Displaying Road Quality on Google Maps

Rusdorogi is a Google Map that shows at a glance the quality of Russian roads.

Good quality roads are displayed on the map in green. Satisfactory sections of road are marked in yellow, unsatisfactory roads are marked in red, and the really bad sections are displayed in dark red.

The data for the map is crowd-sourced and is collected by the users of a clever Android application. The app senses the vibrations on the user's phone. It uses a specially developed method of data processing which assesses the types of vibration on the phone and distinguishes between data coming from the car and other, normal background, vibrations.

The Inaugural Data Journalism Awards

Pedestrian Crashes in Novosibirsk is one of the six winners of the inaugural Data Journalism Awards.

Pedestrian Crashes in Novosibirsk uses the Google Maps API to map and analyse pedestrian road accidents in Novosibirsk, Russia in 2011. The jury of the award said that the map is a,

"good interactive visualisation of what can be very dry data, with intuitive navigation, in an interface that invites readers to engage with the information. The pre-packaged pullout ‘stories’ also efficiently relay information at a glance – while allowing readers to zoom in to get customised or personal detail."

The slide control above the map can be used to filter the results shown by month. The 'pullout' stories allow the user to explore the data by gender of the driver, gender of the pedestrian, age of driver and pedestrian, and to show those accidents that caused a fatality.

The Russian Street View Gallery

The new release of Street View in Russia has captured some great images of buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I've started to put together a Russian Street View Gallery to showcase some of the best Street Views in Russia.

The gallery uses the Google Street View Image API to provide preview images of the Street Views in the gallery. Just click on any of the small thumbnail images to view the full Street View in the full Google Map.

Street View Launched in Russia

Red Square

Google Maps now has Street View imagery in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. There is also a little pocket of Street View around the Qolsharif Mosque in Kazan. Street View Fun also discovered that one street in Lodz, in Poland has also been given Street View.

In Moscow you can now take a virtual stroll on Google Maps around Red Square and the Kremlin. In St.Petersburg you can stroll around the whole UNESCO Heritage site of the centre of St. Petersburg. This includes the Winter Palace and The Peter and Paul Fortress.


The Peterhof Palace, St.Petersburg

Some more Russian landmarks that can now be viewed in Street View are:

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow
The Peterhof Palace, St.Petersburg (and all the Palace gardens)
The Old St.Petersburg Stock Exchange
The Church of the Saviour on Blood, St Petersburg

Via: Google Lat Long

Historical Moscow on Google Maps

Old Maps of Moscow has a very large collection of historical maps of the Russian capital.

The site uses Google Maps to help users navigate the historical collection. Users need to click on the Google Map of Moscow to show the location they are interested in viewing. Then they can select from the many historical maps to view the chosen location on their chosen map.

The map collection goes back to 1739 and includes plans, topographic maps, historical aerial photography and much more.

Russian Greenpeace on Google Maps

Greenpeace has released a Google Map of recycling stations in Moscow.

The map shows the locations of recycling stations for paper, glass, plastic bottles, old electronics and clothing in the Russian capital. The map includes custom made markers that are colour coordinated to indicate the type of recycling possible at each station.

It is also possible for users to add the location of missing recycling locations to the map.

Greenpeace - Moscow Recycling Map

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Historical Moscow on Google Maps

Oldmos

Oldmos is a Russian website of historical photographs of Moscow. The home page of Oldmos features a prominent Google Map that shows the location of the historical photographs submitted to the site.

You can pan and zoom the map to view the photographs from different locations. You can also use the slider below the map to select to view only photographs from a specific date range. As well as browsing the historical photographs by map you can also browse them by those recently added and those that are top rated.

Via: Google Maps Mania.ru (no relation) and Andrei's Blog

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Real-Time Buses in Novosibirsk

Nskgortrans

The city of Novosibirsk in Russia has released a real-time tracking Google Map for the city's bus network. Using the map it is possible to view the locations in real-time of all the city's buses.

You can select to view buses on any individual bus line or select a combination of any lines. If you click on any of the displayed buses on a line you can view the schedule of when it will arrive at the stops on its route.

