geo2web.com

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The moment they start letting people put messages in Street View is the moment it becomes worthless. How are we supposed to use this stuff if Google allows their employees to put messages in the pictures? I mean where does this stop? Does Google allow Ford Motor Company or Apple Computer to send their employees out to get their pictures taken with Mustang Convertibles and iPhones because they paid Google? I can only guess that Street View is a joke and those who really want to build a business should use Pictometry instead.

Work for Google, put messages in Street View

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As the Street View car passed Google’s California head offices, the Googleplex, hundreds and hundreds of Google Employees came out to form a huge welcoming committee for the passing camera car.

There’s loads of things to see, as many employees have clearly prepared for the event! For example, here’s a life-size yellow Street View guy:

Elsewhere, in a clear nod to our very own discovery of a fight on Street View, a couple of Googlers are engaged in a slight altercation.

In another self-referential move, a couple of people are taking part in a tiny Tour-de-France!

The in-jokes don’t stop there either - one Googler took the opportunity to make a “Web 2.0? marriage proposal! See his website to find out if she accepted.

There’s tons more silliness all up and down the street, as it seems the entire Googleplex came out for the event - so have a browse and share your best finds in the comments!

Thanks to GmapsMania.

Locations: California / Categories: Street Views

View in Google Earth

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This is very cool. Roman Nurik of the Google Maps team has created a driving directions simulator for the Google Earth plug-in. With Roman’s tool it is possible to enter your requested directions into the Google Earth browser plug-in and watch a car simulate driving the route. Check out the screen capture below.

My first thoughts on this are that you could use this to create virtual tours of any area on Earth or that you could add street view to this as well so that you could have a first-person view of the route.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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Chemical Brothers Tour Map

The Chemical Brothers are asking for fans to make a short video clip (from 2 to 20 seconds) or take a photograph about their favourite Chemical Brothers track and to upload the results to a Google Map.

A selection of the best work will be featured in a new concept music video for the Chemical Brothers. To celebrate the launch of the new Chemical Brothers’ album ‘Brotherhood’ videos will feature on a Google Earth channel available on September 1, as well as on the Chemical Brothers YouTube channel.

To submit a video or photograph you need to visit the Chemical Brothers Google Map of their current tour. When you click on gig on the map you are given that gig’s details and a unique tag. If you use this tag when you add a photograph to Flickr or a video to YouTube your photo or clip will automatically appear on the Chemical Brothers’ Google Map.

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Domain

Australian property website domain.com.au have reacted quickly to the launch of street view in Australia by adding the panoramic imagery to their site functionality. The Google Map showing the location of the property and the street view appear on the property details page.

When you are looking at potential houses on-line it is useful to be able to scope out locations with street view. Not only can you get a quick preview of the property but you can take a virtual stroll around the neighbourhood.

StreetAdvisor

StreetAdvisor has also reacted quickly to the Australian launch of street view. StreetAdvisor is a community sharing website where residents can rate the streets that they live in. The site carries ratings for neighbourly attitudes, noise levels, traffic problems etc.

Now it is also possible to check out the street in Google Maps street view.

Immobilio

French real-estate search engine Immobilio is the first European site to add Google street view. So if you are looking to buy a property in France you can now view prospective properties in Google Maps street view (where available).

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• Australia, Japan get Street View: Amazing — Australia is now smothered in blue Street View lines in Google Maps — including some of the most out-of-the-way places you can imagine:

  View Larger Map

  

  The Australian’s take: “Privacy advocates say Google’s gone too far,” though not, it turns out, Australia’s Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, which thinks Google’s approach is fair dinkum enough. Japan too gets some of its main cities covered. Thanks to Claudia Carvalho for the tip.

