Friday Fun With Google Maps

XKCD - Working for Google Maps
I know regular readers of this blog will have been wondering how Mike has been fairing since he gave up Google Maps Mania to work for the Google Maps team. It looks like the guys at XKCD are planning to keep us informed:



Google Sailing Directions c15th Century
Gizmodo found this old print out of Google Maps Sailing Directions from the fifteenth century. The directions are for Christopher Columbus' voyage from Spain to India.

Unfortunately in the fifteenth century Google Maps had problems calculating directions that avoided the edge of the world. Google does give sailors ample warnings that they are approaching the depths of the unknown. For example, in this print out, after turning left at the Terrible Kraken the next five steps in the directions are all warning of the approaching abyss.

Via: Gizmodo

Street View of the Week

This mechanical elephant in Nantes is 12 meters high and made from 45 tons of wood and steel. It can take up to 49 passengers for a 45-minute walk. Some of you may recognise the elephant as it is a replica of The Sultan's Elephant which toured the world from 2005 to 2007.

Via: Google Sightseeing

Google Maps in the News

The BBC are working with CASA on two geographic surveys. One of the maps even made it onto television. One of the surveys if about a proposed car congestion charge in Manchester. The other is a Credit Crunch Survey.

Via: Digital Urban

Paragliding Simulator

ParaglidingEarth.com

Frank from the Google Earth Blog e-mailed me about this awesome paragliding flight simulator from ParaglidingEarth.com.

Before starting your flight you can choose the colour of your glider, your take-off heading, the wind speed and direction, the thermal density, thermal height and even the thermal size. When you are ready just press 'Let's Fly!'

Whilst flying you can use the left and right keys to change directions. As well as the Google Earth browser plug-in the game uses Google Maps to show your position at all times. The object of the game is to find those thermals and gain some height.

When you land you are presented with the results of your flight, including the highest altitude you reached and your top speed. You are even presented with a Google Map showing where you took off and where you landed.

Sorry but I've got to go now and play with this some more.

Via: Google Earth Blog

Also Check out the original Mini Flight Sim for the Google Earth browser.

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Reverse Geocoding With Google Maps

Google have added reverse geocoding to the Google Maps API.

Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of converting an address into a latitude and longitude. For example, the White House has the postal address 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., USA. But if I want to map the White House I need to know what its latitude and longitude are (38.89767,-77.03655). If I am making a map with the Google Maps API I can use either the HTTP Geocoding service for server-side geocoding or the GClientGeocoder class for client-side geocoding.

Reverse Geocoding
Reverse Geocoding is, not surprisingly, the reverse of geocoding. Instead of converting an address into a latitude and longitude it is the process of converting the latitude and longitude into an address. For example, if I was given the co-ordinates '38.89767,-77.03655' a reverse geocoder would be able to convert that into the address for the White House. To find out more read through the reference and sample code.

Examples of Reverse Geocoding
Google have created a very simple example map showing the new reverse geocoder in action. If you click on this example map the reverse geocoder will convert the latitude and longitude into a postal address.

MeetWays

MeetWays allow users to find a point of interest between two addresses. Let's say you need to meet a friend or client for lunch on the other side of town. Meetways.com ways will allow you to enter both addresses and the type of restaurant you are looking for and give you the exact halfway point and a list of restaurants in that area.

Using Google Maps' geocoder MeetWays can find the latitude and longitude of the two addresses the user enters and work out the latitude and longitude that is the halfway point. MeetWays then uses the reverse geocoder to convert that latitude and longitude into an address. MeetWays can then find the points of interest you have chosen around that address (in the screen shot above MeetWays has found the Pizza restaurants halfway between my house and a friend's house).

Reverse Geocoding Game

Pamela Fox, of the Google Maps team, has also created a nice game that utilises the new reverse geocoder. In the game players have one minute to pinpoint on a map as many postal addresses as they can.

