Blog Archive

Monday, April 30, 2007

19 New European Google Maps Mashups!

Czech Republic: Prague 360

Explore the beautiful city of Prague using this great Google Maps mashup (translated into 18 languages) Features city highlights with a nice Flash panoramic viewer. This is definitely one to check out! (More Czech Republic Google Maps mashups here..)Across Europe:
Recent Google Maps Mania posts:
Many of the mashups contained in this post were found on the ProgrammableWeb Google Maps feed.
Posted by Pracas at 9:29 PM 0 comments
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7 New Google Maps Mashups for Spain

Spain: Great Andalucía Tourism Mashup - This mashup has a great user interface with weather, 3D photos and other points of interest..

Spain: Andalucía Education Mashup - School search for Andalucía, Mallorca
Spain: Balearic Islands Mashup (English) - Two cities featuring Google Maps: Alcúdia, Mallorca and Badia de Sant Antoni, Ibiza
Spain: Turismo Google - Satellite sightseeing site with detailed descriptions
Spain: Rural Tourist Homes - Spanish rural home rental site using Google Maps
Spain: Property Information - Details of all properties (lands and homes) registered in Spain (year of construction, square meters, type of property, address, etc..)

For all previous Spain Google Maps mashup posts follow the "Spain" label below:
Posted by Pracas at 8:15 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, April 28, 2007

Google Maps Mania Weekend Links

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Welcome to Google Maps Mania!



Welcome to Google Maps Mania! If this is your first time here.. Welcome! This is a blog that covers all the cool new Google Maps mashups, tools and applications being created by people all over the world. Posts also cover features and additions to Google Maps itself such new mapping data being added, new features and so on.

Here are some cool mashups to get you started:
Some other places to check out while you're here:

Mashups and Tools Index - A long list of mashups by category
Mashups By Country - Collections of mashups by specific country
Special Features - Special posts of collections of mashups (travel, music etc..)
Media & Blog Mentions - What the press and blogosphere have to say about this blog
Posted by Pracas at 7:30 PM 0 comments

Google Maps update for: Russia, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania!

Google Maps Mania readers from around the world are noting updates to Google Maps in several countries worldwide today! Here is the rundown of countries that are seeing updates:

In some cases there are enhancements to the road/street maps that were there previously (Greece for example) and for some countries streets and roads are completely new (Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey) This update of streets, roads and other points of interest will have a huge impact on users of Google Maps in these areas. It means that satellite imagery is now more relevant and easier to identify when "sightseeing" using the hybrid map view toggle. In addition, Google's new My Maps map creation tool is now instantly available for millions of people to begin creating and sharing interesting maps for these countries!

Know of other countries seeing updates or want to leave some feedback? Post a comment! :)

[Thanks to Scott Dexter for the tip!]

For other recent feature and functionality updates to Google Maps, click on the "Google Maps" label below:

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Posted by Pracas at 5:18 AM 0 comments
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8 New US Google Maps Mashups

A Big Box Mashup - BigBoxWatch is a blog that "tracks new retail construction of several national retailers within the United States." This blog makes use of a Google Maps mashup as a key part of presenting this information, by geography, throughout the U.S. BigBoxWatch pulls information from newspapers, planning board agendas, and other sources to show new planned locations for Best Buy, Home Depot, Ikea, JCPenney, Kohl's, Lowe's, Target and Wal-Mart stores. As creator Tom Sullivan puts it; "Think of it as a future store locator."

Google My Maps used to plot spread of Georgia wildfires - With wildfires spreading fast in the community of Waycross, Georgia Google user Will Dewitt is pulling information posted to this message board together to build and maintain a Google My Map of specific locations seeing fire related activity. If you jump ahead to the 3rd page of map points you'll see the points displaying the current situation there. It's a great example of how My Maps can be used to quickly inform people about a local emergency taking place.

US Red Light Camera Map - All known red light cameras in the US, totally over 3300 points on a Google Map.

Virginia Tech: In Memoriam - A Google Map which places locations and life tributes for each unfortunate victim in the recent VT incident. The map pins indicate the hometowns for each person.

Baseball's most valuable teams.. mapped - From a recent Forbes Magazine story.