• Olym-pics not for the Chinese: Google’s recently updated satellite imagery of the brand-new Olympic stadiums in Beijing — which would provide ample opportunity for the Chinese to feel proud — is alas not available to ordinary Chinese, as inside the Great Chinese Firewall Google’s Chinese-language Ditu Maps service does not have a satellite imagery layer. Because, you know, all those domestic terrorists would never dream of using a proxy server to maps.google.com.
• OneGeology outputs to KML: It turns out that OneGeology, previously flagged on Ogle Earth but not tested due to browser limitations, outputs to KML, as Hypocentre points out Now that I’ve had access to IE7 for a bit, I can confirm that the exported view-based network link works great in Google Earth. All Points Blog also lauds the data, but comments that the site’s technical underpinnings is a bit dated. As far as I’m concerned, the KML links for the regional layers serve all my needs — it would be great to offer them as a list of options that don’t depend on a small subset of browsers or the map view — I know where Africa is:-) Oh and a KML layer with the key would make it perfect.

  

• 3DXplorer - new Java-based virtual world: Serendipitously, just a few days after Avi Bar-Zeev clarifies the difference between two different kind of “browser-based” 3D virtual worlds/globes (one kind requires a plugin be installed, the other relies on the browser’s own resources — which is a much harder feat to pull off) an avatar-driven virtual world of the second kind is announced: 3DXplorer. Tantalizingly, it supports COLLADA models of the kind made by SketchUp and found in Google 3D Warehouse. In other words, you can create your own virtual worlds on your own website, populate it with existing 3D content, and let anyone with a free 3DXplorer account visit. That could well be a winning formula, with a free hosting option for low-traffic sites and paid options that are competitive with Second Life, depending on usage patterns. It runs in java 1.6, which alas Apple has been tardy shipping as a default with OS X (it’s still at 1.5). The main constraint, I suspect: It doesn’t look as slick as Second Life.
• Mapufacture + GeoCommons: Geoweb pioneer Mapufacture, with its early support for syndicated georeferenced content via GeoRSS, is being acquired by FortiusOne, which is democratizing access to complex GIS databases via its GeoCommons platform. As Mapufacture’s Mikel Maron, Andrew Turner and FortiusOne’s Sean Gorman explain it, the two services are complementary and hence a perfect fit — Sean Gorman:
  

  The long term vision has been to eventually fuse the personal and dynamic data of the GeoWeb (long tail) [Mapufacture] with the static and statistical data of GIS (short tail) [Geocommons].

  I think it’s wonderful that there is consolidation afoot among the social geoentrepreneurs — there are some very big fish in the geospatial pond.

• Earthmine update: O’Reilly Radar updates us on progress with Earthmine, which is working on an API to integrate its “Street View on steroids” into third party web sites. Don’t know about Earthmine yet? You need to check out this video.
• Landsat to go free: Announced today: 35 years of archived Landsat imagery will be made freely available on the web by the end of 2008. The U.S. Geological Survey will be hosting the data, which is good news — the USGS is an enthusiastic adopter of KML for many of its other projects. Depending on how comprehensively this dataset is integrated with Google Earth et. al., we’ll soon be able to browse the Earth in time as well as in space.

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After a huge roll out of street view in Australia and Japan today Google have also announced street view imagery for more than 30 US cities. The new cities include New Orleans (LA), Baton Rouge (LA), El Paso (TX), Wichita (KS), Savannah (GA), and Colorado Springs (CO).

The Google LatLong Blog also says that “to give you even more of a reason to explore Street View, we’ve hidden a special surprise somewhere in our US imagery so keep your eyes peeled as you take in the views!”

Here are Some Interesting Street Views

Ramsay Street (from the Australian soap Neighbours)
Surfer’s Paradise, Sydney, Australia
The Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia
New Orleans French Quarter and St Louis Cathedral
Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Also Check Out These Street View Galleries

• Streetviewr
• Street View Fun
• Street View Gallery
• Street Viewer Gallery

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On July 1st, Starbucks announced they will close about 600 stores around the US. Since that time, many caffeine lovers in those areas have started petitions to keep their favorite location from losing its juice. And, the markets have had their reaction that this is yet another sign of a collapsing economy. But, even more interesting is that Starbucks released a list of all the locations in a PDF file. Last week, Keir Clarke at GoogleMapsMania took the PDF and scraped the locations into a spreadsheet. Then he used batch geocode and the Google spreadsheet mapper tool to quickly (30 minutes to do the whole ) create a Google Maps map of the closures. I was kind of disappointed Keir didn’t take the step to add a line of code to make his map available in the Earth API as well.

