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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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Tags: Google Maps·Street View
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Google today added walking directions to Google Maps. An option to view walking directions now appears when you ask for directions for a journey of 10km (6.2 miles) or less. Google say “we’ll try to find you a route that’s direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them.”
Google announced that this new feature is in ‘beta’ as “we don’t always know if a street has a sidewalk, or if there’s actually a special pedestrian bridge for crossing a busy street.” In other words Google’s walking directions might not actually always return the shortest route for pedestrians.
This is an excellent new feature from Google Maps and I’m sure that walking directions will improve over time. Hopefully soon we will get cycling directions as well.
Via: Google LatLong: Pound the pavement
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Tags: Google Maps
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It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and when it’s not too hot, it feels like a waste of gorgeous weather to get behind the wheel or hop in a cab. Doubly so when you’re traveling to a city you’d love to explore, and you’re pretty sure that you could walk from your hotel to the aquarium, if only you could figure out the way. You could try to use driving directions from Google Maps, but city centers are always a maze of one-way streets and no-left-turns. These driving directions from a local hotel to the Seattle Aquarium require numerous contortions in order to obey one-way streets and find a route under the freeway, taking you out of the way of where you could go by foot:
Starting today, you can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions, and we’ll try to find you a route that’s direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them. Just get directions as you normally would. If you’re going 10 km or less (some call this
6.2 miles), we’ll show you a link that you can click to get “Walking” directions:
Our
walking directions for the same hotel-to-aquarium route ignore the direction of one-way streets and make use of a pedestrian-only path under the freeway. This route is more than half a mile shorter than if you were to drive:
If
public transit directions are available for Google Maps in your area, you’ll seen an improvement to them as well. We used to point to your destination from the nearest transit station, but unless you could fly these directions needed some tweaking.
Now, we’ll give you step-by-step directions for the portion of your trip on foot:
Walking directions are a new feature for Google, and while I’m pretty excited about it, there are some rough edges that compel us to release it in “beta.” Walking directions work well for short trips in urban areas, but we don’t always know if a street has a sidewalk, or if there’s actually a special pedestrian bridge for crossing a busy street. There are still a lot of pedestrian pathways we don’t know about, and they might save you some time if you find them. We’re working on collecting new data on pedestrian pathways and on more effective ways to solicit your feedback, so that we can steadily improve this feature and get you where you need to be as efficiently as possible.
Walking is a great way to learn about a place, to get around, and to get some exercise when the weather is nice. You’ll notice shops, parks, and public art that you’ve been accustomed to zooming past, and come away feeling like you’ve really gotten the insider’s take on a neighborhood or city. Of course, don’t get too caught up in enjoying the sights! Please be careful, and be particularly attentive in high traffic areas. Just like if you were driving, follow road signs and signals along your route, and use good judgment about streets that can’t be walked (there are many useful websites containing safety tips for pedestrians).
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get out of the office for twenty minutes and take a stroll.
Posted by Andy Schwerin, Software Engineer
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Tags: Google Maps
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kmlwiki.de
kmlwiki.de is a German language wiki collection of interesting 3D views for the Google Earth browser plug-in on Google Maps.
The site has a large collection of views divided into a number of categories, including one for this summer’s Olympic Games. Sites are also categorised by city / town so you can also look for interesting views in a particular area.
kmlwiki.de is similar in concept to the English language EarthSwoop which also has a huge collection of 3D buildings that can be viewed via the Google Earth browser plug-in.
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Tags: GEO 3D·Google Maps
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If you are a little tired of all the Tour de France Google Maps mash-ups we have been pushing your way in the last week how about trying a horse tracking mash-up instead? After all why cycle when you can get a horse to do all the work for you?
TrackHawk
TrackHawk shows a replay of a number of horse races on Google Maps. The horses are represented on the map by a number of coloured tags. The positions of each horse in the race is shown in a ‘race information’ window and there is even a pop up window that shows a close up view of the race.
