Finding Hotels in Croatia

Find.hr is an excellent Google Maps based website for exploring and booking accommodation in Croatia.

The application allows users to find hotels by location, price, rating and type and even view nearby points of interest. Two simple drop-down menus allow the user to select the price range and star rating of the accommodation they are after. Selectable radio buttons in the sidebar then allow the user to choose what type of accommodation (hotels, family hotels, apartments or private accommodation) they wish to book.

Categorised points of information make it easy to find what kind of facilities are available in the area around a hotel. For example, if you want to find a hotel near a beach, you can select 'beach' from the points of information menu.

The Oscar for the best Google Map goes to ..

Tripline allows anyone to easily create an embeddable interactive Google Map of a journey or trip. Discover Los Angeles has used Tripline to create this map of LA Locations from 'The Artist'.

The winner of five Oscars, The Artist is set in 1920's LA. The Locations from 'The Artist' map takes the user on an animated tour of some of the locations featured in the film.

For those who live in LA the map creates a great guide to get out and visit the locations used in the film. For those of us who don't live in LA the map is missing photos and the option to view the locations in Street View.

The Google Maps API as a GIS

The Kentucky Land Use Map is a very impressive Google Map from The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. It is another great example of the Google Maps API being used as a fully functioning geographic information system.

The map allows the user to view a number of land use data clouds directly on the map. The layers include soil boundaries and flood zones. It is also possible to click on the map and view the NRCS soil survey data for the chosen location.

A Guide to the World's Historical Maps

Old Maps Online is a great portal for searching for and finding historical maps in libraries around the world.

Using a Google Maps API application it is possible to search for historical maps by location and by date. You can search for maps by searching for a location or by positioning the map over the area you are interested in, and define the date with a slide control.

The search results for the location and date defined are automatically presented in the map sidebar with a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.

OldMapsOnline has been created by a collaboration between The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at The University of Portsmouth, UK and Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland.

Senegal Elections on Google Maps

OneWorld pioneer internet and mobile phone applications designed to improve the life opportunities of the world's poorest people. Senegal-Scrutin 2012 was created by OneWorld to help monitor the government elections in Senegal.

Yesterday more than 500 election monitors were stationed at over 1,500 polling booths across the country, and reported back their findings. These reports were then mapped in real-time on the Senegal-Scrutin 2012 Google Map. Red markers on the map indicate where at least one adverse report was made by the monitors and the green markers indicate where only favourable reports were submitted.

The real-time election monitoring map will be deployed again on March 11th for the second-round of the vote.

The Cartography of Sex

The exotically entitled Fukodrom is a Google Map for the 'worldwide adventurist love-making community'.

The map is intended to provide a guide for those who don't have access to a private bedroom for their love making. Currently this crowd-sourced repository has mapped 328 locations where people can have sex in cars or in nature, mostly at the moment in Croatia.


If you have just made love then you can shout about it on the I Just Made Love Map. This application uses Google Maps to show the locations in the world where people have just had sex.

You can add your own marker to the map by right clicking on the map, choosing 'indoors' or 'outdoors' and leaving a comment. It is possible to filter the results shown on the map by gender, by location and by sexual orientation.

The Google Maps of the Week

The USA National Phenology Network's Phenology Visualization Tool helps monitor the influence of climate on the phenology of plants, animals, and landscapes in the U.S..

The site allows users to select a plant or animal and view where that species has been reported on a Google Map. It is then possible to view an animation of the species' phenology (phenology refers to recurring plant and animal life cycle stages) through time. If you animate the species data through time, with climate visible, you will see the climate data on the background change alongside the phenology data.


Good baristas and café owners can be hide to find, especially when you travel somewhere new. Beanhunter is a website that can help you find great coffee wherever you go in the world.

You can search for cafés submitted and reviewed on Beanhunter on a really nicely implemented Google Map. The map includes the option to filter the cafés shown by ratings, the number of reviews and you can even order the results by rating, number of reviews and by the date of the cafés' listing.


The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan has released a real-time map of radiation measurements in Fukushima Prefecture. The Japan Radiation Monitoring Map uses Google Maps to show the radiation levels measured by monitors throughout the Fukishima Prefecture.

The measurements displayed on the map are updated every ten minutes. The map uses a marker clustering system to show how many radiation monitor measurements are available at different locations. If you click on a marker all the measurements from that point can be viewed in the map sidebar.

The Elder Scrolls Are Back & Bigger

Elder Scrolls Maps with Skyrim has extended its map coverage of the Elder Scolls map world.

Now as well as a map of Skyrim, you can view maps of Oblivion and Shivering Isles . All three maps contain categorised markers that show where important locations are situated in the game world.

You can now also submit locations to the Skyrim map with the Skyrim Geolocator. This map allows you to submit locations in the game to the Skyrim Map.



The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Oblivion Map is another Google Map of Oblivion from the Elder Scrolls game world.

The map automatically loads important game locations in the current map view. The locations each have links to a game wiki about the selected location.

Fukushima Real-Time Radiation Map

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan has released a real-time map of radiation measurements in Fukushima Prefecture. The Japan Radiation Monitoring Map uses Google Maps to show the radiation levels measured by monitors throughout the Fukishima Prefecture.

The measurements displayed on the map are updated every ten minutes. The map uses a marker clustering system to show how many radiation monitor measurements are available at different locations. If you click on a marker all the measurements from that point can be viewed in the map sidebar.

Friday Fun for Petrol Heads

The Daytono 500 takes place this Sunday. To help the drivers in this year's race Jockular has posted the Google Maps driving directions for a lap of the circuit. Basically just keep turning left until you reach the finish line.


If car racing is the kind of thing that pumps your gas then check out this Google Sightseeing post on the Fuji Speedway. The whole track is on Street View so you can take a tour of the famous track from the comfort of your own chair - vroom.


Google also has Street View for the Thunderhill Raceway. This video, shot from the rear of a Fun Cup racing car, shows the street view car in action.


The Laguna Raceway is also on Google Maps. A while ago I created this animated tour of the circuit using the Street View images captured by Google.


Finally, if all this racing talk has whetted your appetite, then you can try racing a car yourself on Google Maps. Mini Maps on Facebook is a great driving game for Facebook that lets you race anywhere in the world on Google Maps.