Silicon Alley & Roundabout on Google Maps

Made in NY is a Google Map of New York's digital industry. The map shows the locations of over 500 homegrown startups, investors and coworking spaces across the city.

It is possible to refine the companies shown on the map by 'Digital Companies', 'Investors' and 'Coworking / Incubator Spaces'. As well as their locations being displayed on the map the companies are also listed in the map sidebar.

If you are currently looking for work in New York's tech industry then check out the companies listed in the sidebar. Those companies that currently have positions available are indicated with a 'We are hiring' link.


Tech City Map is a visually striking Google Map of the technology companies and startups in east London.

The map shows the locations of London's silicon roundabout area. The 'show networks' option on the map allows users to visualise the connections between the over 800 companies. If you click on an individual map marker there is also an option to view the latest Tweets from the selected tech company.

Isometric Maps of the World

Edushi has been creating interactive isometric maps of Chinese cities for a number of years. They have now created maps for all the major Chinese cities.

You can find links to all the Chinese city maps on the Edushi website. The links are all in Chinese. Here are some quick links to view the maps for Honk Kong, Beijing and Shanghai.


Youcity has created similar isometric maps for New York and San Francisco.


The Reykjavik Center Map is a gorgeous hand drawn isometric map of the Icelandic capital. The map includes a number of map markers which give the user information about landmarks in the city.


OpenStreetMap Isometric 3D Maps is a series of isometric maps built on OpenStreetMap map tiles. The maps have been created with open source software (links to the code on github are provided).

These isometric maps are not as visually effective as the other examples but this is an interesting open source project built on open source map tiles. I'm sure that developers will build on this platform and create more attractive isometric building models in the future. 

Barcelona Shopping on Google Maps

Eixos.cat is a website cataloguing businesses and empty businesses in Barcelona. The Eixos.cat Google Map of businesses in Barcelona can be searched for a huge range of useful information.

The Shopping Catalogue part of the map allows users to search for stores by type of store and by location. The map also allows users to search for empty businesses and business property available for rent and sale. The Industry and Enterprises section of the map allows the user to search for industrial sectors in the city.

Eixos.cat has also built a number of other Google Maps that examine data about the breakdown of the commercial sectors in the city.

Google Maps at Home and at Work

Street View Now Available in Estonia and Latvia

Google have made a number of announcements concerning Google Maps today. They have officially announced the availability of Street View in the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia that Google Maps Mania reported on yesterday.

Save Home & Work Locations

Google has also added a feature to Google Maps that allows users to save home and work locations. If you go to the 'My Places' tab in Google Maps you now can save your home and work locations.

Once your locations are saved you can use 'home' or 'work' when searching for directions to quickly add those locations and avoid having to type in the full address.

New Google Places API Features

For Google Maps API users Google has added keyword search and rank by distance to the Google Places API.

The Google Places API filters places by 100 different categories, such as restaurant, clothing_store, and bar. The keyword search feature allows users to search for places based on an arbitrary text string. For example, instead of just searching for restaurants you can now search for Mexican restaurants etc.

The rank by distance feature allows map developers the option to rank searched for venues and places by distance from a set location. This means you can now offer users the choice of viewing search results both by prominence and distance.

There is a good demo map showing both keyword search and rank by distance in action here.

Polish UEFA 2012 Stadiums in Street View

The Official Polish Google Blog has announced the release of Street View for the four Polish soccer stadium to be used for this summer's UEFA European Football Championship. Now you can use Street View to get a sense of what it is like to be down on the pitch looking up at the towering stands.

Washington DC Zoning on Google Maps

The DC Office of Zoning (DCOZ) is using the Google Maps API to provide a comprehensive zoning map for the District of Columbia. The DC Zoning Map allows users to determine the zoning classification for any property in the District.

When you zoom in on a property on the map you can learn different things from the map. You can find out what zoning district the property is in. Zoom in further and you can find the block number (the official ID the city has for a particular block). Zoom in even further and you can find the lot number for a building and see the building boundary.

Also See

Addison Zoning Map - zoning and ordinances map for Addison, Texas

A Google Map for Interactive Whiteboards

GmapGIS is an easy to use Google Map creation tool which allows you to quickly draw polygons, lines, labels and markers on a map and then save for later use or editing.

There are obviously many possible uses for GmapGIS. One use which instantly springs to my mind is that it is the perfect map tool for teachers to use with an interactive whiteboard. Using the Google Maps satellite view with the drawing tools GMapsGIS would be a great aide to geography teachers teaching geological features.

Teachers could also set students projects to create and save maps with GMapGIS which they could then present to the whole class.

There are obviously many other possible uses for GMapGIS, in and outside the classroom.

Autocompleting Forms with Google Maps

Ubilabs has released Geocomplete a jQuery plugin that wraps the Google Maps API's Geocoding and Places Autocomplete services. Using the plugin you can simply add a search box to a Google Map which will autocomplete suggestions as the user types.

You can also use the plugin to autocomplete a form with the user's address details. The plugin has an option to include a form that will be populated with the address details. Once the user selects a location from the autocomplete search their details will automatically be added to the form.

Street View Arrives in Estonia and Latvia

Raekoja Plats, Tallinn

Street View has arrived in Estonia and Latvia. Both countries seem to now have almost blanket Street View coverage on Google Maps.


House of Blackheads, Riga


Tartu Townhall

An Open Source Fusion Tables Map Template

Derek Eder's Searchable Map Template with Google Fusion Tables is a free, open source tool that helps you create a searchable, filterable Google Map from a Fusion Table.

The template can create a Google Map pulling in data from any Fusion Table. It includes a number of features, including, an address search (with variable radius), geolocation (automatically center the map on the user's location), results count (using the Google's Fusion Tables API) and the ability to easily add additional search filters (checkboxes, sliders, etc).

Derek Eder's website includes a number of maps created with the template. These include Derek's own maps, mainly centred on Chicago and lots of maps created by others with the template,

The Eurozone Crisis on Google Maps

In Spain the unemployment rate is a staggering 25%. Geografia Operativa has created a Google Map to show the areas that have the lowest rates of unemployment. The map acts as a guide to where unemployed Spaniards are most likely to be able to find work.

The map shows that Andalusia is resisting the downturn, with an unemployment rate lower than in Norway, as are cities such as Bilbao, San Sebastián, Majadahonda, Alcala la Real, and Palma del Río.

Via: Blog Idee


In the UK the Guardian has created a Google Map of Repossessions in England and Wales. This map shows which local authorities in the two countries have the highest repossession rates of people's homes.


CNN has created (a fairly ugly but still useful)  map that allows users to view a number of different economic indicators for the Eurozone countries.

The map allows the user to explore Unemployment Rates, Youth Unemployment Rates, GDP, Growth and the Debt of each of the Eurozone countries.