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Friday, August 31, 2007

ONGMAP: Impressive Google Maps Mashup Tool

ONGMAP.com: Learn more about places on Google Maps

OnGMap is an insane Google Maps mega-mashup that will help you discover endless amounts of information about a specific location you are zoomed into on the map. The interface is available in Japanese with lots of data sources pulling from Japan (these are also viewable in English).

Start by zooming into any location on earth and here is what you'll be to plot on the map:
  • Book Mashup - geo-names are matched with Amazon books!
  • Weather, Photos, Wikipedia, UNESCO sites, videos, hotels, schools etc..
  • Hotspots, Salons, Health/Medical facilities, restaurants
  • General geo-data - Cities, towns, transportation
  • Approximate address, coordinates, elevation and search key words of centered point
  • Google News articles (right sidebar)
  • Google Blog search (right sidebar)
  • Many Japanese websites as well!
An impressive English/Japanese language user interface:
  • Quick bookmarks to jump to: Continents, Countires, Cities, and Japanese prefectures (See: 01Move folder)
  • Set views, go back to home map
  • Switch to Microsoft Virtual Earth map view
  • Share/Save map view to: Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Hatena
  • Great menus that can be toggled and expanded
  • Great user-customization
To take a look at the number of scripting languages, APIs, extensions, web services, feeds and websites that fuel OnGMap, click the white lego-brick icon on the top menu to reveal this massive list:


There has been a lot of great work that has gone into creating this mashup both from a data and UI perspective. The result is a fantastic user experience with great data sources! :)

It should also be noted that Google Maps itself features this same built-in user-created mashup capability. You can add content from a
directory of Mapplets to your own My Maps tab to create a personalized Google Maps mashup. Add content and tools that are specific to where you live or are planning to travel to. Take a look at this post for more information. Google Maps geo search also facilitates this experience by letting you search for user-created Google Maps for a specific place on Google Maps. Read here for more information..

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

New Google Maps mashups from Singapore and Thailand

New Google Maps mashups from Thailand:

Chiangdao's Bangkok Map has it going on!

Chiangdao's English language Bangkok Map is a mashup between Google Maps and Moffle.com that brings you with a user friendly and useful tourist map for anyone visiting this great world city. Descriptive map pins will show you the locations for tourist attractions, metro stations, shopping, hotels, restaurants and much more. Give it a try. With recently added street maps for Bangkok, Google Maps is becoming a vital travel tool to use while visiting this city!

JaideeGolf lets you interact with Thai golf courses:

Jaideegolf is a new golf mashup for Thailand (and other world locations) that lets you map the course, the holes and also measure distance from the pin to the hole! Give it a try on the Amata Spring Country Club and try the tools on the directly on the map.
New Singapore Google Maps mashups:

Mapped panoramic images of Singapore

Check here for more Singapore Google Maps mashups. Many of these mashups were found on the excellent SinGeo Blog and ProgrammableWeb.com

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Google Maps + World Chocolate Shops = ChocoMap!

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Attention chocolate lovers in the far corners of the world! Have I got a sweet mashup for you! :) ChocoMap.com can help you find a top quality chocolate shop in several cities and countries all over the world!

To narrow your search use the drop-down menu to browse by country, state/province or city. If you know of a specific shop, you can also search for it by name. Each shop contains a link to their website and important details about their offerings. Click the Review & Rate link from here to view the shop page with an inset Google mapped location and the chance to rate the shop using an appropriate number of chocolate kisses (what else?!). ChocoMap was created by Vincent Hallberg of British Columbia, Canada who says that he loves the Google Maps API and is really pleased with the technology that made ChocoMap possible! :)

YummyBaguette.com also features a chocolate map for the cities of: Toronto - Montreal - Vancouver - New York - Chicago - Bangkok - Paris - Pittsburgh

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The Gmail video.. The Gmail video MAP!