The map includes a ‘race control’ that allows you to stop and start a race, rewind the action or fast-forward. Currently TrackHawk has recorded three races at Sha Tin and one race at Happy Valley in Hong Kong.
I suggest you gather a few friends around your monitor and lay down a few bets before pressing play. If you’re really smart you might even check out the result of the race beforehand (not that I’d ever suggest you rip off your friends).
If cars are more your sort of thing TrackHawk have also produced a number of Google Maps showing car race tracks. Each track has tags explaining the track’s turns and a little animated car driving around the track.
The tracks:
Calder Park
Philip Island
Sandown
Winton
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Tags: Google Maps·Horse Racing
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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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Tags: Google Maps·Google Maps Street View
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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.
Although I have not tried it,
this site claims to preview your KML on Google Maps, which is certainly easier than tweaking you code, uploading your KML to a server and reloading it with each change you make.
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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.
- 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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Tags: Google Maps
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On Friday, I presented to the Northern Region Council of Land Trusts in Fortuna, California. The subject was using Google Earth and Maps as tools for land conservation. The work of local land trusts is very important, as they work cooperatively with the entire community to preserve open space, create trails and simply make our communities better places to live. Land trusts often operate on a shoestring budgets and rely on the honorable efforts of volunteers.
I’ve long thought that Google Earth and Maps represent great tools for these organizations. With little technical know-how or money, they can use these products to mark locations and parcels important to conservation campaigns and share them with the public. It can be difficult for land trusts to convince the public or government that a particular area is worth preserving, particularly if the land in question is in an obscure or remote location. Google Earth removes these limitations; you can fly people to any location and show off its unique qualities. Once again, it is all about geographical context.
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Tags: Google Earth·Google Maps
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Celebrating NBC’s Tim Russert’s life on a map - Virender Ajmani creates this map-based tribute to the late Tim Russert.
Travel: New mashups for the summer holiday season..
BeerMenus New York City:
…This simple NYC Google Maps mashup plots the loctions of over 292 Beer Menus, 1532 Beers and 34 Events to one map. Click any of the pins to reveal each pub or restaurant’s full, categorized beer menu, sortable by price!
Click the USA label below to read about many more US mashups that can be used to help plan your travels this summer..
Crime Maps update:
SpotCrime.com now includes over 100 US Cities:
This Google Maps crime mashup was previously only available for Baltimore. That has definitely changed! SpotCrime has added over 100 cities and several cities have their own Mapplet that you can add directly to your own Google Maps view. Combine real estate mapplets with the SpotCrime city you’re in to perform power housing maps search. Engadget’s Switched and TechCrunch also recently reviewed SpotCrime.
New History Maps:
Click any of the below labels to read about many more mashups within these topics or browse their categories along the right sidebar..
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Tags: Google Maps·Mashups·US
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Ride the Lobster Map
In a previous incarnation I used to pay the rent by juggling for a living. One of the skills I used to boast, but which has now inexplicably dropped off my resume, was riding a unicycle. I am therefore delighted to report on the Ride the Lobster race.
Ride the Lobster is an 800km unicycle relay race, taking place from June 16-20th, 2008 in Nova Scotia Canada. If you are unable to get to Nova Scotia to observe this event in person then don’t worry because this year there is a live real-time tracking map of the teams on Google Maps.
It has been nearly twenty years since I was last on a unicycle myself but I understand it is like riding a bike. Maybe I’ll enter next year.
Via: Google Earth Blog
Offshore Super Series
Also taking place this week is the Don Aronow Memorial Race at Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. The race is part of the Offshore Super Series of powerboat races and takes place June 19-22.
For the occasion the Powerboat Racing Association have produced a useful Google Map of the circuit. The map describes each of the turns on the circuit and includes an embedded video, presumably of last year’s event. Local hotels are also mapped with information on cost and room type.
If you live anywhere nearby then pop along to Sunny Isles Beach as the event is free to watch from anywhere on the beach!
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Tags: Boat Racing·Google Maps
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Senghor on the Rocks
Not related to Bloomsday at all but a literary event in its own right is the hugely impressive Senghor on the Rocks, ‘the first full-length novel consistently illustrated with Google Maps’.