CoolWorks Job Map - Mapping seasonal jobs at National Parks, summer camps, ski resorts and ranches in some of the coolest places in the country.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Mapquest Job Mashup - Mapping jobs from each of these companies.

Plastic Surgeons on Google Maps - Find yourself a plastic surgeon by state, city or zip code.
Posted by Pracas at 4:55 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Homer Simpson on Google Maps

Homer Simpson on Google Maps:


More new Google Maps links:
Posted by Pracas at 3:45 AM 0 comments
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Monday, April 23, 2007

More New Google Maps Mashups for Canada!

New for Toronto:
Speed Traps in the GTA - Check the mashup, then let off on the gas! :)

More Toronto Google Maps mashups from XYYZ.ca:
Dog Parks
Red Light Cameras
Brewery tours
Ravine runs

Illegal billboards in Toronto - A mashup of all locations where illegal signs and billboards exist, complete with photos.

Toronto.com uses Google Maps - Check out the related points of interest near Toronto.com restaurant and business listings. In this example (Kwangtung Dim Sum Restaurant) other Restaurants, Hotels, Bars & Clubs, Attractions, Cinemas, Shopping, Sports & Recreation, TTC Subway and Green P Parking is all noted on a Google Maps interface. Nice mashup by Toronto.com!

Other Toronto Google Maps Mashups here.. (scroll down the page)

New Housing Mashups:

MyHood - Takes apartment listings from NOW Magazine, Craigslist and other sources and mashes it all up with locations of TTC subway stations, GO stations and grocery stores around the GTA.
Realosophy Helps home buyers research the neighbourhoods (nearest schools, restaurants, fitness centers or doctor’s offices) School report cards and geo-coded neighbourhood boundaries and profiles (from Wikipedia) for over 150 neighbourhoods in Toronto and Vancouver.
Rent-Index - Google Maps rental listings for: Calgary Laval Montreal Ottawa Toronto Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Quebec South Shore of Mtl (Montérégie-Sud) Vancouver Winnipeg
EstateMaps - Google Maps Real Estate for (all in Ontario):
Kingston Amherstview Gananoque Napanee Leeds and the Thousand Islands Central Frontenac Loyalist South Frontenac Stone Mills North Frontenac

New Canadian Transit Mashups:

Google Map of Montreal Metro:

Other Canadian Transit Mashups:

Other Cities & Across Canada:

Plant a Daffodil on a Google Map for the Canadian Cancer Society:


Hamilton Spectator uses Google My Maps to display city police blotter:

The Hamilton Spectator newspaper is using Google's new My Maps service (a way to create your own Google Maps mashup) to display locations of crime incidents in the previous week. They are linking to the map from this section of their online edition. [Thanks Ted!]


Check here for more previously mentioned Canadian Google Maps Mashups.. (Scroll down the page)
Posted by Pracas at 2:35 PM 0 comments
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Friday, April 20, 2007

Google Maps Creation Tools - Part 13


Attention Google Maps API Developers! Want to expand your knowledge of the Google Maps API by hearing from Google product managers and engineers? Maybe you want to start to learn more about KML as it continues to become a ubiquitous part of Google Maps and Earth. Google welcomes you to join them for a day in one of 10 cities worldwide for the Google Developer Day 2007. These world locations include: Mountain View, California, Sao Paulo, Brazil, London, United Kingdom, Paris, France, Madrid, Spain, Hamburg, Germany, Moscow, Russia, Tokyo, Japan, Sydney, Australia or Beijing, China. I attended the (Geo) Developer Day last June in Mountain View, California and it was a day I'll never forget; meeting lots of great people, learning tons about the Google Maps API and taking in the Google campus. This is a great event and that if you can make, I strongly encourage you to attend!

Google My Maps (See tab on the left) - The latest Google Maps creation tool is straight from the Google Maps site itself! Now you can create your own Google Maps mashup by pointing and clicking you way through the great My Maps web interface. If you have long been wanting to create your own map after looking at the countless mashups I've mentioned here on Google Maps Mania, here's your chance. Once you've create a My Map, check this post for additional tools to help you embed your My Maps creation into your blog or website or share it with others. Embed Google 'My Maps' is one more addition to this list.

