We Want New Street View

Update Google Street View in New Orleans! is a campaign to encourage Google to update the Street View imagery in New Orleans.

The Google Street View car visited New Orleans in 2007, just two years after the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. The Street View imagery on Google Maps helps to document the neighborhoods that were flattened by the floodwaters that broke the levees.

'Update Google Street View in New Orleans!' believe that the imagery, now five years old, is "out of date in a city that is continuously changing, demolishing, and rebuilding". The blog has published a series of photographs around New Orleans and are comparing them to the Street View imagery of the same locations to highlight how the city is being rebuilt.

I've used the photographs taken by Annalisa Kelly and Hunter King for the blog and created a little Street View App. The app lets you view the photographs superimposed on top of the Street View image. You can use the slide control to adjust the opacity of the new photographs to compare it with the Street View underneath.

Trulia's New Commute Time Maps

Trulia Local has today added a new feature that allows users to check out commute times in a number of U.S. cities.

Using the map house hunters can now check out how long it takes to commute to or from any location by public transit or by car. For example you can center the map on your place of work and find out all the areas within your choice of commute time.

A slider tool allows the user to adjust the time of the commute and it is possible to select either driving on public transit times. You can drag and drop the map marker to set the center point of your commute time request.

University of Florida Live Bus Tracking

Transloc has created a number of real-time bus tracking maps for universities in the U.S.. The University of Florida Transit map is good example of how Transloc use Google Maps to show the position of buses in and around a university campus.

The map shows the real-time location of buses with color-coded markers. The color of the marker indicates the route of the bus and the arrows show the buses current direction. Users can click on the bus markers to view the bus' destination.

 It is also possible to select a bus route from the map sidebar to view the route on the map and the current position of all buses currently on that route.

Carousels & Ferris Wheels on Google Maps

The Carousels Locations Map brings all the fun of the fair to Google Maps.

Using the map you can find your nearest carousel, amusement and theme park or even your nearest playground. Actually the name of this map is a little bit of a misnomer as there are many, many non-carousel related categories that you can add to this map.

If you look through the two drop-down menus, 'name brands and chain stores' and 'places of interest' you can find everything from McDonald's fast food restaurants to America's best hot dog stands.

Hat-tip: Mapperz

Hawaii on Street View

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Big Island

Google Maps has extended its Street View coverage in Hawaii.

A good place to start exploring the best Street View images on Hawaii’s six major islands is in the Scenic Hawaii collection in the Street View gallery.

It also looks like Google has added a lot more Street View imagery in the Czech Republic.

Via: Google Lat Long

Google Maps Sets the Pace

Taz Running can help you create a pace chart for marathon courses throughout the United States.

The application uses the Google Maps API to show the route of each course, mile markers and an elevation chart of the course. A pace chart for the course is shown alongside each map. The suggested pace is based on elevation changes on each course.

Initially the pace chart is populated with default settings like goal time and altitude adjustments but all the settings can be adjusted to your own running goals.

Driving Direction with Suggested Stops

Roadtrippers is a new Google Maps based trip planner. The application allows users to get driving directions between two locations in the U.S. and find points of interest along the route.

Using Roadtrippers it is possible to search for places of interest and good places to eat, drink and shop along a planned drive. You can search for points of interest in a large range of categories, including 'attractions', 'accommodation', 'shopping', 'food and drink' etc.

If you like the look of one of the recommended points of interest you can easily add it to your trip and the application automatically adds the stop to the finished driving directions.

The Hip Hop Map Guide to New York

ARTE - New York Minute: a Hip Hop Guide is an interactive typographic map guide to the history of hip hop in New York.

Anyone can contribute a story to the map by registering with arte.tv. The stories can be accessed by clicking on the orange map markers on the map. Each story includes a Google Map or Google Map Street View of the relevant location.

The map has been developed to accompany a six part mini-series A New York Minute. You can watch each episode of A New York Minute on the arte.tv website.

View Crime Around You on an iPhone

Crime Near You is a new iPhone app from seasoned Google Maps API developer Virender Ajmani.

The application uses crime data from the FBI to show the top crime hot-spots around your current location. You can query the app for a number of different categories of crime and the hot-spots for that crime around your current location will be displayed on a Google Map. 

As the app uses data from the FBI it currently only works in the USA.

The Geography of Incarceration

Josh Begley, a graduate student studying Interactive Telecommunications at New York University has created a website showing the satellite images of correctional facilities in the U.S.. The page shows the satellite images of around 700 U.S. prisons (which is about 14% of the total number of prisons).

Prison Map is a great resource for anyone who is interested in the geography of incarceration. For example it would be interesting to analyse the images to see how many of the prison buildings were influenced by Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon designs.

Josh used the Google Static Maps API with a little self-written hack to save each map tile as an image file.

To find the locations of the prisons Josh used Prisoners of the Census' Correctional Facility Locator 2010, which allows you to search for and view on Google Maps all correctional facilities counted in the 2010 Census.

American Legislation on Google Maps

Where a Bill Becomes Law is a fun and educational application for exploring the status of U.S. legislation.

