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

Brazilian Street View Collections

Strit Viu

Strit Viu has been created to collect the best Street View images found in Brazil. The site allows users to submit the funny or memorable images they find in Street View and share them with the world.

You can search the submitted Street Views by location or by rank. Strit Viu also plans to add categories soon, so you will also be able search the images by tag.

Via: Street View Funny

Also See

• http://www.sampaview.com (São Paulo)
• http://www.riostreetview.com (Rio de Janeiro)
• http://www.bhnomapa.com (Belo Horizonte)

Dublin Journey Planner on Google Maps

Hit the Road

Hit the Road is a route planner for Dublin that shows you how to get between any two points in the city by bus, Luas and DART routes.

It is possible to find a route by either dropping map markers on the map to show your start and finish points or by entering addresses in the search boxes. Possible routes are then displayed on the map and the steps on the journey are displayed in the map side panel.

Alternative routes are indicated by numbered icons in the side panel. If you roll over one of these icons the alternate route is automatically displayed on the map. All the suggested routes tell you which number buses to take and give the estimated journey time.

Australian Demographics on Google Maps

NuMaps

NuMap is a Google Maps based application to view and analyse demographic data for any Australian Federal Government Electorate.

Using the map it is possible to view a large number of demographic datasets for any Federal electorate. To start exploring the data you first need to choose an electorate from the myElectorate Panel. Once you have selected an electorate it will be highlighted on the map. You can then open the DemographicDrapes Panel and select the demographic data that you wish to view.

You can use the DemographicDrapes panel to analyse different aspects of your chosen electorate. The datasets include gender, housing, income, birthplace and many more.

Penguins on Street View

Antarctica 360 Street View

Google's new release of Street View last week included some stunning shots of Antarctica - and there are penguins!

I've thrown together this little application to show an automatic 360 pan of just one of the Street View images shown. When you load the page the Street View will rotate automatically. If you want to explore using Street View just press the stop button and navigate using the Street View arrows. 

World Map 12th Century

Description: World map made in 1190 by the German or Burgundian theologian Honorius Augustodunenesis, also known as Honorius of Autun.

Viewing the Big Picture with Google Maps

Big Picture Small World

The Big Picture Small World is a mashup of Boston.com's The Big Picture and Google Maps. The map uses the Yahoo! Query Language to grab the RSS feed of Boston.com's Big Picture series and to map the pictures on Google Maps.

The locations of the pictures are determined by the image captions and not by any geographical metadata in the images. This is pretty accurate in most cases but does lead to some of the images being mapped in the wrong location. 

The picture collections that are mapped include some amazing photographs of the Earth taken from the International Space Station, pictures of India preparing for the Commonwealth Games, photographs from Oktoberfest and many more.

The Yahoo! Query Language is a powerful tool to query and filter data from websites. If you are looking to build a Google Map based on data from websites that don't provide an API but provide reasonable RSS feeds it is well worth having a look at the javascript of this map to see how it works.