Google Maps Creation Tools and Resources:

Creating Dynamic Client-side Maps Mashups with Google Spreadsheets - In this Google Maps API Blog post Pamela Fox explains how you can use Google Docs & Spreadsheets as a data source to create Google Maps mashups. Using an example Google Spreadsheet of Seattle restaurants Pamela shows you how to use a nifty "Spreadsheets->Map" wizard to automagically mashup the spreadsheet and create a Google Map.

..More from the Google Maps API Blog:
More Google Maps Creation Tools:
For more past Google Maps Creation Tools Post click the creationtools label below:

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Posted by Pracas at 7:01 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, April 19, 2007

11 great new US Google Maps Mashups!

Google Maps + Ed.gov = Map of all US accredited schools:

David Glasser has created a map based search tool called The EDU Map to help you "locate your future". It takes the database of schools found from the U.S. Department of Education website and mashes it up with Google Maps in a simple and useful mashup to help you find *any* accredited school in the US. It's actually quite surprising how many schools there are in a given city. For primary schools try this mashup. [Found via ProgrammableWeb]

Google My Maps Mashup: DC Taxi Zones:

[via]

Google Maps Mashup of US Tornado Paths - Just in time for the 2007 tornado season the University of Michigan AOSS department is offering a new website for exploring tornado paths. The paths of all tornadoes from 1950-2005 (so far) can be viewed. When you click on one of the tornado icons you will see a place to add information and you can "Fly the Path", which throws you into Google Earth for a 3D tour of the tornado's path showing nearby schools.

Mashup for weekend trips around major cities:

71Miles.com is a new domestic travel site that uses Google Maps to help you plan weekend trips. I'm really liking the use of the "Expand Map/Shrink Map" creating a really nice, seamless integration of Google Maps into the design of the main page. Google Maps is also used throughout the site for every destination that's covered. For now the site has launched for only Northern California but soon it will include Washington DC, New York and more, along with some "interesting uses of KML" apparently on the way as well.

More US-based Mashups:
Posted by Pracas at 4:41 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

New Google Maps World Video Travel Mashup



Venividiwiki (meaning "I went, I saw, I share") is a great new travel resource for those of you traveling within Europe or to places all over the world. It mashes up with points of interest databases and lists for things like activities, events, places, parks cultural places (some 50 categories can be toggled on/off). Points are plotted on the map and when selected display a video for that location (TurnHere, YouTube and DailyMotion) as well as an information tab giving more details and links for that location. (Think Wikimapia with embedded videos) New points of interest tha tyou want to create can be done so quickly and without user registration making this a collaborative mashup that gets fueled by its community. It's a fun mashup to explore the world using Google Maps and web video.. Check it out!

Related:
Lonely Planet innovates using Google Maps
Cool Google Maps Travel Mashups
Category Listing: Travel & Tourism
Posted by Pracas at 5:11 AM 0 comments
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Monday, April 16, 2007

Google Maps Mania links for 2007-04-16

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Friday, April 13, 2007

Ongopongo is Digg for Google My Maps mashups

Ongopongo - With the addition of My Maps last week the number of new Google Maps mashups has increased exponentially (just as it did when sites like CommunityWalk and Platial launched). Through my regular combing of posts for content throughout the blogosphere I've noticed all kinds of bloggers posting links to a new My Maps mashup they have created.

As this new wave of mashup mania continues to mount one site is helping to create a way to add, find and vote on the best new My Maps mashups,a s well as general Google Maps mashups created using the API and other Creation Tools. Now in addition to Google Maps Mania you can check out Ongopongo to see what maps mashups have the most number of votes, just like a Digg or Techmeme service does for more general web finds. If you've created a Google My Map - Add it to Ongopongo! :)

Embed your Google My Maps into your blog or website - One of the most popular type of comments seen on blogs posting about My Maps this past week is the request to enable a way for My Maps to be embedded into a blog or website. Rob McMahon of MashedWorld has created My Maps Plus to address this. My Maps Plus creates embeddable code for websites / blogs. Rob notes this this definitely a stop-gap: "It can be awkward to save then copy/paste the KML data but until Google supply permalinks to the KML file it's the best I could do." Try it out and provide feedback to Rob if you have any.

