YouTube Space Lab

Google have partnered with NASA, ESA and JAXA to launch a new YouTube channel called Space Lab.

The channel is running a competition for 14-18 years old to come up with a science experiment, which could be streamed live on YouTube from the International Space Station.

Space Lab also includes an ever growing playlist of the most inspiring space videos from across YouTube and a real-time Google Map showing the position of the International Space Station above the Earth.

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Google Map of Nearly Everything

iHaochi

iHaochi is a Google Map that let's you explore geotagged content from a large number of websites, including BrightKite, Flickr, Panoramio, Picasa, Upcoming, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, and YouTube. The map also features "Local News" and "Local Tweets", showing news from Google News and recent tweets from Twitter.

The map even has a "Local Friends" option that lets you connect with Facebook and then shows you how many Facebook friends you have in each U.S. state. The map loads all this geotagged content dynamically. Therefore if you navigate around in the map the map markers will update automatically.

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Google Hires The Vactioneers

The Vacationeers, whose YouTube video of Google Maps was a huge internet hit, have now been hired by Google themselves. Google have hired the team to create comedy videos of a number of the company's products.

Here's the original video, Google Maps (Part I of "The Googling")



My favourite YouTube video at the moment, however, has to be this altered version of an REM song. It's called 'Map Of The World As We Know It'.



Maptastic!

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Google Maps Adds Video Layer

Google have added an option to add videos to Google Maps. The new option has been added to the 'More' button alongside the Wikipedia and Panoramio options.

If you select the 'Videos' option thumbnails of YouTube videos are added to the map. Clicking on the thumbnail opens the video in an information window.

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Find Flix Near You!

Geolocation Demo

The Google Geo Developers Blog has posted an interesting demo of a Google Map and YouTube mash-up that uses the Gears Geolocation API to determine the map user's location.

The Gears Geolocation API provides an approximation (WIFI-based for PC and GPS/CellID-based for mobile devices) of your physical location. The map then uses the YouTube API to load in videos that have been geo-tagged as near your location. It is possible to search for particular tags in the videos geo-tagged near your location. So, for example, it would be possible to load only videos tagged hotels near your current position.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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Dipity

Dipity
Dipity allows users to easily create timelines on any subject. The created timelines can then be embedded in a website or blog. That in itself would be a reason for great cheer but Dipity also allows users to geo-tag the events on a Google Map. It is therefore possible to show the progress of a subject both chronologically and geographically. For example, you could show the progress of the Lewis and Clark expedition in a timeline and on a Google Map.

That's not all, Dipity have also accessed the API's of Flickr, YouTube, Digg and a number of news sources to allow you to create mapped timelines of photos, videos, Digg posts and news stories.

Tickr
Tickr allows you to build a timeline of Flickr photos for a particular tag. Users can use the timeline to see when and where images for a given keyword, tag or Flickr user were taken.

Here are some geo-tagged Flickr photos of last weekend's Red Bull Air Race in London:



TimeTube
TimeTube allows you to build a timeline of Youtube videos for a particular tag. Here is a TimeTube of Google Maps related videos:



Newsline allows you to build a mapped timeline of a particular news story and Archaeologist lets you build a timeline of Digg posts for a particular keyword.

Simile
Simile is another timeline builder that it is possible to combine with Google Maps. The Google Maps team created this comprehensive Google Maps Mania timeline showing all the posts over the years from this blog. It is an amazing example of what can be created using Simile with Google Maps.

To use Simile with Google Maps you will need a working knowledge of the Google Maps API. Dipity on the otherhand requires no development knowledge. So, if you want to map a timeline, choose Dipity for simplicty and choose Simile if you want more control over the design and features.

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YouTube Adds Google Maps

You have been able to search for YouTube videos whilst in Google Maps for a while now but until now YouTube has not had its own geographical search feature. This means that in the past when you searched for say Paris in YouTube you would be shown hundreds of videos by someone called Paris Hilton (who my girlfriend informs me is not actually a hotel in the French capital).

Now when you search for Paris in YouTube a small map appears next to the videos of a scantily clad woman.



When you click on the map you are then taken to a larger map with a red polyline circle. You can move the circle around or you can zoom in to focus on a smaller area and YouTube will look for videos geo-tagged in that area.



This is an excellent addition to YouTube. It has been one of my biggest bugbears with the site that a search for a geographical location often returned videos that had no relation to the actual place.
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4 ways to use YouTube to promote your mashup

Harnessing the power of YouTube alongside your Google Maps mashup can help build interest and usage, as well as drive new users to your site. Here are some examples of how YouTube is being used across the web to promote Google Maps mashups with end users:

Demonstrate: Sneaker-Websites.com showcases their unique Sneaker Store Finder Mashup in this funky Youtube clip:

More: Ourglobes.com, MainBase.com

Explain: The creator of the Map My Name Project explains his vision in a YouTube video:


Blog: Embed these same YouTube clips into your mashup's blog using the "Embed" code found on each YouTube video page. Your mashup does have it's own blog, right? If it doesn't.. it should. ;) Also consider video blogging new features to explain in more detail.

Boast: Proud of your Google Maps mashup being featured on the local news? These mashup creators are. Show your news clip to others by linking to its YouTube video page:
WalkJogRun.com:

More: GeoGreeting.com and Where's Tim (his second appearance)

If you've used YouTube to promote your Google Maps mashup post a comment on this post! :) Be sure to tag your mashup video on YouTube with: "googlemapsmashup" - As of posting this, there are no videos.. Let's see how many we can get added to YouTube resulting from this post! :)

Related:
YouTube.com: Video results for 'google maps mashup'
ProgrammableWeb: YouTube API mashups
Previously mentioned Google Maps-YouTube mashups: Earth Album, Virtual Video Map, Ghcart, Jotle

New Google Maps World Video Travel Mashup

Venividiwiki (meaning "I went, I saw, I share") is a great new travel resource for those of you traveling within Europe or to places all over the world. It mashes up with points of interest databases and lists for things like activities, events, places, parks cultural places (some 50 categories can be toggled on/off). Points are plotted on the map and when selected display a video for that location (TurnHere, YouTube and DailyMotion) as well as an information tab giving more details and links for that location. (Think Wikimapia with embedded videos) New points of interest tha tyou want to create can be done so quickly and without user registration making this a collaborative mashup that gets fueled by its community. It's a fun mashup to explore the world using Google Maps and web video.. Check it out!

Related:
Lonely Planet innovates using Google Maps
Cool Google Maps Travel Mashups
Category Listing: Travel & Tourism