The mission: Tell a story about how you imagine how an email message travels around the world through a short video clip.
Those willing to accept: The whole world!
The resulting video (link):


...And the Google Map of user submissions from around the world:


View Larger Map

More:
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Google Maps mashups for Iran, Libya, Lebanon, Qatar & Egypt

StreetsOfIran.com (Iran)

Explore the colorful painted murals throughout the streets of Tehran, Iran with this fantastic photo mashup of Flickr images. [via]
Iran Google Maps Satellite Sights
Wikimapia: Iran

Hurghada-Information.com (Coastal Egypt):

The Egyptian city of Hurghada lies on the Red Sea Coast in Egypt. This mashup features a great business directory for this city to find things like hotels, restaurants, coffee houses and doctors. Zoom in close enough and the creators have even labeled streets. Click "full screen map" to see the great Google Maps UI that has been created to let you explore Hurghada.
Egypt Google Maps Satellite Sights
Wikimapia: Egypt

DohaMap.info (Qatar):

DohaMap.info has been updated to include street names and many, many points of interest for the city of Doha in Qatar.
Qatar Google Maps Satellite Sights
Wikimapia: Qatar

Blogging Beirut Maps (Lebanon):

BloggingBeirut.com introduces this new map which plots locations of everything Beirut (photos, hikes, businesses etc..) More information about these maps can be found here..
Lebanon Google Maps Satellite Sights
Wikimapia: Lebanon

Museums in Libya - More details about this museum map can be found here..
Libya Google Maps Satellite Sights
Wikimapia: Lebanon

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New Australian Google Maps Mashups and Mapplets

First Australian bank to use Google Maps - The Bank of Queensland is the first bank in Australia to integrate Google Maps into their website to help their customers find state branch and ATM locations. Find out more details in their recent press release.
[Via The Bank Channel]

New Australian Google Mapplets - Google Mapplets are content modules or layers you can view directly from within the Google Maps My Maps tab:

Things to do in Sydney
Sydney for Kids
Vineyard Hunter
Western Australian Shipwrecks
Australian Points of Interest
Western AU Petrol Prices
Pinkboard Venue Guide


Localhero.biz is a Melbourne mega-mashup - LocalHero.biz is Peter Shaw's latest creation that is a great local mashup for those of you living in or visiting the city of Melbourne. LocalHero performs search engine spidering for local Melbourne content with an AJAX interface where you can drag and zoom the map to discover new content without the need for a browser refresh. Double click anywhere on the map to "Publish local content" as well!

Snowfields Weather Maps:
NSW Snow Map
& VIC Snow Map

Aus-emaps.com has created a special mashup for the winter ski season. The maps show current temperature and weather forecast for the alpine areas, together with weather cams and links to websites of main resort. Weather info is coming from a free Web Feature Service (WFS), updated every 30 min and provided by Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

"Job Mapping" Australian Pharmacy Jobs - Australian Pharmacy Jobs site Jobs4Careers is pioneering the national online job search field by being among the first to integrate Google Maps into their website. You have the option to view groupings of available positions or perform a specific address search. The info-bubble gives a nice teaser about the job and lets you apply for the job directly from its pin on the map!

Western Australia Petrol Price Map Mashup - Google Maps API developer extraordinaire Reto Meier has created a useful mashup for those of you in WA. Use this Google Maps mashup to get daily petrol prices by suburb. He has also created a way for you to view the prices from your own My Maps tab in Google Maps - Check here. Check out this post to find out more about how this mashup works.. Be sure to also check out the post I did about Reto's Earthquake Mashup.

Who On Earth Cares? Many Australians it seems!

The Cate Blanchett backed "Who On Earth Cares" initiative created by the Australian Conservation Foundation has just launched a new Google Maps mashup that allows Australians concerned about climate change to register themselves on a unique Google Map. You can also browse the map and find other people that care about climate change as well.

Google Maps Real Estate Mashup PropertyGuru.com wins best mashup at 2007 Google Developer Day - From the Google Australia Blog.

