Free Relief Maps for Google Maps

Maps-For-Free

Maps-For-Free has produced a nice Google Maps application that lets you view a number of relief map layers.

Not only can you use the application to view the relief maps you can add them to your own Google Maps. Maps-For-Free offers free relief maps and other additional layers which can easily be integrated into your own Google Map projects. 

A drop-down menu at the top of the map lets the user select from a number of relief map layers, including forest areas, swampland, tundra and many more. The application also includes a nice snapshot tool that allows you to define an area of the map and grab a still image. 

The Sunday Best of Google Maps

Room 77

Room 77 uses Google Earth to show you the view from hotel rooms across America. That in itself is enough to make it one of my favorite maps of the week. However Room 77 also includes an excellent ranking system for hotel rooms based on individual preferences for view, floor, distance from elevator and connecting rooms.

Crazy Boat: The Curse of the Trash Vortex

Two really great Google Maps games make it into my Sunday Best this week. Crazy Boat impressed me greatly with their use of map styles with the Google Static Maps API. The game is fun to play as well! 

Street View Zombie Apocalypse

This isn't the first zombie game I've seen that uses Street View. But it is probably the best. Great and intense zombie avoiding fun on Facebook.

Rain Alarm

If you are putting the washing out on the clothes-line then you might want to turn on Rain Alarm. Leave Rain Alarm on in the background and get a warning when it is about to rain.

Find a Yoga Teacher on Google Maps

iheartmyyogi

iheartmyyogi allows you to search for yoga teachers throughout the world from a Google Map.

It is possible to select a country from a drop-down menu, enter your postcode and select which yoga styles you are interested in learning. The results are then shown on a Google Map in a radius from your selected location.

When you view the details of a teacher you can click on the teacher's location and then view the driving directions from your home or office. If you register as a teacher, you can set your location by entering your address. iheartmyyogi will geocode your address and allows you to fine tune the location directly from the map.

Finding the Best Hotels with Google Maps

The Best City Hotels in the World

Last the week The Guardian published a Google Map mapping the newspaper's travel videos, called Video Breaks Around the World. This week they have created a Google Map highlighting the best city hotels in the world.

So far the paper has mapped out the best hotels in 32 cities across the world, 'hand-picked by locals and experts from San Francisco to Beijing'. The Guardian says it has plans to add more cities to the map in the future.

You can select to view a city's hotels from the drop-down menu in the map sidebar. If you then click on the individual hotel markers you can read The Guardian's review.

When Zombies Attack in Street View

Street View Zombie Apocalypse

Here's the plan, we take the car. Go to Mum's. Kill Phil, grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over ...

Zombies have taken over the world and, unlike in the movies, they seem to be able to run really fast. To survive you will need to outpace the converging hoardes of the undead in Google Maps Street View.

As you run around the streets in Street View you can view the approaching zombies in the inset Google Map. To stay alive you will need to outsmart them and avoid becoming trapped.

Oh, and if you want to pretend you are in Shaun of the Dead, try playing the game outside the location of The Winchester pub in the film (39 Monson Road, New Cross, London, England).

Also See

• PacMap from AppBrain - Play Pacman on real streets with this Android app.
• Zombie Outbreak Simulator - a Google Maps zombie game

Via: Street View Funny

A Room with a View on Google Maps

Room 77

Room 77 can help you book the hotel room with the best view. Using some pretty smart algorithms Room 77 is able to show you the view from different hotel rooms using images captured from Google Earth.

Using Room 77 you can check out the views from rooms in hotels in a number of US cities and in London. To show you the view Room 77 calculates the latitude, longitude, altitude and orientation of the room and shows you the view as seen in Google Earth. User submitted photos are also shown where available.

Room 77 uses Google Maps with an overlay of the hotel to allow you to see the view from different rooms within each hotel. The overlays allow you to select different room numbers and even allow you to select different floors in each hotel.

Room 77 even has its own ranking system for hotel rooms based on your individual preferences for view, floor, distance from elevator and connecting rooms. Each room is then shown on the Google Map with a color-coded match percentage indicating: "strong match" (green), "fair match" (yellow) and "weak match" (red).

Via: ReadWriteWeb

Google Maps Friday Fun

Google's satellite imagery update in London last week includes this amazing shot of an aircraft flying over Russell Square.

Via: Mapping London

Aus Hadeln left a comment to say he had also found this image of a plane approaching Heathrow in west London.

 

Travelling east along the same flight path, approaching Heathrow, I found this plane.



Where is Christchurch? The Map Game

The tragic news from Christchurch this week has ensured that everyone knows the location of New Zealand's second largest city. Or do they?

The Map Game asks you to find locations on a Google Map. Well actually not on the map, as that would be too easy, but on Google Maps satellite view. So do you know where Christchurch is?

