An Interactive Street View Campus Tour

The Rochester Institute of Technology Street View Tour is a nice narrated tour of the RIT campus using Google Maps Street View images captured by the Street View trike.

The tour provides a narrated guide to ten different areas across the Rochester campus. Each stop on the tour also features videos, pictures, and social media streams about each location.

The tour was created with Popcorn.js, an HTML5 javascript library for creating time-based interactive media. Another nice Google Maps tour created with Popcorn.js is History in These Streets, a virtual recreation of the Black Panther Legacy tour that the Huey P. Newton Foundation conducts in West Oakland.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

The University of Washington Campus Map is a great example of how the Google Maps API can be used to create a guide to a university campus.

I really like the building overlay on the map. Just the simple addition of shadows to the building outlines gives the map a nice sense of depth. Another really useful feature is a white circle outline that snaps to the interactive buildings on the map. As you mouse-over the map the white circle snaps to the nearest building. This simple feature greatly adds to the usability of the map, as it guides the user to the interactive elements on the map.

The map also includes all the usual features you would associate with a campus map. You can search for individual buildings and you can overlay useful locations, such as food, parking, libraries, computer labs etc.

University Campuses on Google Maps

The University of Arkansas Campus Map is a good example of how the Google Maps API can be used to create a mapped guide to a university campus.

The map includes all the useful features that you would expect from a campus map; you can search for rooms and buildings, find dining areas, view the location of computer rooms, see where parking is available and view bus routes through the campus. The map also includes walking directions, so that students and staff can enter a starting point and a destination and view walking directions on the map.

Another really nice feature is the labelling of buildings, which becomes more detailed the more you zoom in on the map. When the map is zoomed out the building labels are abbreviated to fit on the map but as you zoom in give the full name of a building or department.

If you want to create something similar with your own maps you can use the MapLabel Utility Library. Labels created with the utility are dynamically rendered on Google Maps using Canvas 2D. Developers can define the font size, the font face, color and alignment of the labels. The library also includes maxZoom and minZoom controls which let you define at what zoom levels labels should be visible.

Duke University Unveils a 3D Campus Map

A good university campus map needs to be able to help visitors and students quickly find the building or room that they are looking for.

If the buildings and campus are as beautiful as Duke University then it might also be worth pushing the boat out and creating a full 3D map. The Duke University Campus Map not only lets you view categories of location (for example libraries, residence halls, dining etc) it also includes 3D models of the whole campus.

Concept3D worked with Duke University to create the 3D models, which can be viewed by selecting 'Earth 3D' on the map. This will switch the 2D Google Map to the Google Earth browser plugin.

University of Twente Custom Street Views

The University of Twente is building a campus tour using the Custom Street View option in the Google Maps API.

The tour seems to still be a work in progress but already features some great custom Street Views of the 'Little Tower of Drienerlo' (pictured) and some Street Views that go inside the campus buildings.

The 'Little Tower of Drienerlo' is an art work by Wim T. Schippers which depicts the top of a church tower, giving the impression that a church lies at the bottom of the university pond.

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The University of Montana on Google Maps

I came across this beta campus map of The University of Montana today. The map includes a couple of nice features to help students and visitors find their way around the campus.

The Google Map includes a transparent overlay that adds interactivity to the buildings on the map. Users can click on individual buildings and get links to the building's page on the university website and to printouts of floor plans of the building.

The map also includes a nice directions feature that allows users to quickly select and find walking, driving and bus directions between different locations at the university.

Other layers allow users to view photos, art exhibitions, bus-stops, parking spots, places to eat and wi-fi locations.

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How to Make a Campus Map

Loughborough University's campus map is a great example of how to use the Google Maps API to help students and visitors find their way around a large campus.

The map uses the custom overlays function to overlay a custom map of the university on top of the Google Map. The custom map overlay includes features and locations that are not on Google Map's own map tiles, such as trees, tennis courts, football pitches etc.

The map also makes good use of polygons to make buildings on the map interactive. If you click on any of the buildings you can view the building's name, a photo of the building and links to its page on the university's website.

Finally, the map includes a very nice search facility that allows you to search for a building or feature by name or by category.

Loughborough University Campus Map

Hat-tip: Michael Lee

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Brown University on Google Maps

Brown University are using Google Maps to help students and visitors find buildings, parking lots and other facilities on their campus.

The Google Map uses a map overlay of the campus, which shows the names of the college buildings and is color-coded for ease of use. If you click on a building you can view a thumbnail photo and click on links to a video, a floor-plan of the building and its web page.

The Brown University Campus Map was developed by Fortune Ganesh.