There is also a mobile phone optimised version of the site so that you can see how far away the next bus is when you are actually standing at a bus-stop.

Via: Andrei's Blog

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Location Reminders with Google Maps

Epythia

Google Calendar is a great application for reminding you of your important appointments and meetings. It can even show you on a Google Map the locations of your appointments. What it can't do is remind you to do something when you come near a specific location.

This is where Epythia comes in. Epythia is a new (currently in Beta) service that can remind you to do something when you are in the proximity of a defined location. For example, you can set a reminder to pick up those freshly roasted coffee beans when you come within a mile of your favourite coffee shop. Then whenever you happen to be passing within touching distance Epythia will ping you your reminder.

This is such a simple but brilliant idea. I'm always reading about exhibitions, cafes and shops that I like the sound of and thinking I must visit them when I'm in the area. Nine times of ten however I will forget. With Epythia I no longer have to miss out.

Epythia is currently in Beta. This means that you can set reminders for locations and set the radius within which you wish to be reminded. However, unless I'm missing something (a lot of the site is in Russian) there doesn't actually seem to be an app yet which will ping you the reminder.

I am assuming that applications will be on the way soon for most smart phones. Meanwhile you can always access your saved map on your phone's browser just to check what locations you have posted to visit.

Via: http://twitter.com/andreitr

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The Trans Siberian Express on Google Maps

Virtual Journey on Google Maps

If you like trains then you will love this Google Maps mashup. Google.ru have created this brilliant virtual journey of the Trans Siberian Express route using Google Maps and YouTube.

To start the journey just press play on the YouTube video and sit back and imagine you are travelling across Russia to Vladivostok. The video shows the view from the train and the location in the video is automatically updated on the Google Map in real time.

It is also possible to click on the town names along the route to skip to that section of the journey.

This mashup is a lot more sophisticated and much better done than some of my own Google Maps & YouTube virtual train journeys. However if you love trains you might also want to check out my mapped train journeys featuring YouTube videos:

The Orient Express
The Place on Wheels (India)
The Glacier Express
The Vermonter

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Russian Google Maps Mashups Round-Up

Russian website linkstore.ru does a really good job of tracking Russian based Google Maps mashups. Here is a pick of some of their latest finds.

Unfortunately Russian isn't one of my languages, so there may be one or two mistakes in this round-up.

Retromap

If you love maps then you will love this website.

Retromap uses the Google Maps API to display a large collection of historical maps of Moscow. The collection includes 18th century maps, maps from the 19th century, pre-revolutionary 20th century maps and many more modern 20th century maps of the Russian capital.

Авто-услуги

This website maps and reviews garages, gas stations, driving schools and traffic police locations in Russia. It is possible to search the database of added locations directly from a Google Map. The site includes a rating system and user contributed reviews.

RealMetrs
RealMetrs is a Russian real-estate website that uses Google Maps to display the location of properties. It is possible to search for properties by price, type of property and location. The results of a search are displayed in list form with an accompanying Google Map displaying property locations.

Афиша

This Russian events and entertainment guide lists upcoming concerts, films, club nights and exhibitions. The site makes liberal use of Google Maps throughout to provide guides to venues in Russian cities and to show the location of upcoming events.

Банкоматор

This Google Maps mashup shows the locations of payment terminals and ATMs in Moscow. It is possible to select to view ATMs by the name of the bank and it is also possible to search the map by district or by a named street.

Via: linkstore.ru

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Even More Russian Street View

Gdeetotdom

Gdeeetotdom is a Russian website that uses Google Maps as a means to navigate its 'street view' type interactive panoramic images and to display photographs of houses. The site has imagery coverage for a large part of Moscow and several other cities.

The interactive panoramas work in much the same way as Google's Street View with interactive arrows within each panorama that are used to navigate to the adjacent image. Each still photograph on the map contains a link to a description of that house and links to real-estate adverts for each house.

NORC

NORC uses Google Maps as the means to navigate around the 'street view' type panoramas. Unfortunately NORC does not have links within each panorama, so you can't use arrows to jump to the adjacent image. Instead you have to drag the map marker to the location you want to view.

