Kenyan Demographics on Google Maps

Demographic Kenya is a really nice example of how to present geographical and demographic data using the Google Maps API and Fusion Tables.

The application allows the user to visualise demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population in Kenyan counties using data collected in the 2009 national census. The data can be accessed via four main categories, Population, Education, Environment and Housing. Each category includes a number of sub-categories.

When you select a sub-category from the map sidebar the chosen data is automatically added to the Google Map and can also be viewed in a graph beneath the map.

An Open Source Fusion Tables Map Template

Derek Eder's Searchable Map Template with Google Fusion Tables is a free, open source tool that helps you create a searchable, filterable Google Map from a Fusion Table.

The template can create a Google Map pulling in data from any Fusion Table. It includes a number of features, including, an address search (with variable radius), geolocation (automatically center the map on the user's location), results count (using the Google's Fusion Tables API) and the ability to easily add additional search filters (checkboxes, sliders, etc).

Derek Eder's website includes a number of maps created with the template. These include Derek's own maps, mainly centred on Chicago and lots of maps created by others with the template,

Create Google Maps Apps With Your Phone

My Fusion Tables is a new smart phone application, available for both the iPhone and Android phones, that allows users to browse, view, and map data from Google Fusion Tables on a smart phone or tablet.

The new application has been developed by Build-A-Map, the Google Maps creation tool that helps users build visually appealing, interactive maps. The app allows users to browse, view, and map data from Google Fusion Tables. It includes an interactive query builder with support for field selection, order and filters.

The application also includes the ability to visualise your data and query results on a Google Map.

OpenStreetMap + Google Fusion Tables

The Atlanta Health Inspections Map is a beautiful Stamen Design OpenSteetMap that uses the Google Maps API and Fusion Tables to visualise restaurant health inspection scores in the metro Atlanta area.

As well as being a thing of beauty the map has a useful purpose in showing Atlanta diners which restaurants are safest to eat in. The red map markers indicate the restaurants with the lowest health inspection scores and the green markers those restaurants that passed their inspections with flying colors.

If you select a restaurant's marker on the map you can click through to read the full health inspection report for that establishment.

Danish Data Journalism Award

Google, The Guardian and the Danish newspaper Information have announced the winner of the Danish data journalism competition, Nyhedshacker 2012.

The winning project, Doctors for Sale was created by Anders Pedersen. Doctors for Sale is a Google Map, created with Fusion Tables, that shows all the Danish doctors who are sponsored by the medical industry. The information is designed to inform patients about which of their local doctors might be prescribing drugs based on their sponsorship rather than based on strict medical reasons or prescribing the cheapest drugs available.

Anders Pedersen's prize for winning the competition is €2,500 and a one month secondment with the Guardian newspaper in London working with the paper's Datablog team.

Hat-tip: microformats.dk

The Colbert Report on Google Maps

The Colbert Report's Represent-O-Map 6000 uses Google Maps to help viewers invite their U.S. representative to appear on the show's 'Better Know a District' segment.

When users of the map click on a state an e-mail form opens which allows the user to contact their representative with an invite to appear on the Colbert Show. The map also highlights the districts that have received the most e-mail requests.

Class Sizes on Google Maps

Global News has created a Google Map of Class Sizes in British Columbia. The map shows the class sizes in every public school in the province during the 2010-11 school year.

Red and green map markers are used on the map to show classes larger than 30 pupils and classes with fewer than 30. It is also possible to click on a school's map marker and view the average class size at different grade levels and overall for the whole school.

Ontario Election Results on Google Maps

Global News has created a series of Google Maps to visualise the 2011 Ontario election results.

Ontario Election Maps shows the results of 24,094 polls in six maps: plurality winner by poll, voter turnout and the four parties' results looked at in isolation. Each map shows a heat map of the results and you can click on individual electoral wards to view the results at that location.

The map can be searched by address or postal codes. A number of links, above the map, will take you to 14 regional views.