Fortunately, someone else scraped the same PDF and put the Starbucks closures into Finder!. Finder! is an excellent free browser-based service which lets you find, organize and share geospatial data in common formats. Including Google Earth’s KML format. So, here’s the Google Earth view of the Starbucks closures.

If you zoom into the placemarks, you’ll find it’s not always easy to find the particular store based on its address. Geocoding from addresses is usually not accurate - and sometimes places you a block away (or even more).

Just for fun, you can get a quick look at the same KML file in the Google Earth API plugin. Read below the fold to see it.

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Google Maps Street View in France (and a tiny bit of Italy) has certainly brightened up my week. However the rest of Europe may have to wait some time for Street View to appear. Well they will if all the Street View car drivers are as keen to win a Darwin Award as the driver who took this image:

Now what possible reason could anyone have to close a mountain road at 2000 metres? I know - let’s drive on and see:

Ah avalanches! That looks fun let’s drive on.

What happened to the road?

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Posted by Mike Pegg, Product Marketing Manager

We’re pretty excited about all of these birthdays that have been happening lately. The Google Outreach program just celebrated its first birthday, and Google Maps Street View is happy to also be going one year strong.

We’re also pleased as punch to wish our pride and joy for geoweb developers everywhere, the Google Maps API, a happy third birthday. It was June 29th, 2005, but it seems like only yesterday that we were marvelling at what context the Gmaps Pedometer was giving us for our running routes or walk to work. Who can forget how many great real estate auctions we were finding with 2RealEstateAuctions? Since then the API has been helping businesses like Ace Hardware map its store locations, and Trulia plot houses for sale. Thanks, Google Maps API, for making all of these great mashups and tools possible! 

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Curious how KML elements appear in Google Maps? Take a look at this sample file. Check any item to display it or click a link to zoom in. Google Maps supports a subset of KML features, as described in the KML documentation. Of course, you can view a KML sample in Earth as well.

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A few weeks ago, we launched two layers on maps.google.com, accessible via the “More..” button. The photos layer displays Panoramio photos, continuously loading in more photos as you zoom in, and letting you click the photos to see the info window with more information. Behind the scenes, the implementation is basically a GTileLayerOverlay plus array of pixel bounds specifying the clickable areas. It’s a clever technique that can be used whenever you have vast amounts of potentially clickable data, and a server that can render out tiles. However, I’m here today to show you how to create a similar effect using MarkerManager plus Panoramio’s API.

The Panoramio API lets you specify a bounding box query, sort by popularity, and output its data in JSON format. The MarkerManager lets you specify marker batches per zoom level ranges, and only displays the markers for the current viewport. Using these features, we can then do the following:

1. Create an empty MarkerManager.
2. Create an empty hash table to store photo ids.
3. Assign a listener to the map “moveend” event. This function calls the Panoramio API, sends in the current bounding box, and asks for the 10 most popular photos. The query looks like this:

   http://www.panoramio.com/map/get_panoramas.php?order=popularity&set=public&from=0&to=10&minx=-124.29382324218749&miny=36.089060460282006&maxx=-119.8773193359375&maxy=38.724090458956965&callback=MyCallback

4. When the query responds, iterate through the results, and for each result whose ID isn’t already in the hash table, add it to the MarkerManager for the current zoom level, and add it to the hash table.

The effect to the user is that additional photos stream in and populate the map as they zoom in - check it out below or here. You can use this technique whenever you have a database that can be queried by bounding box and rank the results.

But if you want to just put a Panoramio button on your site, you can copy the code & scripts from this example. If you’re a Panoramio user yourself, you can actually restrict the layer to only your photos by passing in your user ID to the API call. Developer Ade is experimenting with this on his ibizaA-Z site in order to just display his Ibiza photos.

Link to PanoramioLayer example

Posted by Pamela Fox, Maps API Team

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Michael Jones discusses geographical context and Google’s objectives in this fascinating presentation:

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MAPme.com - A Community Based Mapping Project

MAPme.com a social mapping site which allows everyone from travelers to special interest groups to create and contribute locations by suggesting ‘Hotspots’ and other information that other members of a map might be interested in.