Brown University - Campus Map

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Google Maps on Campus

University of Southampton Campus Map

Postgraduate student Colin Williams has created a campus map for Southampton University in the the UK using Google Maps and the University's Open Data Service.

The map shows all the University's campus buildings, live bus times for nearby stops and a number of categories of points of information. The detail for each category of marker is very impressive. For example, the retail category not only displays the locations of all shops on campus but also the locations of all vending machines. It even tells you what each vending machine sells.

The source-code for the map and the map marker set have been made available by Colin under a creative commons licence.

Via: OUseful.info

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Spanish Google Maps Mashups Roundup

Accessia

Accessia is a Google Maps based application that allows users to view and get directions to university campus buildings and events. The University of Murcia in Spain is the first campus to use the application but more Spanish universities are coming soon.

The map includes a customised and fully detailed campus street map overlay on top of the base Google Maps tiles. Users of the map can get directions to anywhere in the campus. The map includes options to view Street View, webcams and pictures.

The map includes the option to find any campus buildings. From the side panel you can get directions, locate any building on the campus or find details about the locations of upcoming events to be held at the campus.

Minube

Minube is a nicely designed Spanish language social travel community that enables users to plan trips and share their travel experiences.

Minube allows you to browse the recommendations of other travellers and benefit from their experience. You can then plan your own personalised guide for your journey. including the places you want to see, the restaurants where you eat and the places you want to stay. The site even lets you compare flight and hotel prices.

Minube uses Google Maps throughout the site to show the locations of recommended locations.

SendaCLM

SendaCLM is a route sharing site for the region of Castilla La Mancha in Spain.

Users of the site can use Google Maps to create or find hiking or cycling routes. Users can include photographs and videos in their created routes. Users can add comments to routes created by others.

The site has plans to add kml and GPS downloading of routes in the future.

Barcelona Research and Innovation Map
The Barcelona Research and Innovation Map is a Google Map of all research institutions, research centres, technological centres, scientific-technical facilities, research and technology parks in Barcelona and its metropolitan area.

The map allows you to search its database by type of institution, by geographic area or by tags. All results are shown on the map and also listed by name. If you know of a research location that is missing you can add it to the map.

Locamio
Locamio is a free real estate listings site for Spain integrated with Google Maps. You can search for properties on the map by location and type of property.

The site includes Street Views of properties. Locamio also has its own Google Earth Layer and its listings are published in Google Base.


Read this post in Spanish

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Texas A&M University on Google Maps

Texas A&M University Campus Map

The Interactive Aggie Campus Map is one of the best University campus maps that I've seen that uses the Google Maps API.

The map uses shaded polygons to display the locations of individual buildings on the campus. Clicking on any of the shaded buildings will open an information window with information and a link to the building. The map is fully searchable and has options to display car parks, individual points of interest and restrooms.

The map also includes the option to view 360 degree panoramas of many of the buildings and a number of map tools. For example, there is a handy measurement tool that allows you to measure the distance between individual buildings. You can also view local bus routes on the map.

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Getting Around MIT With Google Maps

MIT Campus Map

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has produced a nice Google Maps mashup of the university's campus. It provides visitors with an easy-to-use way to locate an MIT building, room, or location.

The map uses an overlay to show the campus buildings, parking lots, green areas, and named features. The map comes with a search feature that will generate markers on all matches. Clicking on a building on the map will also open an information window with more details and a feature to link directly to this view.

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Google Map of Towson University

Towson University Campus Map

The Geospatial Research and Education Lab of Towson University, Maryland has created a Google Map of the Towson campus for the university website.

The map uses shaded polygons to show the location of university buildings on the map. Clicking on any of the buildings will open an information window containing the name and a picture of the building and a link to the department's webpage. The window also contains a link to get directions to the location.

It is possible to select the buildings that you want to view on the map by category, e.g. academic or residence. It is also possible to select to view parking lots by 'permit parking', 'accessible parking' and 'visitor parking'.

All the buildings on campus and all the parking lots can be selected from drop-down menus above the map.

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The USC on Google Maps

USC Maps

The University of Southern California has created a map of its campus using the Google Maps API. The map uses an image overlay to present an isometric view of the campus buildings.

It is possible to search for buildings and locations on the campus in the map sidebar. The buildings are organised into categories of Dining, Galleries / Auditoria, Patient Care, Libraries, Residential, Athletics, Parks and Plazas.

Each building on the campus also comes with its own information window, that explains a little about the building and its history. The information window also contains a link to the building web page on the University's web site.

