Blog Archive

Friday, December 30, 2005

Prepare for New Year's Eve with these Google Maps mashups!

Still stuck for something to do this New Year's Eve? Don't be left out - try these maps mashups for places and ways to celebrate 2005 and ring in 2006!

Find Toronto Bars and Clubs - Here is a new bar and club listing map for the city of Toronto. Lists some of the best spots in the Entertainment District, as well as good nightspots along Queen Street. Links to the homepages of these clubs will help you find out what special tickets you may need to purchase for New Year's Eve.



New York City Bar and Subway Map - This previously mentioned Google Maps mashup and tool for NYC will help those of you celebrating in the Big Apple this New Year's Eve. Don't forget Alkemis Local to help you get around as well!

Chicago Bar and Transit Map - Find bars in close proximity to Chicago transit stops. Just choose the station stop and use the drop down menu to choose the bars that are nearby!






Other New Year's Eve Resources:

GChart.com world time (check the time for any location instantly!)
Transit mashups
Brooklyn New York bars
ClubFly - U.S. Gay and Lesbian Bars and Clubs
Drink Specials in Chicago and Milwaukee
World Tiki Bars
Pubs in Folkstone UK
Edinburgh UK Pub Guide
Pubs in Cambridge UK
Seattle Gay Bars and Clubs
U.S. webcam locator

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Thursday, December 29, 2005

Euro Google Maps Mashup Roundup

Ireland:
- Ireland Petrol Price Database
- Daft.ie (Ireland's largest property site) now uses Google Maps
[via]
France:
- 100 Mountain Biking tracks in the south of France

Germany:

- Netzwelt.de uses Google Maps

- ZACK Bookmaps

UK:
- Archeology Data Service integrates with Google Maps

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

StreetEasy.com New York City Real Estate mashup

StreetEasy.com is a new New York based Google Maps Real Estate search. Properties range anywhere from the $70,000,000 Penthouse at the Pierre to the Prewar Condo Duplex priced at a modest $39,900,000. Quick links from the main page bring you to: Most/Least Expensive, Recent Conversions, New Developments, Find My Building Top Manhattan zoned elementary schools: PS184, PS234, PS6, PS183, PS40, PS290 Or - Spend that bonus! Downtown, Upper East Side, Upper West Side

[via]

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Blockrocker.com mashes up Google Maps & Amazon

Blockrocker.com is a product of Rod Edwards from frigid Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He has mashed up Google Maps, Amazon ECS and has built in IP localization and customizable RSS feeds. The result is a totally free classified ad site with a web 2.0 twist. Using Google Maps for primary navigation, this allows to you search as local or as global as you'd like. You can also layer more traditional search parameters on top of your searching - categories, keywords, etc.. Another key feature is the ability to haul in product data from Amazon for posting ads in certain categories. For example, enter the UPC code of a DVD you want to sell, and pictures and product description info are added to your classified automatically. Finally, customizable geographic RSS feeds provide a means to stay on top of items for sale in your area, or add relevant classifieds to your community website. Example: OhMyCharlotte is a community website for Charlotte, NC, that uses a custom BlockRocker RSS feed to add classifieds posted in Charlotte to their website. The RSS feeds are also being picked up by FreeCycle groups as better means of staying in touch than email listservs.

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Monday, December 26, 2005

3 new U.S. nationwide mashups: Music Instruments, Running, Pow Wows

Find a Musical Instrument Retailer in your area - Here is a great Google Maps mashup intended to promote music and help local music instrument retailers in the U.S. It has been established by the Musical Merchandise Review.


USA Track & Field: Hundreds of Jogging Routes - USATF.org has used the Google Maps API to create a catalog of hundreds of running routes for across the U.S. - Search the database or add your own route. Here is an example using New York's Central Park "Full Loop" (I'm sure New Yorkers are too tired to run after the strike!)