An Edmonton Property Tax Assessment Map

The Edmonton Property Tax Assessment Map is a great example of using Google Fusions Tables with Google Maps.

The Edmonton Journal created the map to visualise Edmonton's 2012 property assessments. The map allows readers to compare the average assessment of single-family homes by neighbourhood in 2012 and 2011; as well as the percent change from 2010 to 2011, 2011 to 2012 and during the five years from 2007 to 2012.

The map include selectable layers, a dynamic legend (that updates automatically when different layers are selected) and even includes the Edmonton Journal masthead.

If you want to know how to create a dynamic legend with Fusion Tables and Google Maps then you should dive into the code in this Fusion Tables API Example Map.

Fusion Tables & Google Maps Examples

Google have added new FusionTablesLayer examples to the Google Fusion Tables API Sample Code. The new examples provide a great guide to the various ways Fusion Tables can be used with Google Maps.

The examples show how to create a Google Map using data held in a Fusion Table, how to query the data from the map, how to create spatial queries, add a slider, drop-down menu or check-box menu and how to add a dynamic legend to the map.

If you haven't used Fusion Tables with Google Maps before then this is a great place to start.

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Everyone's Moving South in Boulder

The 2010 U.S. census must now hold the record as the most mapped census of all time. We've been posting maps about the census all year on Google Maps Mania (check the census tab) - and they still keep on coming.



Boulder County Community Foundation has used Fusion Tables to map population changes in Boulder between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. The map seem to show a distinct pattern of a dwindling population in the north of the city and a growing population in the south.



The map also shows vehicle registration data in different parts of the city and allows you to view the locations of Boulder schools.



Boulder Trends



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Putting Vancouver on the Map

The Vancouver Sun has put together a great series of 21 interactive Google Maps looking at all aspects of life in the city based on the 2006 census. Metro Vancouver Mapped uses Google Fusion Tables to create heat maps that explore answers given by residents in the 2006 census.



The maps examine the demographic differences in the city and allow you to see in which areas residents have the best educational attainment, the best commute times and the highest property values etc.



Each map is accompanied by a brief analysis of the census results.



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Hydrothermal Vents on Google Maps

This is our second foray into subterranean (or should that be submarine) mapping today. However, whereas Greg's Cable Map maps the world's undersea telecommunications cables, Peter Aldhous' Google Map shows the locations of deep sea vents.

Peter's map displays all known hydrothermal vent fields. The map uses color-coded map markers to show active and inactive vents. The map also shows plate boundaries and exclusive economic zones.

Hydrothermal Vent Fields Map

Via: SmartPlanet

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Dying in Wisconsin

This Google Map lets you view the average life expectancy for Wisconsin men and women.

You can click on any Wisconsin county to view the life expectancy statistics for that county. Each county is shaded on the map so that you can also get a quick overview of which counties in the state have the highest and lowest life expectancy.

The map includes data from 1987, 1997 and 2007 and you can view how life expectancy has grown in each county over those twenty years.

Madison.com: Life Expectancy in Wisconsin

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Map Channels Adds Fusion Tables Support

Map Channels, the popular Google Maps creation tool, now lets you add data to a map from Google Fusion Tables.

In the four years that Map Channels has been running over 20,000 maps have been created by its users. It has proved popular with casual map makers and with major news organisations., including Fox News and CBC.

You can create a Google Map with Map Channels using data from a KML, a Google Spreadsheet, a GeoRSS feed, tab delimited text and now with a Google Fusion Table. You can see an example of a Map Channels created map with data provided by a Fusion Table in this Wikipedia Events Map.

Map Channels

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California School Funding on Google Maps

A California School Funding Map Tool

The California budget crisis means that Californian schools are facing drastic cuts to their budgets. Parents for Great Education has used Fusion Tables and the Google Maps API to create this map to show the funding of schools in the state.

The map allows you to look at funding for school districts, by State Senate District or by State Assembly District. The map is color-coded to show the school district funding per student. If you click on the map you can view the state cuts per student, estimated cuts per student and the total cuts to the school district.

