.

If you want to see what you kind of maps you can create with CartoView the site has provided a number of working demos. This example shows a map created with CartoView and data from Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Gowalla and Twitter.

If you browse through the examples on the demo page you will see that CartoView gives the user the ability to customise the look of the created map.

The Commonwealth Games on Google Maps

Commonwealth Games Venues
This Google My Map simply shows the locations of the different venues being used in Delhi to host the Commonwealth Games.

Commonwealth Game Dropouts

Because of concerns before the games over the facilities at the Commonwealth Games a number of athletes refused to take part. This Google My Map lists the athletes who pulled out of the games and gives their stated reason for doing so.

Commonwealth Tweets

If you want to keep up with the latest real-time news from the Commonwealth Games this Google Map shows the latest Tweets about the games. The map shows the location of where the Tweet was sent and automatically animates to the latest message.

This map was created by the prolific Mibazaar, who also created this Baton Relay Path map. The Baton Relay Path map shows the path of the baton relay that is similar to the torch relay which is held before each Olympic Games.

India Beyond

If you are in India for the games you might also want to do a little sightseeing. This Google Map shows the locations of World Heritage sites in India.

Using the map it is possible to view the satellite images of sites such as the Taj Mahal and Delhi's Red Fort.

Aurangabad Map

This Google Map is also unrelated to the Commonwealth Games but is a listings map for the Indian city of Aurangabad.

The map shows the locations of businesses in Aurangabad. The markers on the map are colour-coded by type of business. The businesses listings can be accessed by clicking on the map markers or by using the map side panel.

Open your eyes: Google Goggles now available on iPhone in Google Mobile App

Searching with Google on your mobile phone can be an eye-opening experience. Now your phone’s camera can even help to find out more about the world around you.

Back in December we introduced Google Goggles on Android: it lets you search by taking pictures. Today, we’re excited to announce that Goggles is now a feature of Google Mobile App for iPhone. Google Mobile App already lets you speak your queries, and it can also use your phone’s location to give you more relevant search results.

 

In the new version of Google Mobile App just tap on the camera button to search using Goggles. Goggles will analyze the image and highlight the objects it recognizes -- just click on them to find out more