North American Pow Wows - A Google Map of upcoming Pow Wows across the U.S. and Canada. There are impressive search filtering options on this map. (Wikipedia: Pow Wow)


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New Google Maps Mashups from Japan

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Google Maps Mashups from Japan


Yuuki Aki (A.K.A. "Akky") joins the Google Maps Mania team as our new contributor from Japan. Japan is experiencing the same Google Maps mashup explosion that the UK and North America is and Akky will be showing us maps that have been made using the API in this country. While most all of these maps will be in Japanese the English descriptions are aimed to inspire readers to develop similar maps in their own local language.

Cinema Theaters in Yurakucho - Theatre chain Eiga-seikatu (Movie-Life) has created a list of theaters in the area of Yurakucho, Tokyo. Yurakucho is in the vicinity of the Imperial Palace.


Japan Guesthouses - This Google Map lists inexpensive accommodation for all of Japan.


Japanese Dating Master Map - The website Date2.jp comes out as "Date Tu(two)" meaning "dating master" in Japanese. This website is a community site where people can exchange cool sights and restaurants for others going out on dates. They have used the Google Maps API to plot these locations for various cities (Tokyo, Yokohama and Odaiba).


Google Maps made to look like Google Earth - (Scroll down on this page to see the map screenshots) This is a map that I found that has the effect of a Google Earth view using flat maps from Google Maps. If anyone can tell more about the map and how it was made (from a Japanese website), please let me know.


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Thursday, December 22, 2005

New Google Maps mashups for Toronto

360 degree panoramic views of Toronto - 360Capture.com has created a Google Map of locations throughout the city of Toronto where you can interact with panoramic views of various locations. Dubbed the "See Toronto" project its aim is to promote tourism for the city. You can view the CN Tower, Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome), University of Toronto and Toronto City Hall (among others). (Hint: to view the CN Tower, choose the Metro Toronto Convention Centre pin and pan around).


Find a sweet shop in Toronto - YummyBaguette.com has created a "yummy" Google Map for the city of Toronto. It helps you locate bakeries, chocolate stores and ice cream stores.


Mississauga Real Estate Map - Mark Argentino has used the Google Maps API to plot his MLS listings to a Google Maps interface. I picked this up from Mark's real estate blog. Mark is definitely employing some innovative and low cost technologies for his personal marketing efforts.


Other Toronto Google Maps Mashups include:
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Google Maps News and Blog-Post Roundup

News:

Bloke finds self on Google Earth
The Register - Dec.20/05
New Yorkers cope with transit strike
C|Net News.com - Dec.20/05
Where in the World Is...
Wall Street Journal - Dec.19/05
RentSlicer.com Adds Google Maps Mash-up Functionality
PRWeb - Dec.19/05
Intranet Trends to Watch for in 2006
CIO Magazine - Dec.19/05
Web 2.0 mania revives dot-com investing
Seattle Times - Dec.19/05
Mapping mayhem: Around the world with Google Earth and Co.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - Dec.18/05
Google Verifies that GIS Is Media
GeoWorld Magazine - Dec.18/05
Google plots local map (Google is ramping up its operations in Australia)
AustralianIT - Dec.14/05
Trendsurfing: Map mash-ups
The Times (UK) - Dec.17/05
CEO Schmidt Test Runs Google Transit [via]
Forbes.com - Dec.8/05


Blogs:

Wall Street Journal Traffic Spikes
WebDevRef.com (Adam Howitt's Blog) - Dec.21/05
Google Earth censored in China?
OgleEarth.com - Dec.17/05
In the material world (Google Maps in Heathrow Airport)
Official Google Blog - Dec.15/05
Google Maps Fan Creates His Own TV Ad
MicroPersuasion.com - Dec.14/05
Taking the Mashups to the Server-Side
OpenEverything.com - Dec.14/05
Damn Canadians - Google Mapping imagery reveals "Maple B" invasion of US
Somethingsowrong.com - Dec.14/05


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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Google Maps Guide to New York Transit Strike

As New Yorkers scurry to find a way to get around in lieu of the transit strike, here is the essential guide to Google Maps mashups that will help you get around and brave the elements:

Updated (Dec.22/05):
New York Times: Reader's Stories on Google Maps
onNYTurf NY Subway Map informs of Dec. 22 protest


New York Times: A Google Maps Guide to Commuting - As part of their coverage of the Transit talks, the New York Times has integrated a Google Maps mashup into their site. It displays transit alternatives for each area of the city with extensive text explanation.