My Maps integrated into Blogger: Racing Track Maps - Vidal De Wit also shows that integrating a Google My Map into Blogger can be done. Drop him a line if you want to know how this was done.

Do you have a site that you've created that adds to the My Maps ecosystem? If so, post a comment at the bottom!
Posted by Pracas at 5:21 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Google Maps adds 2.5D Buildings and Structures

A while back I posted about the addition of grey building and structure outlines viewable by toggling to the "Map" view of Google Maps. A few days ago the Geo group at Google has taken this feature a step further by enhancing the dimensional look of these buildings and structures. Previously building structures appeared in a flat format. This has now been improved to a sort of "2.5 D" effect.

To illustrate the update, here is what was visible before (and still is at zoom level 3-4):


..Now look at the same location with the enhanced transparent 2.5D buildings (viewable at zoom levels 1 & 2):


The update has been applied to approximately 38 US cities, so get on Google Maps, zoom right down onto levels 1 and 2 and take a look around! While you're there why not create a "My Maps"mashup of historical buildings or your favorite building architecture with your own photos or digital video to add some life to these new 2.5D buildings?!

Related:
Google Sketchup
Posted by Pracas at 10:15 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

3 new US real-time land, sea and air Google Maps mashups

US Incident Map - Here is a new Google Map that mashes up data from police, fire, 911, highway patrol and other sources to display emergency incidients from around the US. The map displays the most recent incidents, allowing you to drill down to enter your own zip code to view your area. [via]


US Coastal Tides Maps Mashup - CoastAndSea.com features a very detailed tide and weather data mashup for all coastal areas around the US. It features tide charts and tables, weather radar maps and forecasts and live data which is pulled from actual channel markers and buoys bouncing around in the water.

Aviation Weather Maps Mashup - Pilots take note, this is the Google Maps weather mashup for you! What an interface! Airports are plotted with detailed information displayed such as current weather conditions observed at that location. The map itself features layers that can be toggled on and off including NexRad weather overlays and current turbulence for that area. Geo developer Peter Buckner informs us that "some of the data is available US only, but most is available internationally."
Posted by Pracas at 5:40 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Google Maps US Sickness Mashup

Wondering if that flu you have is something that's going around? WhoIsSick.com is a new Google Maps mashup that is focused on bringing heath information to the public by tracking and monitoring current and local sicknesses.

Visit WhoIsSick to filter those who are sick in your area by sickness, symptoms and other data points that people have entered themselves on the site. The resulting mashup provides a current local health snapshot (depending on user participation in that area) and also would let parents, teachers etc get an idea of what sicknesses are affecting their area. WhoIsSick gives you many tools to search and analyze the data that is collected as well. Be sure to let this mashup know when your next cold or flu breaks to make it more useful for those in your community!

Related:
HealthMap - Worldwide disease outbreak Google Maps mashup
Posted by Pracas at 7:14 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, April 5, 2007

Google My Maps Mania!

After the launch of "My Maps" on Google Maps (A Google tool which lets ANYONE create a Google Maps mashup in minutes) the web and blogosphere is abuzz with video, news, posts, and best of all new maps created by people using My Maps! :)

First, My Maps.. (Not mine - Yours!) ;)

Here is a list of My Maps created by Googlers (Google employees) from all over the world when the new feature was released internally before the public launch. Google Maps product manager Jess Lee cites these examples in her post announcing My Maps on the Official Google Blog:
  • The Googleplex: A photo essay on life at the Google headquarters in Mountain View



Singapore Future Marina Bay:

..I'll post more interesting My Maps as they appear but in the meantime if you think you have a killer My Map you'd like to share with others reading Google Maps Mania - POST A COMMENT with a link and details about your map!