Users of the map can search for legislation using the Google Maps themed search box. Bills that match the search term are then listed in the map sidebar. Selecting an individual bill will bring up its data, including sponsor information, a list of titles, the official summary, and the series of steps that constitute the bill's legislative history.

Clicking on a step in the the bill's legislative history will show the corresponding path on the map. The developers of Where a Bill Becomes Law say that the map location is provided to help demonstrate that legislative decisions are made in real buildings in the real world.

Toxic Waters on Google Maps

The New York Times Water Pollution Map is a Google Map of over 200,000 facilities in the U.S. which have permits to discharge pollutants.

Users can search the map by state. Each state map shows at a glance all the polluting facilities. The blue markers on the map indicate facilities that have not violated their permits and the orange markers show the facilities that have one or more violations.

If you click on a map marker details about the selected facility are displayed beneath the map, including information about violations, fines charged and enforcement actions.

Revolutionary Scrollbar Map Control

The Twin Cities Storm Ready Map is an interesting Google Map showing the time-line of a simulated tornado storm hitting Minneapolis–Saint Paul.

The map, created by Minneapolis Public Radio, shows the likely effects of a tornado hitting the Twin Cities. The simulated effects of the storm are partly based on asking people along the path of the simulated tornado what their preparations for a storm are.

The map itself features a really clever time-line control. To navigate through the time-line the map user just needs to use the browser scrollbar. As the user scrolls down on the page the Google Map stays stationary in position on the page but the sidebar scrolls down the time-line and the map updates to show the scenario for that part of the simulated storm.

This is the first time I've seen the browser scrollbar used to control a Google Map. Somehow I don't think it will be the last, as it is a very effective method for presenting a time-line on a Google Map.

Silicon Alley & Roundabout on Google Maps

Made in NY is a Google Map of New York's digital industry. The map shows the locations of over 500 homegrown startups, investors and coworking spaces across the city.

It is possible to refine the companies shown on the map by 'Digital Companies', 'Investors' and 'Coworking / Incubator Spaces'. As well as their locations being displayed on the map the companies are also listed in the map sidebar.

If you are currently looking for work in New York's tech industry then check out the companies listed in the sidebar. Those companies that currently have positions available are indicated with a 'We are hiring' link.


Tech City Map is a visually striking Google Map of the technology companies and startups in east London.

The map shows the locations of London's silicon roundabout area. The 'show networks' option on the map allows users to visualise the connections between the over 800 companies. If you click on an individual map marker there is also an option to view the latest Tweets from the selected tech company.

Born and Raised on Google Maps

Shadow Days is an impressive Google Maps based application designed to promote John Mayer's new song Born and Raised.

Shadow Days allows you to watch an animated Street View movie of any journey within the USA. To create your own movie you just need to set a starting point and choose a destination. You can then choose to watch as the application animates through selected Street Views from your journey route or view Street View thumbnail images moving along the route on a Google Map.

As the movie plays you can listen to Mayer's new single Born and Raised.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

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.

Find an Apartment with Google Maps

If you are searching for an apartment in the UK then Cravify is a good place to start.

This Google Maps application allows you to search for flats by price, number of bedrooms and by the date the apartment was listed. The markers shown on the map include the price of the rent and the number of bedrooms which allows you to quickly find apartments you could be interested in.


If you are searching for an apartment in the U.S. then you could use MyApartmentMap.

The application allows you to search for apartments by price range, number of bedrooms and within a set distance of a given location. The markers displayed on the Google Map display the price and number of bedrooms of the listed apartment.


Padmapper is another great resource for finding an apartment in U.S. cities.

The application displays apartments listed on Craiglist. It is possible to refine the apartments displayed on the map by price, number of bedrooms and by number of bathrooms.


Apartment List is another real estate search site that uses Google Maps to help you find a new apartment.

You can search for apartments on Apartment List by location, price range and number of bedrooms.The advanced search options also let you refine the search results by your choice of amenities.

Tampa Crime on Google Maps

The RAIDS Online crime mapping website has just added Tampa, Florida to its list of cities.

Using RAIDS Online it is possible to view Tampa crimes by type and by date. If the user types in an address each crime shown on the Google Map will also display how far the incident was from their home.

If you want to see if your city's crime data is covered by RAIDS Online use the 'Jump to City' dropdown menu. Cities in the menu are organised alphabetically by state.

Resource Intensity of Cities on Google Maps

Resource Intensity of Cities analyses data on material and energy use in 42 U.S. cities.

The application uses a Google Maps interface to allow users to select an area and visualise a heat map of population, material and energy. It is also possible to generate a downloadable PDF report for the selected area.

The PDF includes a Google Map of the searched area and a detailed breakdown of population and housing density, material intensity, material comparison, energy intensity and energy comparison.

The DC Circulator Map is a live real-time map of the DC Circulator bus system in Washington, DC.

The map shows the system's bus routes and the bus stops on each route. It is possible to click on a bus stop marker and find out when the next bus is due. When you click on a bus stop's marker you can also find out about nearby points of interest, including how far they are from the stop and in which direction.

The map also shows in real-time the location of all the system's buses. The bus map markers are color-coded to show which route they belong to and include arrows to show the direction of travel.