Friday Fun with Google Maps

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I find this very hard to believe - apparently Google Maps occasionally makes mistakes. Google Maps FAIL is dedicated to exposing the sometimes hilarious errors in Google Maps.

Fail Maps is another nice blog highlighting the mistakes made in maps.

Google Demo Slam
These two videos, featured on Google Demo Slam, caught my eye this week.

Hat-tip: @geoparadigm



Map Ties

I've had to wear a tie a couple of times in my life. It's not an experience I want to repeat. But if you do force me then I want to wear one of these natty numbers.

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Great British Google Maps Round-Up

Great British Life

Great British Life is a website that celebrates everything that is great about Great Britain. This celebration includes a Google Map that allow readers to browse restaurant reviews, upcoming events and reader's photographs by location.

It is possible to filter the map by 'articles', 'events', 'photos' and 'blogs'. If you click on a map marker you can read a brief review and view ratings. Each window also includes a link to read the full article.

LiveMap Devon

Prolific Google Maps developer Colin Johnson has produced a number of UK based Google Maps under the LiveMaps label.

This Google Map details events in the county of Devon, featuring Town Shows, Carnivals, Farmers Markets etc. The map displays events for the next three months. The map also links to a Devon Live Entertainment page which features the leading theatres and venues in the region, a Devon Attractions site detailing a wide variety of things to do and places to visit and a Devon Holiday Accommodation page.

LiveMap English Football Ground Guide
This Google Map is a guide to the soccer clubs in the top 16 divisions of English football.

LiveMap RoadworksLiveMap Lincoln Essentials
This Google Map is a directory with a difference. Detailing a range of useful locations such as car parks, cash machines, recycling banks, post offices in the city of Lincoln

LiveMap Wildlife Parks
LiveMap Wildlife Parks plots the location of over 130 zoos, safari parks, butterfly farms and other wildlife attractions throughout the UK.

LiveMap Theatres & Venues
Details hundreds of theatres and live entertainment venues throughout the UK.

Citizens Report UK
Citizens Report UK, a website dedicated to helping citizens improve their personal safety, uses Google Maps to help report on many safety and crime issues in the UK. A couple of weeks ago Google Maps Mania featured the Citizens Report UK map of British Road Casualties 2008 & 2009.

Interactive Map of Recorded Offence

This Google Map uses Fusion Tables plots Recorded Offence Volumes in the Local Authorities of England and Wales - from 2003 to 2010.

The map makes great use of the Fusion Tables queries function. It is possible to refine the results shown on the map by offence, date and region.

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Paris in 3D

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular sights in Google Earth, and it's had a high-quality 3D model for a few years now. However, the rest of the city has been rather flat -- until now.

Google has rolled out extensive 3D building coverage for the city and it looks great! (NOTE from Frank: There are some areas - especially around the Eiffel Tower, where the building models look half-finished. Many of the sides are missing photo-realistic textures. But, hopefully this will inspire people to use Building Maker to finish the models.]

Check out some of the cool sites like the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame Cathedral or the the Arc de Triomphe.

To simply explore the city for yourself, fly there using this KML file.

Google Maps for Android adds 3D, offline reliability and re-routing

Those who checked their Android device to see if their Android Market apps need an update were pleasantly surprised on Thursday. Google has released Google Maps 5.0 for Android, including 3D support (sans glasses) and greater offline reliability.

Here's how the 3D portion is explained (although, only some 100+ cities currently have the 3D imagery set up).

Until now, Google Maps has always downloaded the map as a set of small, square images that we stitch together to form the map you see. (You’ve probably seen those gray squares getting filled in, block-by-block, as the images load over the network.) Starting today, we’ll use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map on your device as you use it, allowing you to interact with it in new ways:

• Tilting: Drag down with two fingers to tilt the map. Tilt while zoomed in on one of the 100+ cities around the world with 3D buildings to see a skyline spring to life.
• Rotating: Twist with two fingers to rotate the map. After tilting to see 3D buildings, rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction.
• Smooth zooming: Slide two fingers together or apart, and see the map and labels continuously scale to any zoom level, stopping when your fingers stop.
• Compass mode: Center the map on your location, and then tap the compass button in the top right corner. The map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective, while still keeping all the labels upright and readable.

Vector graphics are also much lighter weight than the traditional stitched-together images used previously, which leads into the other change: better caching to allow better offline functionality.

Google will do this by caching the areas you visit the most. They'll do this at night when your device is connected to wi-fi and charging.

Finally, they are also adding offline re-routing, though this will roll out gradually over the next few weeks. You'll still need a connection to start a route, but if you lose it after that, you yourself won't get lost. Google says:

You’ll still need a connection to start a route, but if you miss a turn along the way, we’ll quickly get you back on track, even if you don’t have an Internet connection. We’ll be rolling this feature out gradually over the next few weeks.

While Android 1.6 devices can get Google Maps 5.0, it won't have the 3D or offline features; those require Android 2.0+. At least those devices still stuck on Android 2.1 can get the features.

Also, some devices will not support all the features. These limitations are detailedhere. You can watch a video on Google Maps 5.0 below.