Every page of Senghor on the Rocks is accompanied by a corresponding satellite view of the current location in the story. When the location changes in the novel the map animates the route to the new location. To achieve this the developers created their own extensions to the Google Maps API, such as long-distance panning and a moveable and rotatable arrow on the map that indicates specific locations.
The novel is presented through the interesting visual metaphor of a book. Each page of text is illustrated with a Google Map. Clicking on the page on the screen will take you to the next page of the story.
Another interesting development in this map is that time in the novel is represented visually on the map. The map gets darker and darker during the evening and at night, and brighter than normal at noon.
If you like the idea behind Senghor on the Rocks you should also take a look at The 21 Steps, which is another attempt to illustrate a fictional story with Google Maps. If you speak German you will like Senghor on the Rocks even more.
I can’t wait for the English translation guys (hint)!
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Tags: Google Maps·Novel
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Bloomsday (Irish: Lá Bhloom) is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses, and 16 June was the date of Joyce’s first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, when they walked to the Dublin village of Ringsend (thank you Wikipedia).
Joyce Walks
The project Joyce Walks is a Google Maps mashup which remaps routes from James Joyce’s Ulysses to any other city, generating maps which users can use to recreate Bloomsday anywhere in the world. Participants can then generate an embeddable map for their own website or blog.
Joyce Walks have produced a map of Bloom’s day in Dublin. Each location that he visits during the day is tagged on the map. Each tag contains the text from the novel and is accompanied by a short panoramic video of the location.
However Joyce Walks is a also a tool which generates walking maps based on routes from James Joyce’s Ulysses in any city in the world using Google Maps. The system prints maps to be used as the basis of walks exploring the city of your choice and generates maps that include pictures and videos.
James Joyce Walking Tour
The James Joyce Walking Tour maps a stroll around central Dublin, concentrating on places that are associated with James Joyce and the characters in his novels and stories. The tour starts at the home of Leopold Bloom at No. 7 Eccles Street and ends at Grafton Street.
Each stage of the walk is tagged on the map and includes extensive notes about the location’s relevance to either Joyce or his stories.
Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Google Book search (under the ‘about this book’ tab) includes a Google Map of places mentioned in Joyce’s Ulysees and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
A KML of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man also exists, which can also be viewed on Google Maps.
You Might Also Enjoy these Dublin Maps on Bloomsday
Just Routes - public transport route planner for Dublin
Dart Maps - real time tracking of trains in Dublin.
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Recent Google Maps Developer Event Videos & Pictures:
Google I/O Maps & Geo Sessions:
..Check out some delicious panoramas of the Google I/O event from 360Cities.net and be sure check where and when International 2008 Google Developer Days are happening near you!
Google Geo Developer Series:
[Via this post that contains more info..]
Photos and Videos from other recent Geo Events:
Google Maps Tools and Creators:
Developer Links:
Don’t forget that the Google Maps API Blog has been retired and is now the Google Geo Developers Blog!
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Tags: Google Maps·KML·Mapping
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Tickr
Sometimes the best ideas are also the simplest ones. Tickr is a simple idea but also a great one. In essence Tickr lets you search Flickr by keyword and location.
Why is that so great? Well, it means you can make some great visual comparisons of different cultures around the world. For example, the images in this post show some of the differences in fashion in California and Japan. I’ve just spent at least one happy hour comparing ‘houses’, ‘pubs’ and ‘businessmen’ in different countries.
The examples on the Tickr homepage include ‘architecture’ in ‘Rome’ and also ‘glaciers’ in ‘Alaska’. The latter example is a good demonstration of another feature of Tickr - the time-line. As well as showing the location of photos on a Google Map, Tickr also presents the photos in a time-line based on when the photographs were taken. This means that in the given example it is possible to compare photographs of glaciers taken in 2001 to photographs taken this year.
Other Flickr Maps
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Tags: Google Maps·photo·Search