California School District Funding

This Google Map shows school district funding in California. Using the map it is possible to view funding levels in each district and also view the school district's academic performance.

If you click on a school district you can view details of the funding over the last three years together with a projection of the funding next year assuming there is no tax extension in California.

The map also displays State Senate districts. If you click on a Senate district you can view the name and party affiliation of the district Senator and their winning margin.

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Google Maps, Fusion Tables & Elections

Canada & UK Post-Elections Round-up

Patrick Cain this week has spotted some post-election Google Maps from the Vancouver Sun and The Guardian.

In Canada the Vancouver Post's map looks at the loss of seats by the federal Liberal party in British Columbia, whilst The Guardian maps the results of the British referendum on the Alternative Voting system.

The Guardian's map shows how there was very little support for the Alternative Voting system outside of a few London boroughs, the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge and central Glasgow and Edinburgh.

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Fusion Friday

Newspapers in particular seem to have embraced Fusion Tables as the data backend for Google Maps.

In the UK The Guardian seems very keen on Fusion Tables, especially on its Data Blog. The Guardian's Data Blog is a great source for data and the paper itself often creates Google Maps of the data.

A good example is this Google Map showing the carbon emissions for public buildings in England and Wales. The energy performance of more than 40,000 schools, hospitals and government departments are shown on the map.


The Carbon Footprint of Public Sector Buildings

In the USA The LA Times and The Texas Tribune have both used Fusion Tables to create maps to report on the 2010 Census.

The LA Times has produced a Google Map to show the 2010 census counts by California’s congressional districts. The map shows how many residents the 53 congressional districts are above or below the target 702,905 population.


2010 Census Counts by California’s Congressional Districts

The Texas Tribune, on the other hand, has created this Google Map to visualise the Texas population by race and Hispanic origin. The map displays the totals for each district, with darker colours representing higher rates of total population growth by race or Hispanic origin.


Texas Population By Race, Hispanic Origin

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Fusion Tables Google Maps Wizard

FusionTablesLayer Builder

The FusionTablesLayer Builder is a great little wizard for creating a Google Map from a Fusion Table.

To build your map all you need to do is add the table id of your Fusion Table and specify the name of the column holding your location data. That's all there is to it! FusionTablesLayer Builder will now create the html for your finished map.

The wizard does provide a number of other useful options. You can set the height and width of your Google Map. You can also set the centre location and the initial zoom level.

A really nice option also lets you add a search box for your map or a drop-down menu. You can even specify which column of your Fusion Table the search box or drop-down menu will use.

Here's an example map I created with FusionTablesLayer Builder in a matter of minutes. The example is a map of temperatures taken around the UK in December.

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Google Maps & Fusion Tables Hacks

I've been seeing a lot of good Google Maps recently that are using Google Fusion Tables to store the map date. Google Maps with Fusion Tables can contain bounding box and radius spatial queries. These features are built into the Google Maps API V3.

As well as these official features a number of developers have created some nice workarounds to add other features to Fusion Table driven Google Maps.

Map with Sidebar (demo map now removed)
This experimental map from the Natural History Museum includes a great sidebar that is also driven by Fusion Tables. Each entry loaded into the sidebar is also an active link which will open the information windows in the Google Map.

Custom Map Markers

This Google Project Hosting example uses the Google Visualization API with Fusion Tables to create a Google Map with custom map markers. Fusion Table maps use the default Google Maps map markers but this code example provides a neat hack to allow you to replace these with your own map marker images.

Animating Fusion Table Data

This is my own attempt to use Fusion Tables to create an animated Google Map. The map animates through the over 800 bombs dropped on London on the first night of the London Blitz.

There is an ugly flicker at the moment when each new marker is added that I'm working on trying to overcome.

Time Slider

Here is a Fusion Tables map that includes a two thumb time slider that allows you to load data onto the map from a specified date range. The Random Markers blog includes a couple of other examples of Fusion Table generated maps with time-line slider controls.

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