NORC also doesn't seem to have quite as much coverage in Moscow as Yandex. However it does have some stunning panoramas of Russia's capital.

Yandex - Russian Street View

Russian search engine Yandex have added Street View type functionality to their online mapping service. At the moment the imagery seems confined to Moscow but it does appear that the whole city is covered.

Here are some direct links to some Yandex street views in Moscow:

• Bolshoi Theatre
• Entrance to Moscow Zoo
• Ostankino Tower
• The Kremlin

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More Russian 'Street View'

NORC

Yesterday I linked to Russian search engine Yandex's online map service, which has a street view type service for Moscow. In the comments to that post someone pointed out that NORC also has a map with panoramic imagery for Moscow.

NORC uses Google Maps as the means to navigate around the 'street view' type panoramas. Unfortunately NORC does not have links within each panorama, so you can't use arrows to jump to the adjacent image. Instead you have to drag the map marker to the location you want.

NORC also doesn't seem to have quite as much coverage in Moscow as Yandex. However it does have some stunning panoramas of Russia's capital.

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Friday Fun Part Two - Russian Street View

Yandex - Russian Street View

Russian search engine Yandex have added Street View type functionality to their online mapping service. At the moment the imagery seems confined to Moscow but it does appear that the whole city is covered.

Here are some direct links to some Yandex street views in Moscow:

• Bolshoi Theatre
• Entrance to Moscow Zoo
• Ostankino Tower
• The Kremlin
  

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Russian Google Maps Roundup

Aroundme

Aroundme is a very nicely designed Google Maps based social sharing site for Moscow. Registered users are able to show the location of their favourite places in Moscow and find points of interest added by other users.

Mirtesen

Mirtesen is a social networking site that uses Google Maps to show the location of members. As well as allowing members to make new friends and connections the site also encourages the social sharing of points of interest.

Sosedi-Online
This Google Map mashup is designed so that neighbours can connect online. It is a forum for people to help each other learn more about their city and the region. The site allows users to not only connect with other users but to rate and review local locations and learn more about their neighbourhood.

Via: Abavanet, Google Maps Mania.RU

Rusavtobus

Rusvatobus have partnered with Moscow's transport authority to provide an English guide to the city's public transport system on Google Maps. Using the map it is possible to enter your starting and finishing destination. The map then displays the best route you can take using public transport.

The route is displayed on the map and listed in detail under the map.

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Google Maps Directory Entries

Some bright sparks have noticed the "Add a Map" link in the new Google Maps Directory, and have already added their maps.

Using this link will not add your map directly into the directory. I want to avoid the directory being spammed so your map will only get added to the directory after I've checked that it really is a Google Maps mash-up.

If you wish to submit a new Google Maps mashup to Google Maps Mania it is still best to send me an e-mail. In an e-mail you can actually describe your map in more detail. My e-mail address is given at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Having said that, and to reward the keen eyed, here are the Google Maps mashups that were submitted via the new directory:

Fotodenucia GreenPeace

Fotodenucia GreenPeace is a photo-reporting Google Map mash-up for environmental blackspots in Spain. Anyone can submit their own photos to the site to highlight an area that they believe has been contaminated or may be about to be ruined by development.

When viewing the photographs that others have submitted it is possible to filter the pictures by category. The categories include water, contamination, transgressions etc. The map also has a nice clustering system, so that when there are a number of markers in one location a green plus sign is shown. Rolling over that marker tells you how many submissions there are in each category at that location.

Fishingmap.ru

Unfortunately my Russian is not as good as my Spanish so I can't tell you a lot about this Russian fishing map. From the website's name I would guess that the map shows great locations to go fishing in Russia.

Clicking on one of the tagged locations on the map opens an information window that contains a link. The link appears to take you to a page with more detailed information about that particular fishing spot.


Also Added

Also added to the Google Maps Directory was the previously reviewed eemap, a Chinese Google Map mashup that allows people to share their favourite locations.
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Finding Your Way Around Moscow

Rusavtobus

Rusavtobus is an impressive web-site that finds the fastest public transport routes between two points in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Ekaterinburg in Russia.

You can choose the starting and destination points of a journey by clicking on a Google Map, by filling in a form or by choosing from categories.

