geo2web.com

::: via :::

360cities.net is a virtual reality network with panoramas from all around the world. They bring us fantastic depictions of the world’s beauty and human creativity.

They also happen to take advantage of almost every Geo API that we have! We were fortunate enough to have them at Google I/O last week, so we could sit with them and discuss how they do what they do.

To cut to the chase, you can watch the entire set of interviews and demos in one go, or you can jump around using the playlist custom viewer below. I happen to be a huge fan of their use of the new Flash API as they “flip things inside out”:

We talked about a really varied set of topics. Not only did we discuss their usage of the APIs, but we got into how they manage to deal with these huge images, how they stitch them together, and how they even manage to get so many of them.

You will see the process, how their data center started in a closet in Boston, how Lurch from the Adams family is one of their photographers, and the importance of the BBC Model B.

Thanks so much to Jeffrey and David Martin for joining us. A real pleasure.

Posted by Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs

[Read more →]

::: via :::
Nokia GPS Internal vs External
“The Nokia Bluetooth GPS Module LD-4W is for you if you’re looking for a navigation solution to send you effortlessly on your way. The lightweight, slim design makes this technology a great travelling companion” (AND DON’T HAVE AN INTERNAL GPS BUILT TO YOUR MOBILE PHONE)

Nokia GPS Module - it’s [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::
It is interesting to see how close the Edushi (short for ECity in Chinese and pictured above) maps that we recently covered are to Sim City, see ‘Edushi.com - Possibly the Best City Maps in the World?‘
The movie below illustrates a detailed reconstruction of New York in Sim City 4 by way of [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::
I was just emailed this great birds eye shot of the Garden of the gods in Colorado Springs. [info on GoG]

The elevation data stands up pretty well in 3D, but the Birds Eye shots are far more vibrant. Here’s a Collection of touristy stuff nearby that I found while exploring the area, including [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::

One of the most fulfilling things about working on a widely-used product is seeing what users do with it. A colleague of mine created this amazing account of his multi-night hiking adventure in the Sierra Nevada. He used a number of tools to document this trip, including Google Earth, topographic software, a digital [...]

[Read more →]

Jack may look like an ordinary guy, but he sure gets around, with the help of us of course - a small team dedicated to high quality Immersive Street-Side Imagery, and bringing mass coverage online.
Mapjack.com showcases a new level of mapping technology. What others have done with NASA budgets and Star Wars-like equipment, we’ve done [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::

In the light of the Ordnance Survey asking us to remove our London Model from Second Life and while we wait for details on licensing we thought it was worth carrying on the work but this time with a different dataset.
Thus while Virtual London sits on a shelf due to data restrictions we [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::
Our forthcoming reader contributed book ‘The Worlds Worst Urban Places and Spaces’ has spawned a companion entitled ‘The Worlds Best Urban Places and Spaces’ it comes courtesy of Russell Davies and Dan Hill.
To quote Russell on our notion of producing a blog reader contributed book:

I thought that was a really interesting idea, a [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::
Our Flickr pool is slowly but surely filling up with submissions for the forthcoming book on the Worlds Worst Urban Places and Spaces. The book is in the spirit of Web 2.0 in that its content is created by you the readers of Digital Urban.
Embedded below is a slide show of the images [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::

Now we have a route from ESRI’s ArcMap into Second Life it opens up all sorts of possibilities for importing geographical data into an environment that is ripe for public participation and collaboration type outreach activities.
The movie below details various population data sets displayed per London Borough, it is still beta but we [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::
Sure, stories about drivers getting into trouble because they blindly obey their GPS navigation stories are fun, but, as I mentioned in a previous entry, you can’t help but wonder about the bigger picture — i.e., why is this happening? In today’s New York Times, an article that tries to address that question: [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::

The good news: here at Google, we’re constantly increasing map coverage internationally: pushing out new tile updates, adding geocoding/routing data, collecting local business results, etc. The bad news: it’s not easy keeping up with the coverage and remembering where we have what. I can barely keep track, and it’s my job.
So, [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::
Can’t get to Chicago for the Festival of Maps? (No. Dammit.) Fortunately, says Navteq’s Kevin Lenane, there’s an online version of the vaunted Field Museum exhibit. “This is the virtual gallery we did for the Field Museum Maps Exhibit,” Kevin writes. “It is, as far as I can tell, the only interactive [...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::

Flickr Places organizes geotagged photos into location-based pages — even my little town gets its own page. Meanwhile, Flickr’s map goes from pushpins to tags, which may necessarily not be an improvement. Announcements: Flickr Blog, Yahoo Local and Maps Blog.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geo2web.com%2F2007%2F11%2F28%2Fflickr-places%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Flickr+Places’;
[...]

[Read more →]

::: via :::

Relief maps have finally come — natively, that is — to Google Maps with the release of its “Terrain” layer (the Hybrid layer moves to a checkbox on the Satellite layer, hiding or revealing street data). As is often the case with Google, they aren’t the first — Ask.com, Virtual Earth and Yahoo [...]

[Read more →]