Friday, December 24, 2010
Track Santa's journey in Google Earth
By the time you read this, Santa will have already begun his journey around the world, starting around 2:00am EST today. His journey will be tracked using a variety of methods including satellites, radar and fighter jets.
You can view the main Santa tracker here
If you missed the chance to watch his journey last year, here is a highlight reel that Google has put together:
There are a lot of great ways to follow him on his journey, thanks to the folks at NORAD and some help from Google:
Watch his progress on Google Maps. Visit noradsanta.org to see a map of his location and his next scheduled stop.
• Watch him fly by using the Google Earth Plug-in. Visit the "Track in Google Earth"
• Follow his progress on your phone. Search for [santa] in Google Maps for Mobile, or visitm.noradsanta.org from your phone to track his progress while you're on the go.
• Follow him on other services, such as his YouTube channel, Twitter account andFacebook Page.
Also, Google has built a variety of custom online holiday cards for you to send to your family and friends. You can see them all at googlemapsholidays.appspot.com. It uses a fun combination of winter images and Google Maps to create a fun card for you to send.
Pegmans Gets A Hat
Pegman gets a Christmas hat for the weekend?http://goo.gl/maps/jAgL
Predictions - 2011 will bring,
A new perspective to old fashioned raster maps... with the help of HTML5.
OpenStreetMap will go mainstream... more so than at present.
AddressPoint (UK Postal Address locations) become more accessible without huge costs.
Fusion Tables SPATIAL will improve vastly.
Best of 2010 mapping
Opendata from Ordnance Survey. (No April Fools there)
Ovi Maps downloads maps via wifi to phone (no more Ovi Suite!)
Bing Maps Apps more usable adding OpenStreetMap.
MapQuest pump $1million in Open Source Data.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday geonews delayed... happy holiday break to all!
A quick note to wish our users a great holiday break. Geonews will be sporadically published in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, you can still submit them. We'll be back at full speed in January.
MapQuest Introduces Open.Mapquest.com
The official MapQuest blog introduces open.mapquest.com.
From the announcement: "After the successful launches of 10 open-sourced maps in Europe and Asia in partnership with OpenStreetMap (OSM), MapQuest is proud to launch its U.S. site located at Open.Mapquest.com. [...] Open.Mapquest.com provides the same features as our 10 sites in Europe and Asia, and also debuts a new error-reporting tool (which has been added to all of MapQuest’s open sites). For many, this tool may be their first step in becoming OSM contributors."
New Poll on 2011 and Poll Results on The Future of the Shapefile Format
About time we change our front page poll. The new poll asks you about what 2011 in geospatial will be like.
The results and comments on the poll about the future of the Shapefile formatare pretty interesting. Out of 347 answers, 35% believe the shapefile will stay with us forever and 25% believe SpatiaLite will become the choice of many. Otherwise, it's pretty mixed results, 13% admit they don't know, 11% think that web services will eventually replace flat files, 8% think the GML standard will become widely used, the same amount of people believe ESRI's Geodatabase format will eventually replace the shapefile format. Please also take a look at the insightful comments shared by our users for that poll.
Living in Toronto, Looking for a Condo
TheRedPin
TheRedPin is Toronto and the GTA's first one-stop condo destination, where condo buyers can find all project details, such as floor plans, amenities, model suites and more. On top of the project details, buyers also have access to a wealth of neighbourhood information, such as nearby schools and daycares, investment stats and neighbourhood amenities.
You can search for a condo using TheRedPin Google Map. You can search by location, price and by number of bed and bathrooms. TheRedPin also uses Google Maps to provide local amenity information as well as sales office directions for each condo project
TheRedPin is Toronto and the GTA's first one-stop condo destination, where condo buyers can find all project details, such as floor plans, amenities, model suites and more. On top of the project details, buyers also have access to a wealth of neighbourhood information, such as nearby schools and daycares, investment stats and neighbourhood amenities.
You can search for a condo using TheRedPin Google Map. You can search by location, price and by number of bed and bathrooms. TheRedPin also uses Google Maps to provide local amenity information as well as sales office directions for each condo project
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Local News & Events with Google Maps
EveryMap
Australian website EveryMap is a local report website that allows people to share what is happening or has happened locally.
Users of EveryMap can submit reports on anything from upcoming local events, local news, problems that need fixing to their favourite bars and restaurants. Submitted reports are then added to a Google Map.
It is possible to search the reports posted to the map by category and by time. EveryMap includes a very useful timeline function that allows you to adjust the reports shown on the map by a starting and closing date.
Finding Hiking Trails with Google Maps
TrailHeadFinderTrailHeadFinder, the hiking trail directory, has released a mobile version of its Google Map of trails and campgrounds.
Using the application from your phone it is possible to find the nearest trails and camping grounds to your nearest location.
The difficulty of trails are indicated by the colour of the map marker on the map. Red markers indicate strenuous trails, yellow markers show intermediate trails and green markers show that the trail is fairly easy.
________________
Labels: Google Maps for Mobile
Australian Budget Travel with Google Maps
Aus-emaps.com - Tourism Map
A report (PDF) published by aus-emaps.com shows where to find the cheapest holiday accommodation in each state and territory in Australia. The report is accompanied by an online Google Map illustrating the report's findings.
The report is particularly useful for budget conscious travellers who could make substantial savings if they aren't fixed on specific locations. For example, in Queensland, Fraser Coast north of Brisbane offers much better prices than adjoining Sunshine Coast (which is almost 50% more expensive) and the Gold Coast (approximately 35% more expensive).
The researchers examined average takings per night by accredited accommodation service providers in each tourism region around Australia and mapped out the results. The outcome is a colourful map matrix that highlights regions with both the cheapest and the most expensive accommodation.
On a state and territory basis, Tasmania has the cheapest accommodation while the Australian Capital Territory is comparatively the most expensive ($128 and $163 respectively). The cheapest region in Australia goes to Victoria's Wimmera region, which has an average accommodation cost of just $83.82 per night. Close second is South Australia's Yorke Peninsula ($85.36), followed by Northern Territory's Barkly ($87.98), Victoria's Upper Yarra ($90.48) and Outback NSW ($93.14).
A report (PDF) published by aus-emaps.com shows where to find the cheapest holiday accommodation in each state and territory in Australia. The report is accompanied by an online Google Map illustrating the report's findings.
The report is particularly useful for budget conscious travellers who could make substantial savings if they aren't fixed on specific locations. For example, in Queensland, Fraser Coast north of Brisbane offers much better prices than adjoining Sunshine Coast (which is almost 50% more expensive) and the Gold Coast (approximately 35% more expensive).
The researchers examined average takings per night by accredited accommodation service providers in each tourism region around Australia and mapped out the results. The outcome is a colourful map matrix that highlights regions with both the cheapest and the most expensive accommodation.
On a state and territory basis, Tasmania has the cheapest accommodation while the Australian Capital Territory is comparatively the most expensive ($128 and $163 respectively). The cheapest region in Australia goes to Victoria's Wimmera region, which has an average accommodation cost of just $83.82 per night. Close second is South Australia's Yorke Peninsula ($85.36), followed by Northern Territory's Barkly ($87.98), Victoria's Upper Yarra ($90.48) and Outback NSW ($93.14).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)