Tripline The Google Geo Developers Blog has a great guest post from Byron Dumbrill, Founder & CEO of Tripline. Tripline was one of my Maps of the Week last month.
Tripline allows anyone to easily create an embeddable interactive Google Map of a journey or trip. I particularly like how the map uses animated lines to connect each stage of a user created trip. In the Geo Developers Blog post Byron discusses how Tripline decided to use the Google Maps API for Flashas the best platform to combine the maps, the animations and soundtrack elements in Tripline.
Byron says that another advantage of using the Google Maps API for Flash is that it makes the created maps easy to share. One of the great features of Flash files is that they are easily embeddable (e.g. YouTube videos). The embedded Flash files also contain a full-screen option that can also greatly enhance the user experience.
The lesson for other Google Maps developers is that if you want your users to be able to embed your maps then you should seriously consider using the Google Maps API for Flash.
iMap Weather iMap weather is tracking the path of Hurricane Earl. The map also includes a great animated radar layer that shows the extent of the hurricane.
Hurricane Earl Tweets Mibazaar has used his Tweet mapping template to produce a Google Map of Tweets about Hurricane Earl. As the hurricane progresses north along the east coast today I expect this map could get very busy.
Ibiseye Ibiseye use Google Maps to show the path of Hurricane Earl. One very useful feature of Ibiseye is that users are able to click on points along the projected path of the hurricane and find out how close it will be, at that point, to the nearest towns and cities.
StormAdvisory StormAdvisory use Google Maps to show the track and projected track of hurricanes. The map currently shows Hurricane Earl as an H4 category storm. StormAdvisory also features a news ticker of the latest hurricane news.
Wundermap Wundermap are also using Google Maps to show the path of Hurricane Earl.
♪♫ Google Map's the only thing / To take you over the rainbow to the land where cartography is King. ♪♫
I love discovering new uses for Google Maps and I'm pretty sure that this is the very first rainbow predictor to feature on Google Maps Mania.
The map uses the regularly updated National Weather Service radar mosaic to find where rain is falling and combines that with current solar elevation and azimuth to show areas that have a high potential for rainbows. The areas that have a potential for rainbows are shown in red on the map.
You can quickly zoom into an area marked in red or you can use the search engine to look for rainbows near your current location. And who doesn't want to search for rainbows?
ihood Here is a useful site for anyone house-hunting in Germany. ihood is a website that can help you find out about a German neighbourhood. It can also help you check out the social status of your neighbours.
ihood uses Google Maps to help users explore the social environment of an area, such as purchasing power, education levels and professional status. The map also contains local points of information with user reviews.
When you search for an address with ihood.de you are shown the location on a Google Map. The map includes small markers over every house. If you click on an individual house you can view the house's social status on the ihood social thermometer.
There is obviously great fun to be had here in checking out how ihood rates the social status of your neighbours. Are you brave enough however to check out your own ihood social ranking?
I Will Kick Your Head Off Street View in Montreal has captured this friendly warning to potential graffiti artists.
Rainbow Nation Airforce One Google Maps has managed to catch for prosperity the inaugural flight of the Rainbow Nation's Airforce One in satellite view.
North Korea on Google Maps Google Maps is rather blank when it comes to map data in North Korea. College Humor has decided to help Google out by filling in the gaps.
The wireless power consortium, Qi, is celebrating the launch of a solution with a known brand - Energizer - attached, but the technology is still a long way from the mainstream.
The secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union has stepped into the lawful interception debate, saying that companies are just going to have to provide governments with access somehow.
Virgin Media is offering the BlackBerry Curve 8520 - reviewed here- in what it claims os the "most competitive"pay-monthly package this smartphone can be found on.
Nokia is backing ITV's X Factor with a dedicated application and exclusive content, but it will take more then Auto Tune to make Ovi a Christmas number one.
Guifi.net Guifi.net is a free telecommunications network in Spain. The network is composed of peer-to-peer connections. Guifi.net have used Google Maps to show the extent of the network.The map shows all the nodes on the network and the connections between the nodes.
Yata! is a mobile based social network for sharing upcoming sporting events, shops with promotions, upcoming concerts or anything else you want to share. The application, for Vodafone, uses Google Maps to show the user submitted places around your current location.
A system of positive and negative votes is used to crowdsource the best user submitted locations. The home page of Yata! even includes a Google Map so you can explore the social network from your desktop.
Mapa Furgoperfecto Furgovw is a website catering to the needs of Volkswagen camper van owners looking for places that they can park overnight. The site is a collection of user submitted suggestions for great spots where you can pull up and sleep when your are out touring in your van.
The site uses Google Maps to show the locations of parking locations. The map is not restricted to Spain and covers most of Europe and even parts of north Africa.
WhereMark WhereMark is another start-up trying to break into the Location Based Services market. Using the site's website, or the iPhone application, users can share and find find local points of interest. Essentially the site enables you to save and share your favourite locations with Google Maps.
To save a WhereMark you need to double click on the map. When you do so an information window opens that allows you to share information about the location. The information window for each saved location includes tabs to view a Street View and get driving directions. From the map sidebar you can choose to view all 'public' WhereMarks or only those submitted by you.
The site includes the option to connect with Facebook and share your WhereMarks with your Facebook friends.
Live Police Appeals Map UK website the Missing List has created a Google Map to display information about missing people in the UK. The data for the map comes from appeals made by the police for information about missing people.
If you click on a map marker you can view photos and a brief description. You can click through to read further details. You can also refine the results shown on the map by month and year.
The Missing List has also created a Police Appeals Google Map. The map displays appeals made by the police concerning recent criminal offences in the UK. Again you can refine the map by month and year. You can also refine the results by type of crime.
An audacious plan to provide free wireless internet access across the US has finally been killed off by the FCC, much to the delight of the cellular industry.
Google and Apple's bush war flared up again as Steve Jobs apparently cast aspersions over Android's activation numbers as he unveiled Apple's latest iPod and TV scrub-up yesterday.
An anonymous reader writes "The has been a lot of buzz in the industry lately about NoSQL databases helping Twitter, Amazon, and Digg scale their transactional workloads. But there has been some recent pushback from database luminaries such as Michael Stonebraker. Now, a couple of researchers at Yale University claim that NoSQL is no longer necessary now that they have scaled traditional ACID compliant database systems."
The British Geological Survey have a number of examples of Google Maps created with OpenGeoscience. OpenGeoscience is data that the society has made available free-of-charge for non-commercial private study, research and educational activities.
Google Maps with WMS This Google Map is an example of how to use a simple overlay of the society's geological Web Map Service. The map uses 1:625 000 scale data.
Bracknell District Caving Club This Google Map combines BGS geology with cave information in the Mendips area. It is possible to view the location of caves on the map and select from a number of BGS overlays to show the make-up of the bedrock and deposits.
Google today announced the release of sponsored map icons in the United States. It is an extension of a pilot project that started in Australia earlier this year. Currently business icons appear in grey on Google Maps. Now business owners can add their own icons to Google Maps, replacing the grey icons with their company logos.
Google says that sponsored map icons are being offered as "a limited beta to companies in the U.S. with multiple locations and a well-known brand. Google also point out that participation in this beta does not affect visibility on the map. The new feature is only available to businesses that already appear on the map, and whose default icons can be swapped out for their logo."
The icons will also be visible on Google Maps for Mobile starting sometime later this week.