Filters include ‘weirdness’ - in this case the ‘Dancing Elvis Troupe‘ in Tokyo

These travel guides are community maps where other members can leave comments or photos or even submit their own locations. Usually, these suggestions will either be added directly to each map, or they go into a moderation queue assigned to the map owner (depending on the type of map).

“Each map is like a new post in a geographic forum”, says John McCann, who managed the development of the site. “We have given the map owners as much flexibility as they could ever need in terms of being able to moderate location data, but we’ve also allowed for options for public and personal maps – public maps are generally a free for all, and personal maps are for mostly private use”.

Global Development
The development of the MAPME project took around 6 months, and was achieved on a shoestring budget by outsourcing work to all corners of the globe. Programmers working in the UK, Philippines, The Russian Federation and Australia patched together the MAPME application using open source software including the CAKE rapid development framework and of course the Google Maps API

Complexness
According to Robin Metcalfe- the lead developer of the project, the most complex undertaking was getting the permissions system right, and working out how to allow users to effectively explore a map that might have 500 or 500,000 markers. “We don’t have a map with 500, or even 5000 Hotspots on it yet, but I think our system can handle it”.

Community Mapping
While community mapping is relatively new concept and something that hasn’t really taken the online world by storm (yet), MAPme.com is also excellent for creating travel or city guides that are useful in their own right. Take for example this guide to Cebu, in the Philippines;

http://www.mapme.com/map/cebu

Future Applications
Apparently a Facebook Application, and Map Widget (built in Flash) are on the way, but for the time being map in can be exported in GPX format (easily transferable to portable GPS devices) or by KML. You can even keep an eye on any map activity by subscribing to the RSS channel for each guide.

MAPme is a great looking new site in the ilk of Flagr.com and Platial.com but on a global scale which is easier to use and better to look at. With the addition of an exportable map widget, this could easily be the best web 2.0 community mapping site on the net.

Map your World at http://www.mapme.com

Overall there is a lot of content already and subject matter that might call for some over 18’s certification but on the whole the site works well with the sense of being part of a geo-community mapping project.

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Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Maps Special Projects

If you’ve been following politics (or our blog) closely this year, you may have seen some Google Maps mashups from the Iowa Caucus, Super Tuesday, and the US state primaries–including an extra special primary map in Pennsylvania. We’ve recently discovered several other elections map mashups on the web that are just as interesting and we couldn’t help but share.

In order to better showcase these maps to you, we’ve created a Google Maps Elections Gallery that will serve as a collection of the best political maps mashups during the US campaign season. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

• Primary Results: Take a look back in time as you view the final outcome of the United States primaries. Check results down to the county level and measure how close the final votes were between democratic candidates Clinton and Obama.

• Fundrace: The Huffington Post brings you a map that tracks campaign donors by party, candidate, and location. Already have the Earth API plug-in installed? Try switching on the Earth mode for an even richer experience!

• Twitter: Use the Twitter map to discover what people around the world are saying about the US elections.

• Obama’s Journey/McCain’s Journey: Follow Obama and McCain’s lives, as written by Wikipedia. Whose will lead to the White House?

• Search Queries: Can search queries predict the elections? View the most popular candidate queries around the United States and discover historical trends up to six months back.

• Campaign Trail: A one-stop shop that showcases each candidate’s next campaign stop.

Whether you’re a citizen journalist, online news producer, or just love staying on top of the political news, you now have the opportunity to further engage yourself (and your readers) with the 2008 elections by adding any of these maps to your site.

To get the embeddable code for these maps, click the “Embed this map” link on any of the gallery pages. You will be taken to a new page where you can customize the size, title, and border of the map. Once you are happy with the parameters you’ve set, click on the “Get the Code” button and simply copy/paste the source code into the HTML of your website — it’s as simple as that.

Are you a developer? Browse through our getting started guide to view a list of free open source political content on the web. Use this content to come up with an elections mashup of your own. Once you’re finished building, let us help you show it off to the world by submitting your map back to us at elections@google.com.

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