New York Traffic Cameras
- Alkemis Local provides a map of traffic cameras, A9 Blockviews and other local information. The Traffic cameras are of particular assistance during the strike.


Yahoo! New York City Traffic + Google Maps - Head over to this Google Maps mashup, enter New York City, then see all current traffic events and incidents. Data is pulled from Yahoo! Traffic.


Gas Prices in New York City - Punch up New York, New York and find out the present gas prices for New York City, or record the price if you know it to make this mashup even more useful for fellow New Yorkers that find themselves driving during the strike.


Other Resources:

RoadSummit.com - New York City area traffic
ZipCar Rentals - New York City
Google Ride Finder - New York City
WeatherBonk.com - New York City (includes live cams)

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4 New York City Google Maps Mashups!

Virtual New York City Tour - For the past 6 months Taher Baderkhan has been taking thousands of pictures and making use of a GPS device to bring together a Google Maps mashup that is similar to the A9.com blockview concept for New York City. The result is a unique virtual tour that lets you navigate in the city by walking forward, backward, and sideways using a Google Map as your guide. He has also added hundreds of descriptions for stores and historical sites. Take a walk to try it out!


Real Estate Advisor - Here is a new Real Estate Map for NYC that Curbed.com has tipped us off on. It allows you to search for housing listings across many different real estate firms' websites and plot them on one Google Map. Give it a try.. [via]


NYC Emergency Food Programs Map - A unique mapping project is underway using the Google Maps API by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, an umbrella group for New York's more than 1,100 charitable soup kitchens and food pantries. This project demonstrates a complimentary use of ArcGIS, ArcWeb Services, and the Google Maps API. You can search by zipcode or view a map of the entire city.


Brooklyn Community Google Map - Here is a Google Map for the Williamsburg & Greenpoint area of Brooklyn in New York. It contains a listing of bars and other establishments, as well as wifi locations and points to obtain Internet access.


More NYC mashups can be found here (NYC Transit maps are here)

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Monday, December 19, 2005

Saturday Night Live says Google Maps is the best!

Saturday Night Live music video says "Google Maps is the best" - Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg rapped it out in a music video that aired on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. Dubbed "Lazy Sunday", throughout the course of the rap song Google Maps gets a shout-out as the best way to get a map of directions for New York City when stacked up against MapQuest and Yahoo! Maps! Watch the video here..
[via]

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Google Maps Mania on G4TechTV's Call for Help


I recently made an appearance on the G4TechTV show "Call For Help" to talk about Google Maps Mania and share a few cool Google Maps mashups with host Leo Laporte and the rest of tvland. The show aired today in Canada and will most likely turn up on the U.S. and Australian airwaves in the weeks to follow. If you want to see what a funny looking guy I am or to see some of the my maps mashup picks, check the your local listings and tune in! Here are some of the mashups I mentioned while I was on the show:
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Google Maps: Canada Federal Election mashup

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The Google Maps API has been used to predict the outcome of the 2006 Canadian federal election. Pollstr.ca uses Google Maps, data from the previous federal election and current voter polls to plot predictions for each riding. Check it out..

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Google Maps Package Mapper

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Are hovering over the refresh button of your web browser asking FedEx.com if your Amazon package is going to arrive in time for Christmas? If you are, you might be interested in Oliver Steele's PackageMapper.com, that uses Google Maps to track packages that have been shipped using FedEx, UPS or the US Postal Service. You can instantly add a tracking number to plot it onto a Google Map or sign on to track a list of many packages at once. If you don't have a tracking number the site has some preset examples to show the site's functionality. This mashup may become your new best friend in the next week! :) [via]

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Sunday, December 18, 2005

Get into the 05-06 Bowl Games with these mashups!

