The Sounds of Seoul on Google Maps

Sound@Media

Here's a nice start to the week. Take a leisurely virtual stroll around Seoul listening to the street sounds of the South Korean capital.

Sound@Media is a Google Maps based sound map. Users of the map can listen to the everyday sounds of the streets of Seoul directly from the map. The markers on the map show the location where the sounds were recorded.

If you live in Seoul and you want to add your own sound recordings you can do so using Audioboo.

Other Sound Maps

• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
• Open Sound New Orleans

________________

Google Maps & Silverlight Earthquake Map

Earthquake

Korean Silverlight developers HugeFlow have created this earthquake Google Map using Microsoft's alternative to Flash. The map shows the latest earthquake data from around the world.

The earthquake data comes from the US Geological Society Earthquake and Hazards Program. The latest earthquakes are listed in the map side-panel in order of magnitude. Clicking on the listed earthquakes in the panel will centre the map on the chosen incident.

As well as viewing the earthquake data in Google Maps there is the option to switch to Bing or Yahoo Maps.

Other Earthquake Maps

Earthquake
This Google Map also plots data from the US Geological Survey. A coloured polygon is drawn to represent the size of each tremor.

Earthquakes in the Last Week
This map shows recent earthquakes around the world. It also includes the latest earthquake news. The map uses different coloured map markers to show the strength of different earthquakes.

Real-time USGS Earthquake Mapplet
This mapplet plots the past week of earthquakes around the world, showing the location, time and magnitude. Each earthquake includes a link to the USGS earthquake website for more information.

_____________

Google Maps Launches in Korea

Google have just launched Google Maps for South Korea.

If you want to see Seoul (screenshot above) you will have to go to the Korean Google Maps site as Korean export restrictions on mapping data mean Google have to serve the road map tiles from Korean servers.

The Korean map tiles have however been added to the Google Maps API. Mapperz has posted a good demonstration showing South Korea with the new road tiles and the Wikipedia and Panoramio layers turned on.

Korean Google Maps Mashups

• Naver Maps + Google Maps satellite imagery (Korean language interface)
• Tryvel - Korean photo mapping website
• My Korea - a map about Korean cities, transportation, parks, World Heritage Sites.

__________

Get Gmapified with these great Google Maps mashups!

I enjoy finding people who have a true passion for the Google Maps API. As always Google Maps Mania is as much about the people as it is the mashups so I'd like to introduce you to "Olbibigo" of Paris, France. Olbibigo (as he has asked to be called) is a software engineer-team leader and is one of those people with a passion for the Maps API and geo as a whole. I stumbled across a mashup created by him and blogged it on a links roundup post back in January. He had done a nice Google Maps + Kayak mashup called Mapified Kayak which is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com. Shortly after the post Olbibigo dropped me a line to inform me of 6 of his other Google Maps projects, which has since grown to 13.. I was amazed when I checked out his great, full featured and very useful mashups and decided they collectively demanded their own post.

Here are Olbibigo's Google Maps mashup creations.. Trust me here, looking through these and checking out the great UI and overall application for each of them is time well spent:

• Mapified Kayak - As mentioned above, this is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com
• ParisParis - A self-described "social mashup" that helps people in Paris find just about anything by adding/removing layers! Check out the awesome info-window/bubbles atop the very unique map markers.. There is even an API that is provided for this as a web service!
• Where are Trains - French rail mashup that lets you trace in real-time every TGV (french high speed trains) departing from and arriving to Paris. Olbibigo has built a tutorial to let you "add your own flavour to it". Be sure to check between 7.00am-23.30pm Paris time.
• My Korea - This mashup instantly fills the Korean Google Maps mashup void. My Korea will help you to map and learn about Korean cities, transportation, parks, World Heritage Sites. Olbibigo even lets you explore Korea's past by overlaying a map from 1745 and its present by showing the places he has visited!
• Overflown Countries - Add a start and end point for a long haul trip and learn all the countries your flight will pass over.. What an awesome tool!
• RoadTrip in the USA and elsewhere - Similar to Overflown Countries this tool will work the same for road trips. Click a start and end point within the US, Canada or France and this tool calculates Google Maps directions, elevation and specific state, province and counties. Click "Animate" to watch a car trace the route right on the map. Nice work!
• "Template" - Olbibigo's template that you can use as a starting point to build your own Google Maps mashup. From the page: "..To get all needed files, you can use the "Save as complete page" function of your current browser. You should get 6 files (with ".htm", ".js", ".css" and ".png" extension)."
• I Need a Bike - A bicycle rental mashup for companies and several cities throughout France: Vélib' in Paris, Vélo'v in Lyon and Le Vélo in Marseille (Fr). There is an insane amount of information that is on offer here in a beautifully designed UI
• Mapified RSS - This is a cool geo tool that lets you paste in an RSS feed URL to instantly map the locations of the posts/news articles.
• Mapified Stock Indices - Map daily changes to the asian stock indice.
• My Local News - This mashup takes your IP address (if available) and matches it with local news for that geo.
• GMapsPolyTool - A tool to let you easily draw and encode polylines and polygons.
• GoogleMaps vs YahooMaps - Compare the two maps services.

Keep a close eye on the page I've pulled these links from as Olbibigo creates more Google Maps tools and mashups.. You'll enjoy a special section at the bottom of the page: "The 5 most impressive and/or useful Google Maps mashups I've ever seen ... until now".

Well done! Keep the the great mashups coming Olbibigo! :)
____________________

Google Maps Mashup Roundup for Korea

+

• WikiTourMap - This is a Korean language Google Maps mashup that combines travel information and wiki entries from the Korean portal UCC.
• Naver Maps + Google Maps satellite imagery (Korean language interface)

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

• Google Maps Geo Search [info]: Seoul, Jeju, Korea, South Korea, North Korea
• Korea on: Wikimapia, GoogleSightseeing.com: North Korea, Republic of Korea Satellite Sightseer.com: Republic of Korea, North Korea
• Google Mapplets: Flickr & Panoramio geotaggedphotos, WeatherBonk, Wikipedia

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! :)
_________________