More ways to explore Australia using Google Maps:
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Google mapping New York airport ride shares

SplitACab.com:

John Winiarski has launched a new Google Maps mashup/tool for people in New York looking for a ride to either JFK, LaGuardia or Newark Liberty airports. The "How it Works" section of SplitACab.com explains more: "..Simply select the time and date of your departure to find someone leaving at about the same time from the same neighborhood. If you don't find anyone, you can create a new ride. By sharing a cab to the airport, you'll save money and contribute toward conservation of fossil fuels."

Google Maps Mashup Roundup for Canada

Toronto Google Maps Housing Map:

Housing123
is a new housing mashup for the city of Toronto that has a slogan that reads "Toronto housing made easy". It combines Toronto MLS listings with Google Maps and includes a very simple user interface to make searching easy. Enter an intersection to map listings by colour-coded pin (0-200K 200-500K 500K+) or narrow your search down by specific criteria in the filters tab. Simple, and effective. [Via BlogTO]
See many many more Google Maps mashups and tools for Canada - click the "Canada" label below!
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Google Maps Mashup Roundup for Japan

Hitotoki - A Narrative Map of Tokyo:

(features an English and Japanese interface) Hitotoki is a literary site collecting stories of personal experiences in Tokyo. The stories are mapped to specific locations across Tokyo using Google Maps. Browse each of the stories by map or click the Google Maps on each story page to see where that experience took place. The mashup features a toggle to stories written in Japanese, and a "New York" link indicates taht Hitotoki is expanding to this US city soon!

Japanese YouTube Video Google Maps mashup (features an English and Japanese interface) - If you're planning a trip to Japan or want to learn more about the country this video maps mashup can help. The Google Map of Japan is dotted with pins noting music, sports, urban areas and more. Click the pins or the video titles in the right sidebar. The creator of the mashup has linked to his favorites, and you can also send in clips you like in a form at the bottom.

Scenic Byway Map of Hokkaido East Okhotsk (Japanese language only) - Seigo Nohara emailed me to tell me about the mashup that his company (River Stone) created. Built using Apple WebObjects the map details Scenic Byway information for several towns and cities within this region of Japan.

Look up Japanese addresses in English:

Here is a new Google Maps tool that lets you look up Japanese addresses using the English spelling. It is currently mapping approximately 120,000 English labels including major cities, towns and neighbourhoods. The tool will make Google Maps in Japan useful for the English user.

More ways to explore Japan using Google Maps (All in English):
More Google Maps Mashups and Tools from Japan can be found in previous posts..
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Google Maps Mashup Roundup for Korea

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More ways to explore Korea using Google Maps (All in English):

I haven't been able to find many Korean Google Maps mashups. Please send me an email or post a comment if you know of more! :)
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5 new US Google Maps Mashups

Mining claims near the Grand Canyon and other National Parks:

This Google Maps mashups shows the locations of mining claims within 5 miles of several national parks, including Grand Canyon National Park and Yellowstone National Park. The mashup combines
a report by the Environmental Working Group with Google Maps.

StopNewNukes.org - A Google Maps mashup by Peace Action West of nuclear development, testing and dump sites in the US.

New Orleans Contraflow Evacuation Map:
Here is a description from the About section of this mashup: "..Contraflowmaps.com converts the Official Printed Louisiana Contraflow Maps into a Google Mashup of contraflow routes that should make it easy to plan your evacuation. contraflowmaps.com is being launched to coincide with the 2nd anniversary of Katrina (August 29th, 2007). Proceeds from advertising will be donated to Katrina Relief efforts."


MSU Interactive campus map gets even better!

Gugulethu Mabuza's SpartyLive.com has been redesigned with tons of new features just in time for the fall term! Here is my o
riginal post here..
More Google Maps Campus Maps

Monday, August 27, 2007

Google Maps China Roundup

All eyes turn to the country of China as we enter the final countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games. To help you explore the country of China, Google Maps can help in a variety of ways. Street maps and satellite images as well as user created maps will help you explore the Olympic venues and the country at large. This post rounds up all things new for Google Maps in China.