StadiumNavigator.com, the site that organizes Google Maps views of North American sports stadiums, has a collection of map views for BCS Bowl Games which are set to start this week. Each location has links back to Google Maps mashup RoadSummit.com so you can see how to get around once you're there as well as other useful links to city information for the fans traveling to these locations. A list of NFL teams and stadiums is also now available on this site.

Mergetek.com has also gotten into the College Bowl Game act this year also by collecting a similar maps overlay. I would have to say the Mergetek.com map list is more focused on the at-home fan since it provides television coverage information. Mergetek.com has also organized a list of NASCAR track views as well.

See also: Bowl Championship Series Website

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New York Times: Know your neighbor

The New York Times Real Estate blog took notice of my post earlier this week about Matthew Kane's political donor Google map mashup. The map plots the names and addresses of donors, as well as how much they gave in the last U.S. federal election.

Damon Darlin writes:
"Do you want to be surrounded by neighbors who think just like you? Or do you prefer people with the opposite political views so you always have someone to argue with?" [read the full post]

Check out Damon's October '05 article covering Google Maps mashups here.

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Saturday, December 17, 2005

Google Maps Beer Hunter Goes All Ontario!

BeerHunter.ca launched last month to help Toronto residents locate the nearest beer, liquor or independent bottle shop. The Google Maps based service has expanded to include ALL LOCATIONS IN ONTARIO!
Data is aggregated from The Beer Store, LCBO, and various independent locations (micro breweries, wineries and grocery wine kiosks)

Features include: Locations by Ontario region, Search for a city, town or village (with direct URL's for these locations for easy bookmarking and linking), icon visuals instantly showing if the shop is open or closed, and store photos for some locations.

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Thursday, December 15, 2005

Google Maps World Triathlon Finder

Visual Triathlon Finder - TRImapper.com is a new Google Map that lets you locate triathlon races or triathlon races from around the world. The map lets you visually filter the triathlon races by the colored map markers. Other filtering options include race type (Ironman, Olympic, Sprint, Xterra, Kids), race month, and geographical locations. Features include links to the race website, nearby hotels and a zoom in to the race site. The site currently has over 375 races plotted on 6 continents.

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World Google Maps Mashups: Airports, Sunrises & Churches

World database of airports and airspace - Over 11,000 airports for every country (even in Antarctica.. is this the first Google Map for this location?) Maps surrounding airspace mapped out with a polyline on the Google Map.

World Sunrise/Sunset Times - Zoom in and click on any location on the map to get sunrise and sunset times for that location (Click 'Calcular'). Map interface is in Spanish but timetables are in English.


World database for the Church of Christ - This map is an extension of the text search tool that lets you find a Church of Christ for any location in the world.

Google Maps Topography Viewer

GISUser.com has tipped us off on the Google Maps Topography Viewer which has been used to create the following Google Maps tools:


[via]

Toronto Star Google Maps mashup: GTA Traffic Info

The Toronto Star has just released their latest Google Maps mashup: GTA Traffic Information. (Just in time for the snow storm that's happening there right now)



Check out other Toronto Star mashups:
2005 Toronto Homicides
Alicia Ross Case

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Google Mapping U.S. election donors

Taken from the following news release: Matthew Kane, an Indiana University School of Informatics doctoral student, has devised a program that identifies donors, their addresses and the amounts they gave to candidates and the Republican and Democratic national committees during the 2004 presidential elections. That information can be accessed by the public on a Web site (using Google Maps) Kane has created.

More from the story: The idea grew out of an assignment Kane received in a security class he was taking with Markus Jakobsson, Ph.D., associate professor and associate director of the IU Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. The assignment was to extract information that people consider private, but actually is public record.

The donor information was extracted from the nonprofit Fundrace Project, an on-line resource that details and maps donors'’ information derived from records on file with the Federal Election Commission from the 2004 elections.

In Kane's view, the tool he created has a more practical use. It could be used by campaign strategists to know which ZIP codes or areas of a ZIP code are swing-vote areas that should receive attention versus those areas that are clearly Republican-dominated or Democrat-dominated.”
[ Read the full news release.. Check out the map tool here.. ]

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Google Maps: Boston Crime

Adam Gaffin has created the newest crime map for a U.S. city. He has created a tool which plots on a Google Map where violent crimes across Boston has taken place.