Once you have found Christchurch you can donate to the New Zealand Red Cross at:

http://www.redcross.org.nz/donateOR

Artinfo - Google Maps Art

Artist Ben Joyce's paintings are inspired by the interesting satellite views he finds on Google Maps and Google Earth. Google liked his work so much that they recently asked him to show his work at their offices at Mountain View.

Artinfo have a nice slide show of Ben's work.

Mapping the Libyan Protests

Two Google Maps of the Libyan protests have been receiving a lot of press in the last few days.

Twitter user @Arasmus has put together a Google My Map called 
Mapping Violence Against Pro-Democracy Protests in Libya.

 

The map has been created by compiling reports from trusted accounts on Twitter. Arasmus says that each posting on the map is considered carefully before it is mapped. 

Arasmus seems to be working very hard to keep the map up-to-date and has been assiduously adding the latest news to the map for over a week now. 

Mibazaar's Middle East Protest Map lets you view the latest Twitter messages from the Middle East.



The map animates between the latest messages to be posted to Twitter from the Middle East. It is possible to view Tweets from the entire region or to select to view only Tweets from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya or Iran.

The Tweets are displayed at geotagged locations on the map at an interval of 5 seconds so the map provides an impressive means to view real-time updates across Libya.

National Broadband Maps

In the US The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released a National Broadband Map.



The map allows users to search broadband availability across the United States and compare real download speeds to advertised broadband performance. Users can also search by address to find the broadband providers in their area.

Inspired by the US National Broadband Map SurveyMapper has decided to ask UK internet users what their fastest broadband speed test reading has been.



So far the survey has received 13 thousand responses, the results of which can be viewed on a Google Map. In the UK you can also use Broadband StreetStats. This Google Map allows you to compare broadband speed and providers at your address. The map shows individual speed tests in your area undertaken by individuals on Top10.com.

New Zealand's National Broadband Map uses Google Maps to present broadband supply and demand data.



Using the map it is possible to search for demand points and view the network suppliers throughout New Zealand.

In Canada, Industry Canada uses Google Maps to show which internet service providers are available. Users can search the map by address and view the available broadband providers. If the data is incomplete for a particular address users can complete a short form to add information to the map.

Travel Suggestions with Google Maps

Wanderfly

Wanderfly is a new travel suggestion site. Tell Wanderfly where you are leaving from, how much money you have and the sorts of activities you are interested in and it recommends travel destinations based on your preferences.

Wanderfly will recommend flights and hotels. It will also recommend places to see and visit based on your activity preferences. Google Maps is used to show the location of each of your recommendations. 

5 great user-created maps chronicling Egypt

During the crisis in Egypt, third-party Geo developers helped the international community understand the situation and keep persons affected by the crisis safe through the use of innovative new tools. These same tools can be replicated by anyone in any crisis situation. In the developer examples below, three things jump out as particularly striking: How quickly these maps were built and put into action, some within hours of the first protests; how developers (many contributing independently) from all over the world worked together to get these maps up and running; and how geo-context has become extremely important for the international community in understanding and responding to any crisis, be it natural or man-made.

NY Times - Mapping the Protest in Cairo Day by Day

In this map, the New York Times has plotted the locations of the protests and clashes with police. There are also pictures, videos and contextual information provided in the icon info bubbles. 

Al Jazeera - Mapping the Day of Wrath

This website features a video illustrating the geographic spread of the protests using fly-over animations in Google Earth. The same webpage includes maps with information about protests in Cairo and throughout Egypt. 

Hypercities Egypt

Twitter’s real-time updates have become an invaluable tool for the Egyptian protest organizers, observers and citizens looking to stay safe. Hypercities Egypt used Google Maps to display geolocated tweets as they came streaming in. Also, view another Egypt Twitter map created by MiBazaar. 


GeoEye Tahrir Square Imagery

The imagery above is of Tahrir Square on January 29, 2011 at around 10:30am local time from more than 400 miles above. This imagery is exclusively viewable in Google Earth (and the Earth API) using the historical imagery tool. The imagery highlights GeoEye's stunning ability to respond to world events and capture timely imagery. 

Egypt Protests in Google My Maps by Storyful.com

During the crisis, many Geo developers and persons without a Geo developer background collaborated on Google My Maps to chronicle the events geographically as they unfolded, such as this one by Storyful. Using the My Maps tool, anyone with access to Google Maps could create a collaborative mash-up with custom icons, colored polygons, content rich info-bubbles and many other features. Once completed, the map can be shared globally through My Maps or embedded on a website. Access can also be restricted to a select group of people if need be. Learn more at http://maps.google.com/getmaps.

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How you can help: During a crisis situation, up-to-date maps are often crucial for organizing humanitarian aid and effective response. In many regions, however, accurate and local map data is sparse, out of date, or not available at all. You can add your geographic knowledge to Google Maps by contributing map edits in Google Map Maker, which is currently available inselect countries and territories.