Google Maps updated for China:

Google Maps was updated at the start of Aug/07 with fresh satellite imagery for the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. In late July cities, major streets and roads were added throughout the country, as was map searching for cities and points of interest. These updates are also available to Google Maps mashups making use of the Google Maps API.

The Chinese localised version of Google Maps known as Google Ditu (Ditu = Map) features great detail, for urban areas, rail lines, labeling etc in the Chinese language. Anthony Wong has created a cool mashup of Google Maps and Google Ditu so you can compare the views:

..Read this post for more information. Anthony explains how he created the mashup and his recommendations for improving it. The Shanghaiist Blog also blogged about Google Ditu when it launched..

New China Satellite Sightseeing:

With brand new, updated imagery available in both Beijing and Shanghai a few sites out on the web are cataloging interesting sights and views that are found in China making for a unique online sightseeing experience:


Satellite-Sightseer.com: China Sights (191) - Sites include: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Three Gorges Dam, City of Lhasa (Tibet), Great Wall of China: Jyongguan Pass, All Shanghai Locations, Many many more here..

Wikimapia - China - Wikimapia is a unique, user-driven Google Maps explorer that allows you to view annotations of satellite imagery. Click the link above and roll your mouse over the boxes to read wiki-style descriptions. Be sure to zoom right in to see what the description is about and if you have something to add or would like to add your own wiki-descriptions for China go for it! Wikimapia is a great way to explore and learn more about the geography of China.

GoogleSightseeing.com - China - GoogleSightseeing tells you the stories behind the satellite imagery on Google Maps. This link will take you to all posts labeled with China by the bloggers at GoogleSightseeing.com

New China Mashups and Mapplets:
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Saturday, August 25, 2007

Google Maps Mania links for 2007-08-25

  • Burning Man BeatMaps:

    The Burning Man Festival runs from Aug. 27-Sept.3/o7 in the middle of the Nevada desert. Use the Burning Man BeatMaps to locate events and services for the event this year. Switch to satellite view on the Google Map in this mashup to see an actual satellite photo taken from Burning Man 2006!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

POPURLS goes real-time with Google Maps

POPURLS.com + Google Maps = POPURLS.tv:

POPURLS is a site which aggregates the most popular and current content on the web to a one-view page. It contains the top of Digg, the most viewed pictures on Flickr, the hottest YouTube clips, top news on Google News, among many other sites. POPURLs has recently used Google Maps to create an entirely new site called POPURLS.tv and have coined it "The real-time view of POPURLS.com". The site works in much the same way as other real-time Google Maps mashups TwitterVision or Flickrvision by auto-centering the map on the geo-location of a visitor (presumably by their IP address). It shows the site and specific link that visitor is currently clicking on.. all in real-time. It gives you the chance to see what folks in various countries are finding interesting from the POPURLs page. The clever page design enables you to view a split-screen view with text links at the top or go to a full screen Google Maps version to watch random visitor tracking take place. I like the choice of ".TV" domain for this new twist on the POPURLs site, since the push format of the page is exactly like sitting and watching TV.. :)
[Via Mashable]

Other "Real-time" Google Maps mashups:

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Embed your Google My Maps into your blog or website

Last week the Sydney Morning Herald's Stephen Hutchen broke the news that an embeddable map feature was coming soon to Google Maps. This feature has just been launched on Google Maps and lets you to embed your Google My Maps or geo searches in your own website or blog! Here is how the feature works: Once you are logged into Google Maps click the My Maps tab and then click on one of your My Maps in the list (or create one). At the top right hand corner of the page, click "Link to this page":



You'll notice a new option in this dialog: "Paste HTML to embed in website". You can either copy this code and tweak things like width and height values to fit in your post or web page or click the "Customize and preview embedded map" link for more options. Here is what you'll see:



I mentioned above that this also works for grabbing geo search results and embedding these in the same fashion. Run a search on Google Maps and you'll notice the link to this page feature will also allow you to take search results for local business queries or user created maps for a location and embed this as a map on your blog/website.

This is a great feature to add the Google My Maps you create directly to your blog posts or webpages. Think of it as syndicating your My Maps mashups!