The game gives the player an address and the player then has to click on the map where they think that address is. The reverse geocoder is then used to work out the postal address of the point clicked and points are awarded based on how close the guess was.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog: Geocoding... in Reverse!

Location Marker Editing
It is also now possible to edit location markers outside of the USA. When you search for a location in Google Maps the results are shown on the map with a red marker. Sometimes the red marker is not positioned in exactly the correct location. If you are logged into a Google account you can now drag the marker to the correct location.

This feature has been available in the USA for a while but I think it has not been available outside the US until now. I'm pleased to say I have just corrected the marker for my home address in London.

Via: Mapperz

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The Adults Only Google Map

hookupmaps

Seriously this map is for adults only and is NSFW.

This Google Map mash-up geo-tags the messages in Craigslist's "Casual Encounters" section. Currently the site is only indexing New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Washington, DC.

To help find your ideal casual partner you can filter the search results by location and by sex and sexual orientation. You can even filter out those who post without photographs. The results are then marked on a Google Map with little red hearts. Clicking on a heart loads the results into the map sidebar. Clicking on a sidebar link opens the original message on Craiglist.

Via: Wired

Buying Property on Google Maps

The Fitsrovia Apartments

The Fitzrovia Apartments is a great Google Maps mash-up designed to promote apartments in central London. The site uses Google Maps not only to show the location of the apartments but to display the plans of the apartments.

It is possible to view the floor plans of each floor within Google Maps and to zoom in on individual apartments. Each apartment also comes with a link to view the individual apartment floor plan in a pop-up window. The ground floor plan also comes with links to photographs of views of the building.

As well as viewing the building's floor plans this mash-up includes the option to view a map of the area with local facilities tagged. It is possible to view nearby restaurants, shops and notable residents and also view nearby photographs.

Concept / designed by www.universaleverything.com

Code by www.kleber.net

Client www.manhattanloft.co.uk

Imobilien

This Brazilian real estate mash-up shows property for sale throughout the south of the country. It is possible to search the map by type of property, number of rooms, price and area.

The results of a search are shown on the map by orange markers. Clicking on the marker opens an information window containing a photograph of the property and a link to the property's details.

DotHomes

DotHomes is a vertical search engine of realtor listings in the US, UK and South Africa. It is possible to search for properties by price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and location.

The details of each property comes with a Google Map to display the property's location. Also, where available, each property comes with the option to view the Google Maps street view.

MapMap

This mash-up claims to be the largest Czech real estate website. It is possible to search the properties by location and price.

Each property is shown on a Google Map with a small key marker. Each marker contains a photograph of the property and a link to the property details. Each marker also comes with a link to view similar properties.

Habiter-Ici

This French Google Maps mash-up displays property for sale in the Saint-Etienne area of France. It is possible to search for properties in the usual manner, by number of bedrooms, location or price.

Properties are shown on the map by a small purple marker. Clicking on the marker loads the property details and a photograph of the property into the map sidebar.

Emlak Haritam
If you are interested in buying property in Turkey you should visit Emlak Haritam. All properties are displayed on a Google Map and also listed in a sidebar beside the map. The map markers contain photographs and details of each property.

India Real Estate Map
An Indian Real Estate site that uses Google Maps to display properties for sale. The map includes an easy to use interface for sellers to add their own property to the map.

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Finding a Restroom With Google Maps

SitOrSquat.com

The wonderfully named SitOrSquat.com is a website and mobile application that has mapped over 25,000 public restrooms. In their own words SitOrSquat "is dedicated to telling you where the closest public restroom is and whether or not that restroom is worthy of your bare bottom."

The over 25,000 mapped bathrooms include gas stations/rest stops, restaurants, bars, cafés and health clubs. As well as finding nearby restrooms users can rate them, view photos and read other users' reviews. SitorSquat.com also say that members can create a list of their favourite toilets and share them with friends, co-workers and acquaintances.