Finding the right place when you need it

Over the past few months, we have launched several new mobile search features for iPhone and Android-powered devices that make it easier to find local businesses. In the US, we launched an “open now” feature which lets you filter local search results to show only businesses that are open right now, based on their listed hours. When you’re hankering for pizza at 1 o’clock in the morning, this can be really handy:

Other local search options available globally include filtering by star ratings (find a highly-rated restaurant for your first date) and by distance (especially handy when you’re on foot).

You may have noticed other improvements as well, like the addition of images, reviews from around the web and bigger buttons for viewing a map or calling a business directly. Each business’s open hours are also shown in the result snippets.

If you haven’t used local search recently, now is a great time to try it out. Just go towww.google.com in your browser, tap on the “Places” link at the top of the page, and do a search. You can also access these features when searching for businesses on Google Maps for mobile on Android devices.

Join us on the bridge for International Women’s Day 2011

I lead a global team at Google and travel extensively. When I speak about my work, the questions I get are often about the efforts we make to bring more women into engineering and how I maintain my work/life balance with two young children. These are very important questions, but I’m acutely aware that they reflect a certain amount of privilege when it comes to issues of women’s equality. Despite the incredible advances women have made in the last century, many around the world are still struggling to provide for their families and keep them safe amidst violence and instability.

For the past several years I’ve been part of a sponsorship program administered by Women for Women International, an organization dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. Every time I receive a letter from a woman I sponsor, each of whom is determined to improve her life despite the terrible odds she faces, I’m reminded of why it’s so important that we all—women and men alike—recognize the challenges women continue to face around the world.

That’s why I’m so excited to celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2011. This year Google is collaborating with Women for Women International on their “Join me on the Bridge” campaign. Originally conceived of by women from Rwanda and Congo as a sign of solidarity between women in two conflict-ridden countries, last year’s campaign brought together thousands of women and men at more than 100 bridge events on four continents.



This year we’re making it simple for you, your friends, your classmates and your colleagues to participate in bridge events on International Women’s Day by offering new online resources.

To attend a bridge event, check our map to see all the events that have already been planned. Or you can use our event toolkit to plan your own event on the bridge of your choice. You’ll see that there are two kinds of events—physical and online; if you’re not able to attend a bridge event in person on March 8, you can lend your support online by virtually attending an event via Street View in Google Maps.

Finally, on our International Women’s Day 2011 site, you can to donate to Women for Women International and more than 40 other incredible organizations working in the fields of women’s economic security, education, empowerment, equality, health and safety.

2010 Census Visualised on Google Maps

Census 2010 NJ by Moonshadow Mobile

Moonshadow Mobile have released a great Google Maps application to visualise the 2010 New Jersey census data.

This application visualizes some five million records. Using the application you can set filters, colors and generate heat maps. You can display census block lines, as well as County lines, Congressional, State House and State Senate districts. You can even zoom down to the census block level and download the actual census data for a block.

The Census Bureau will be releasing data for each state over the next five weeks and Moonshadow Mobile plan to publish Google Maps applications to visualise the data for a number of the states.

Chicago Tribune - 2010 Census: Illinois Population

This Google Map from The Chicago Tribune uses data from the 2010 census to show population changes in Illinois.

The heat map shows areas that have grown and shrunk in population in the last ten years. The map seems to show a general trend of population growing in the centre of Chicago but people moving out of the outer neighborhoods.

If you zoom in you can view the exact population change figures for each census tract.

Google Maps and Its Competitors

Buncha Maps

Map comparison sites always seem to be very popular. One of the most popular searches on Google Maps Mania seems to be for sites that let you view the different online map providers side-by-side.

Buncha Maps is a new application that lets you view Google Maps, Bing Maps, ESRI Maps and OSM all in the same window. Actions in all four maps are synchronised, so if you pan and zoom in any of the maps the other maps will also show the selected view.

Dual Maps

Dual Maps is a map creation tool that allows anybody to make an embeddable map that includes a Google Map, a Google Maps Street View and a Virtual Earth Bird's Eye view of the same location. You can choose between the various options of either map service, which means you can have the Google satellite view alongside Virtual Earth's Bird's Eye view or the satellite/aerial View in both maps etc..

Bird's Eye View

This map places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' Aerial View. You can view a number of locations with both map providers' oblique views.

Maps Compare

Maps Compare is a website with four different on-line map services on one page. The site places Google Maps, the Google Earth browser plugin, Yahoo Maps and Bing Maps beside each other, which can be quite useful if you want to compare the map coverage provided by each provider in different locations.

Where's the Path
Where's the Path displays Google Maps alongside the corresponding Ordnance Survey Maps.

GeoTribu 

GeoTrubu also has a comparison of Google Maps and OpenStreetMap and also shows Yahoo Maps and Bing Maps. The site allows you to select the base layer for each map.