The suggested routes for your journey are then plotted on the map and the best routes are explained (as in the screen shot below).



The estimated time of each route is given, as are any changes you might have to make, the distance on foot to public transport stations and the cost of the journey. This site is very similar to the Transport for London site, that recently won a Webby, and is as easy to use.

Marwrut
If you don't want to take public transport and wish to drive around Moscow then you can use this driving directions Google Map for Moscow.

The map uses Google's driving directions, so if you have ever used Google Maps to find directions you will be familiar with the interface. To find a route a user enters a start and finish destination. The route is then plotted on the map and all the stages of the journey are explained in a handy sidebar.

Now you have no excuse for getting lost in Moscow.

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Belguim, Denmark, Spain, Russia, Norway: New Google Maps Mashups!

Great weather mashup from Norway!
Anders Eriksen sent me a tip about a great new Norwegian weather forecast mashup. The weather mashup has been developed for TV 2 Norway, with data from the Storm Weather Center in that country. Anders explains: "..The data is delivered via a so called Weather On Demand database, and you are able to click on the Google map everywhere in the world and get a forecast, wind, temperature etc. You can also playback an animation of weather symbols on the Google map, forecasting the next hours. The service is only available in Norwegian language thus far (with no plans for an English version anytime soon)." Here is an example for my home city of Waterloo, Ontario with meteogram, 10 day forecast, animation on Google Maps etc..

• Copenhagen Police Crime Mashup
• Mapping Mayors from 98 municipalities of Denmark (made with MIT SIMILE Exhibit 2.0)
• Mapping Monthly weather records since 1874 [Thanks to Soren Johannessen for these Danish mashups!]
• Belguim GSM Antennas Map (French language)
• Find family fun in Belguim (French language) [via]
• Sport facilities in Gipuzkoa, Spain
• Hotels near Madrid Subway stations (English)
• Russian GeoLinks geotagging tool

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Google Maps Mashups: Croatia, Russia, Ukraine

CROATIA: Interactive Croatia Travel Guide

If you're planning a visit to Croatia be sure to scope out this great country with this awesome tourism mashup! Accomodation, Parks, Beaches, Diving and other tourist activities are all plotted on a map. It will definitely make you want to plan a trip here! [via]

• UKRAINE: Map of Kiev - Includes attractions, hotels plus all the Metro stations

• RUSSIA: Videos of Saint-Petersburg From the English website: Saint-petersburghotels.com run by Vladimir Volya

• RUSSIA: Bar hopping in Moscow - An English language map showing the best bars to hit in Moscow.. A shout-out to 'moscowdoesnt' over at The "Moscow doesn't believe in tears" Blog for this submission!

• RUSSIA: Russian churches show up at Google Maps

• RUSSIA: Sosedi-Online - Russian language mashup that is all about local businesses, news and people.

Google Maps News for 2007-06-23

News..

Geocoding has recently launched in:

• Norway
• Denmark
• Finland
• Russia (for 24 cities)
• ..Back on May 8th geocoding was launched for Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Portugal

..This means you can now search for cities, towns and street addresses in these countries on Google Maps! Local business listings and a country specific domain name have also been added for:

Sweden - http://maps.google.se
Denmark - http://maps.google.dk (Check out Soren Johannessen's post about this..)

Other News:

Google acquires photo sharing Google Maps mashup Panoramio:

Google Maps Mania has long followed the introduction of Panoramio, the photo sharing site that lets you map your photos using both Google Maps and Google Earth. The Panoramio team is excited to announce that Google has acquired their company! Check out the blog post link above for all the details - And be sure to check out Panoramio!

New feature: Add your reviews to businesses on Google Maps - Do you love a certain pizza place or want to tell the world about a restaurant that makes a mean cheeseburger? Tell the world about it using a new feature on Google Maps - User business reviews. From the Google LatLong Blog: "..Search for your favorite places and click on the "More Info" link. From there, click on "Write a Review" to start giving your two cents."

Google Maps Tour Updated! - Take a look at the new tour on Google Maps to learn how to make use of all its features!

..Click the "Google Maps" label below for other recent Google Maps News!

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