Official Google Lat Long Blog post:
YouTube-style Embeddable Maps

Sydney Morning Herald covers feature addition with an embedded My Map:
Google launches embeddable map feature

Google Press Center:
Google announces a simple new way to embed Google Maps

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Monday, August 20, 2007

6 new US Google Maps mashups: Movies, housing, food, health, moods

Google Maps Movie Mashups: ThreeMovieBuffs.com - Scott Nash has created a new movie mashup that maps movie theater locations and movie listings for each theater, anywhere in the US. Filter by movie so you can see just those theaters showing a particular movie. Check out this example for the 10010 zip code in New York. More info on this added feature to Scott's site here..
New York in the Movies - Scott has also created a New York movie map which he describes in the following way: "..Your guide to filming locations in one of the greatest cities in the world. Featuring locations for 132 scenes from 72 different movies and television shows, and growing."
More Google Maps Movie Mashups here..
Also see: Google.com/Movies (movies/showtimes by US zip code) [Canada here..]

SearchOnMaps is a great new real estate mashup - This new Google Maps housing mashup combines real estate data provided by RealBird (listings via Listing Publisher and business profiles via the RealBird Yellow Pages service) and a home valuation tool by Zillow with local agent recommendations by RealBird. Data overlays include Yelp local reviews, Zvents local events, traffic incidents by Yahoo and nearby ValPak coupons. The service allows you to email, social bookmark and share properties, home valuations, business profiles or a specific map extent and to subscribe to RSS updates on a specific map via the unique "Watch this map" tool. (Read more here..)
More Google Maps Housing Mashups here..

Friday, August 17, 2007

Google Maps Mania links for 2007-08-17

Gaigi is a cool photo map explorer - Gaigi mashes up Google Maps with Panoramio and Flickr images. Specific city or point of interest (CN Tower, Central Park, New York) searching works pretty well and for countries that offer Google Maps local business searching, these results are also displayed. Image viewing can also take you from map view to the specific Panoramio or Flickr photo page.
Google Maps Street View Scavenger Hunt!

VirtualGlobeTrotting.com has a fun Google Maps Street View Scavenger Hunt game that is running until August 23rd. You are asked to submit map views from Google Maps US Street View cities under a range of categories. Gain points by finding things like a cruise ship or a plane taking off or landing. Here are the rules for the Scavenger Hunt: (1) All maps submitted for points in a scavenger must be new and unique (no duplicates of old maps!). (2) To submit a map for the scavenger hunt, submit a map as normal. On the submissions page, you will have a chance to select a category to submit to. (3) Once a map is approved by the moderators, you will receive the points for that category. (4)The scavenger hunt ends on the date listed. At that point, the user with the most point wins. Ties are allowed. Have fun! [Via VirtualGlobeTrotting.com]

Sydney cabbie experiments with Google My Maps:

Taxi driver blogging. Interesting.. Sydney taxi driver Adrian Neylan links to a Google My Map of a sequence of events that took place on his shift from this post. He writes in the post: "In the left hand sidebar, click 'Placemark 1' thru 'Placement 9', for the sequence of events depicting my travails trying to score a radio job headed home." For note, Adrian's blog has been recognized as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Top 10 Blogs [Via Zhasper.com]

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Earthquake! A Google Maps mashup


With earthquake incidents grabbing headlines this past week in Indonesia and Peru, Reto Meier is along with this timely Google Maps mashup called Earthquake! "A global earthquake mashup with a difference." Reto has this to say: "..I've drawn my influence from the Natural History Museum's real-time earthquake exhibit, so as well as showing the usual list of earthquake epicentres, I've overlaid the damage radius and the 'felt' radius. The result is a display of concentric circles around the world showing the relative power and reach of earthquakes as they happen. To get better coverage I've also integrated different earthquake feeds from the official surveyors in the US, Europe, and Australia." Reto notes that he made use of the Google Mashup Editor to create this mashup.

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More Earthquake, Volcano and Hurricane Trackers can be found in my Weather And Earth category

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