SitorSquat.com's iPhone application can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store for free.

Also See
NYRestroom.com - A map of New York restrooms

Gears Geolocation API Updated for Wifi

The Google Gears Geolocation API has been updated. The Geolocation API is able to triangulate a mobile phone user's location from nearby cell-phone masts to get a position fix. Now the Geolocation API can also determine a user's position from WiFi signals. That isn't the end of the good news for developers either, because according to the Google UK Developer blog,

"there's no extra work for you as a developer. Gears simply considers Wi-Fi as an additional source of information and will return the best position estimate it can."

This move seems a direct response by Google to Mozilla Labs Geode, which uses Skyhook’s Loki technology to map the Wifi signals in an area to determine location.

The Google Code blog names three services that they say are using the Geolocation API:

• lastminute.com's new Radar application allows users to find nearby hotels
• ITN's Google Earth mash up in Firefox allows users to see nearby news stories (see post below)
• Rummble's social discovery site
  

Via: Google Code Blog: Introducing the Gears Geolocation API for all laptop WiFi users &
UK Developer Blog: Increased Accuracy for Location in the Browser

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UK Media Using Google Maps

ITN Story Map

Independent Television News have created a news map that delivers news based on the user's location. The map uses the Google Gears Geolocation API to determine the user's location and then serves up news for that region.

It is possible to change the location manually to retrieve news from other parts of the world. It is also possible to filter the results to read news from the last week, the last fortnight, three weeks or the last month. The map also has the option to view the news in the Google Earth browser plug-in.

Via: Google Code Blog: Introducing the Gears Geolocation API for all laptop WiFi users

iPlayer Map

Mibly.com has produced a Google Map with videos from the BBC geo-tagged and playable directly from the map. Because the map has embedded BBC iPlayer videos it means that only people in the UK will be able to watch the videos.

When the user clicks on one of the map markers an information window opens with a brief description of the video. When the user clicks on the video link a lightbox opens with the video embedded.

The mapped videos are also listed beneath the map.

Via: Mapperz
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Earth Atlas

Earth Atlas

Thematic Mapping has produced Earth Atlas, a prototype web application for viewing KML files with the Google Earth plugin.

Earth Atlas comes with links to many of Thematic Mapping's own KMLs. It is also possible to view any KML file in Earth Atlas by pasting the address into the 'Your KML' panel in the left hand sidebar or by adding the KML to theEath atlas URL, like in this example:

http://earthatlas.info/?kml=http://www.nature.com/nature/googleearth/avianflu1.kml

Earth Atlas' panel interface is very well designed. A left hand side panel displays the KML links and it can be collapsed to expand the Google Earth view. Additional information about the KML is displayed in a panel under the Google Earth view. This panel can also be collapsed.

Thematic mapping have released Earth Atlas under a GNU General Public License v3, so it is possible for other developers to create their own versions. This is exactly what Soren Johannessen has done.

K2 Gaiaprojector

Soren has created a Danish language version of Earth Atlas, which he is calling K2 Gaiaprojector.

Soren's K2 Gaiaprojector displays a number of Soren's own excellent KMLs about Denmark. The KMLs are arranged into a number of categories, such as culture, statistics and environment. Of course if you prefer you can also view all of the KMLs in Google Earth. The link for each KML is provided at the bottom of the screen.

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Book a Hostel on Google Maps

Hostelworld.com

Hostelworld.com is an on-line directory for hostels, budget accommodation centres and package tours. The site was nominated for an Inspired IT award in Ireland for their inspired use of Google Maps.

You can search from the over 17,000 hostels directly from a Google Map using a search box or a drop down menu. You can also use the map to create routes, save your favourite hostels and check past and future bookings.

The map also includes an innovative breadcrumb trail. When you zoom in on an individual city breadcrumb links are provided at the top of the map, which you can use to quickly zoom the map to a country view, a continent view or a world view.

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