The Best Google Maps of the Week

This week on Google Maps Mania we have looked at some great examples of data journalism. In the USA all the major newspapers seem to have been busy creating Google Maps of the 2010 Census.

In the UK The Guardian newspaper's Data Store continues to be a great source for data and data journalism.

And, in Germany, newspaper Zeit has created a really amazing Google Maps visualisation of six months worth of location data obtained from one person's mobile phone.

Verräterisches Handy

German Green party politician, Malte Spitz recently got a court order forcing Deutsche Telekom to reveal all the location data it had collected from his mobile phone. German newspaper Zeit has used six months of this data to create a Google Map showing how Spitz' movements were tracked over half a year.

The map animates Spitz' movements over the six months and includes a time-line that lets you check his location on any day and at any time of the day, during the six months. The amount of data collected is amazing (some would say frightening). His location was logged 35,000 times just in that six month period.

NYT: Mapping the 2010 Census

The New York Times has created a Google Map to visualise the changes in population in U.S. counties since 2000. Using data from the 2010 census the NYT has created a heat map that shows areas that have increased and decreased in population.

The areas shaded blue have shown an increase in population size and the yellow shaded areas have decreased. If you select the 'more maps' button you can also see visualisations of population density, racial / ethnic distribution and housing.

England Deprivation Mapped

The most deprived area in England is Jaywick Sands in Essex, according to this deprivation map of the country.

The Guardian newspaper has taken the Indices of Multiple Deprivation published by the Department for Communities and Local Government to create this Google Map of deprivation in England. The Indices look at poverty across a number of indicators to try and work out which places in England are the poorest.

________________