Google My Maps are easy (DEAD EASY) to use allowing you to make Google Maps mashups of your own. C|Net's Elinor Mills takes you on a tour of My Maps in way a detailed blog post just can't do.. My advice - If you want to see what all the fuss is about, BEFORE trying My Maps, watch this video. After you're done, you will have the mapping itch. :)

For more of C|Net's coverage check out their story here:
Google makes mashups easy, even for me (with an image gallery)

For more assistance, check out the The Google My Maps User Guide

More News and Blog coverage:

Google Earth Blog: My Maps and Google Earth (plus some very insightful commentary on the addition of My Maps)

Washington Post: Google Turns to Users for Online Maps

GigaOm Blog: Google MyMaps Smashes Mash-ups
Posted by Pracas at 7:30 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, April 4, 2007

New Google Maps feature: "My Maps" (Build your own maps mashup)

: My Maps (New!)

Today is a huge day for the Google Maps mashup ecosystem!

Google has just released a new Google Maps feature called "My Maps" which will allows users to easily create a Google Maps mashup with a few clicks, right from Google Maps! You can reach My Maps by visiting http://maps.google.com then look for the new "My Maps" tab on the left side. My Maps is being launched for Google Maps in the US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Japan and Australia.

My Maps has an easy to use interface that will allow you to:
  • Annotate points on a Google Map with text, photos, or YouTube/Google Videos (even HTML for further customization)
  • Draw lines and shapes to show routes and regions
  • View maps created in My Maps on Google Earth
  • Search for businesses on Google Maps and add them to My Maps


Google users can share the map with other users privately by email or choose to make their maps public, which will then be accessible through Google Maps search, along with maps shared by other web sites in the KML format. Maps you have created (and viewed) can be conveniently managed from a control panel when signed into your Google account.

Go on.. Get mapping!

Related:
Official Google Maps Blog Post: Map-making: So easy a caveman could do it
News Coverage on the My Maps launch
Posted by Pracas at 10:15 PM 0 comments
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Lonely Planet innovates using Google Maps

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I'm a big fan of Lonely Planet. I used their series of guidebooks during an 11 country around-the-world trip I took with my wife in 2002. I'm also all about great travel maps mashups and it turns out Lonely Planet is the first of the big travel guides to embrace Google Maps online. Not only are they using it to mash up their own content, they're also facilitating the process for Lonely Planet users to do some maps mashing of their own! Check it out:

LPmaps is a new initiative from the Lonely Planet Labs that sees Google Maps integrated into many areas of the Lonely Planet TV website. Use a Google Map to find user-uploaded video clips , search and locate specific video clips you view on the site. The video finder includes a nifty navigation ribbon to search by specific continent and country! LPmaps also gives travelers the chance to mash up LPmaps (Google Maps) with Lonely Planet content and embed it on their own travel blog, start page (Google Personalized Start, Netvibes etc..) or website. Very cool stuff!

Here is an excerpt from the LPmaps page:

We’re really excited about all the ways we can help travellers connect with one another and build their community. LPmaps is another way that we are helping travellers create and share their travel ideas and experiences.

What can I do with LPmaps and how do I use it?

We've mashed-up Lonely Planet content and Google maps to create LPmaps (check it out at lonelyplanet.tv) and now, we want to share LPmaps with you. Here are the things you can do:

  • create your own map and embed it into your website or blog using the widget builder
  • let your imagination run wild; mashup your own content and functionality with LPmaps
  • put a map on your blog or website; go find a good map on lonelyplanet.tv and follow the menu to widgetbox, Google Gadgets or Netvibes
The power of the Google Maps API developer community played a large role in this project as Google Maps geo developer Ken Hoetmer's skills were recruited by LonelyPlanet.com to work up LPmaps. Ken's previous Google Maps projects include DIY Google Maps site QuikMaps and birding mashup GeoBirds (all previously reviewed on Google Maps Mania) - Great work Ken, and hats off to Lonely Planet for being travel web visionaries! :)

Related:
Cool Google Maps Travel Mashups
Category Listing: Travel & Tourism
Posted by Pracas at 4:22 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

France Google Maps Mashup Roundup - Part 6



As always, I'm glad to have to the French Google Maps blog, Renalid contribute most of the following French Google Maps mashups and descriptions..
To view all past French Mashup updates, please click onto France linked below:
Posted by Pracas at 6:55 PM 0 comments
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