Here is more about his experience in creating the map:

But first, a rant about my beloved home: Boston must be the absolute WORST city in America in which to try something like this, because it's really an amalgamation of old swallowed-up towns, none of which changed their street names when they were annexed, so you wind up not just with three Washington streets but three 60 Washington streets, making it incredibly time consuming to find the longitude and latitude where things happened. I fed 500+ violent-crime addresses into Yahoo's mapping API (congrats to Yahoo for exposing it!) - I didn't keep track of how many of the coordinates came back wrong but I spent a good part of last weekend looking things up by hand on geocoder.us (the data I got from the Boston PD lists precincts where the crimes occurred, but not Zip codes, so at least I was able to figure out when a crime was committed in the South End, rather than Dorchester and then use that information to select from the three or four options presented by geocoder.us, ugh).

More Google Maps Crime Maps:

New Google Maps U.S. Traffic Camera Locator

Here is a new Google Maps live traffic camera view mashup that plots exact camera vantage points. Thus far the list includes: Detroit, Miami, Seattle, Des Moines, and Las Vegas with more being added all the time.

Other Google Maps traffic resources include:
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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

More Google Maps mashups for Canada!

(See previous Canadian maps round-up here..)

Keep track of Canadian gas prices - KeepTrackofIt.com is a Canadian gas finder that lets you track the current gas price at 1730 stations around the country. Information about each station includes the price, date added and station address and details. Become a member and share a price in your area! (Start at the "Make a Selection" drop down menu) [via]


Property search for Greater Toronto Area (GTA) - GrassIsGreener.ca lets you search for Toronto real estate listings on an interactive Google Map. Search houses or condos by price range and number of bedrooms. Search results are plotted by location on the map.


Vancouver area rental property search - ByBCRental.com has integrated Google Maps functionality into their rental property search for Vancouver and surrounding area. The viewing interface basically allows you to list the properties on the map (complete with photo), then link off to the feature sheet for each listing. [via]


Charlottetown, PEI Transit Map - I've mentioned this transit map in the past but recent updates and side bits deserve another. When I posted about this map some months ago only a few routes were mapped. Since that time Peter Rukavina has been active in the Google Maps world by updating the transit map, then sharing his map making methods with the web community. He has gotten numerous mentions around the blogosphere for this. Well done Peter! (Check out all his Google Maps posts here)


Restaurants near the University of Calgary - Here is a wiki that has organized a listing of all restaurants in and around the University of Calgary. It has links out to Google Local to map these same restaurants.

Check out my previous Canadian Google Maps Roundup here. Do you know of others in Canada? Please post a comment or contact me to share!

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XBox360 Locator Google Maps Dec. 18th shipment

Back on November 21st I told you about the Google Maps based XBox360 Locator. It allowed you query Best Buy's stock levels for the arrival of the new gaming system. That Google Maps mashup has undergone an update. Here is more from the site:

Score an Xbox 360 at Best Buy next week!

Before the Xbox 360 launched, we hosted an application allowing people to find out how many consoles their local Best Buy stores had received in the first Xbox 360 shipment. Now, we are doing the same, but for the upcoming December 18th shipment! BestBuy seems to be getting the largest allocations out of any retail channels, but you'll definitely want to line up at least a few hours early, if not the night before! Try it out!

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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Getting into Christmas with Google Maps!

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Find a Christmas tree in New York City - If live in NYC and have been putting off getting a Christmas tree, this Google Map will give you no more excuses. Self-created at Wayfaring.com, this Google Map maps locations of places to get a Christmas tree this December in the Big Apple.
[via]




Community Christmas light displays - The Register-Guard newspaper in Eugene Oregon has integrated a Google Map into their website which shows locations for Christmas light displays in the community. User-submitted or staff photos would make this even cooler, or even a reader-rank of the best home light display. This is another innovative use of the Google Maps API in journalism!

Do you know of more Holiday/Christmas-related mashups? If so, please post comment or contact us!

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