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Campus Crime Google Map

EMU/Ypsi Crime Map

The Eastern Michigan University and the City of Ypsilanti have worked together to create a Google Map mashup that geotags crime in the area over the previous 60 days. Crimes shown on the map are categorised into arson, aggravated assault, burglary, criminal sexual conduct, motor vehicle theft, murder, robbery, and larceny from a vehicle.

The university's crimes are almost real-time, whilst crimes committed in Ypsilanti take a little longer to appear on the map. From the map sidebar it is possible to select which category of crime you wish to view, whether you want to view just crimes in the university or crimes in the city and the date range that you wish to view.

Via: Campus Technology

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University of Ottawa on Google Maps

Google Maps Dev's University of Ottawa Map

The Google Maps Development team from ThinkWrap has produced an interactive campus map for the University of Ottawa. The map has some great features, including a direction and route service that can find the warmest route between two points on the campus.

Here is a video demonstrating the advantages of a dynamic interactive Google Map over a static image map,



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University of Arizona Google Map

University of Arizona Parking Map

The University of Arizona has produced a very neat Google Maps Mashup for visitors to their campus. The map shows parking spots, Cat Tran lines and university buildings.

The map sidebar allows map users to select the type of parking they want from, garage parking, metered parking through to motorcycle parking. It is also possible to find any building on the campus from a list of academic/ admin, recreation and / or housing and dorms.

Whan a selection is made from the map sidebar the relevant location is shown by a shaded polygon on the map. All the polygons are clickable and open information windows with additional information, for example building polygons reveal information windows that list the departments based in that particular building. Each information window also has a really cool 'remember' feature. When you select 'remember' the building is then shown highlighted on the map.

Via: Mapperz

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Universities on Google Maps

Tufts University Campus Map

Tufts is the latest university to build an online campus map using the Google Maps API. The map shows all the university buildings on the Medford/Somerville campus.

A really handy feature for students is that it is possible to find where all the wifi hotspots on campus are using the map. If you roll over any building on the map with your mouse the building is highlighted and a small information window tells you the name of the building. The buildings are also all listed in the map sidebar and it is even possible to use a search box to find a building.

SchoolBubble.com

SchoolBubble.com is a network of marketplaces for students at universities in the USA and Canada. Using the map students can post and find ads for car-pooling, housing, textbooks and jobs.

Each university comes with its own Google Map. The ad listings are shown alongside the map and it is possible to filter the ad results by category.

Study Worldwide Map

The Study Worldwide Map shows the the two major higher education ranking results on Google Maps. It is therefore possible to use the map to search and find the highest ranked universities in the world.

It is possible to refine your search for a university by the QS World University Ranking system or the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Ranking system. The universities are then shown on the map with numbered map markers to indicate their rank and displayed in descending order in the map sidebar. It is also possible to refine the results by country.

Also See

• US Universities -over 8,600 US colleges and universities.
• Canada Universities - a Google Map of Canadian universities. Each tag includes the university's address and a link to its website.
• French Universities - a Google Map of every French University.
• Spanish Universities
• Italian Universities
• German Universities
• UK Universities - every UK university and HE institute.

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Custom Maps With the Google Maps API

UCL Campus Route Finder

University College London wanted to update the visitor map on their website. Luckily for UCL they just happen to have the world renowned Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis department within the university. I guess it didn't take a masters degree in common sense to work out who to ask for help.

The resulting Google Maps based pedestrian route finder overlays a map of the university campus on Google Maps. It is possible to enter a start and finish location into the route finder and a polyline is drawn on the map and an information box appears detailing the quickest route.

It is possible to request a wheelchair friendly route and there is even an option to view a printer friendly version of the map (which really should be a feature of many other Google Maps mash-ups).

Office Plans

The Google Maps developers at Laudentech also have a demonstration of how Google Maps can easily be customized to display searchable floor plans. Using a floor plan as custom tiles in Google Maps Laudentech can map locations, assets and people within an office.

And it isn't just offices, Laudentech have applied the same theory to shopping malls and cemeteries. That may sound a little gruesome but I guess even cemeteries sometimes need to be mapped.

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9 new US Google Maps mashups (Aug.15/07)

• Boston University Google Campus Maps:

Nice new campus map that shows the campus outlined, along with parking lots, transit stops and accessibility options. More campus maps here..

• The John Edwards Google Maps Mashup - Maps YouTube videos, and photos from his campaign
• Craigslist Computer Jobs + Google Maps
• My Fashionable New York - Stories about NY fashion.. mapped
• MLS-2 Bay Area Real Estate - Homes for sale from local MLS databases plus other information
• America's Sweatiest Cities
• Kentucky Bridges Map
• SF Giants Schedules, News, Shopping
• TableHound (Newport, RI) - restaurant directory/guide for this tourist town