Recycling Google Maps Driving Directions

Rota da Reciclagem is a Google Maps based application that provides Brazilians with driving directions to their nearest recycling centre.

Users of the application can enter their home address and the map will automatically display a polygon showing the route to the nearest recycling centre. A map marker displays the user's home location. Click on the map marker and a link is provided to view turn-by-turn directions to the recycling centre.

Search for Properties Near Your Friends

A new website allows you to search for real-estate properties in the areas where your friends are most socially active.

UK classified search engine Adzuna's interesting new approach to real-estate search mapping, Friend Map, allows users to connect a real-estate listings Google Map with their Facebook account.

The map shows the location of properties for sale and rent and also allows users to see where their friends live and check-in. The map shows the check-in data for the past year of a user's Facebook friends and also provides links to search for properties in different locations.

Using the map you can determine the areas where you friends live and play and, if you want, search for properties in those areas.

Via: The Next Web

Barcelona's Mobile Friendly Websites Map

According to Google if smart-phone users have a poor mobile browsing experience 61% of them won't visit a website again. To coincide with the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Google have partnered with the Barcelona City Council to create Barcelona Go Mobile.

For the initiative Google helped businesses and landmarks in Barcelona optimise their websites for mobile phones. The Barcelona Go Mobile Google Map is a guide to mobile friendly websites in the Catalan capital.

The map allows users to search and find mobile friendly websites via a number of categories (culture, hotels, restaurants etc). If you click on a marker you can view screenshots of the selected website before and after it was optimised for mobile browsing. You can also click on the screenshots to visit the selected location's mobile website.

Via: Technomaps

Australia's New Broadband Network Map

In Australia a new broadband network is being rolled out. Over the next ten years over 200,000 km of fibre-optic cable will be deployed across the country and up to 6,000 homes a day will be connected to the new network.

Australians can use the NBN Rollout Google Map to see when their homes will be connected to the network. Users of the map can search by address, postcode or suburb and find out if NBN work is underway or planned to commence soon in their area.

Some areas on the map may not appear on the rollout plan, as the map only shows areas where plans for the national network have been announced so far.

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.

Plant & Animal Life Cycles on Google Maps

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.

It is also possible to view climate data on the same map. Users can view maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation either by month or annually. If you animate species data through time, with climate visible, you will see the climate data on the background change alongside the phenology data.

GatheringPoint: Trying to Map Everything

GatheringPoint is an interesting application that displays a lot of local information on a Google Map.

It is difficult to give a full run down of what information that you can view on this map, as there is just so much on offer. Via a 'social layer' you can view nearby Tweets, the location of your Facebook friends, your Foursquare and Gowalla check-ins and photos submitted to Instagram.

If you want to know what is going on in your area you can view upcoming events from Meetup, Event Brite and Conference Hound. You can also use GatheringPoint to view all kinds of nearby points of interest and you can even find nearby deals and coupons.

If that wasn't enough you can also view traffic, YouTube videos and webcams.

Google Underwater Sea View

Google Sightseeing has a great post today on Google Maps' plans for underwater Street View images of the Great Barrier Reef. In partnership with the University of Queensland Google will create an underwater Street View tour of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in September of this year.

If you want to get some idea of what Sea View will look like then check out the amazing underwater panoramas at Catlin SeaView. If you are intrigued about the type of equipment required for capturing these Sea View images then I recommend you read the Google Sightseeing post.

Auto-Rickshaw Fares on Google Maps

In India auto-rickshaws are highly unregulated and drivers often charge customers not on a fixed fare system but based on what they think the customer is willing to pay.

MeterPodu is an application designed to try and crowd-source auto-rickshaw fare information in a number of Indian cities and tell passengers what the approximate auto-rickshaw fare should be for their journey.

Using MeterPodu commuters can add their journey details to a Google Map and view the average fare charged for that journey based on what other users have been charged. Passengers then at least have some ammunition in the inevitable haggling over the fare with the auto-rickshaw driver.

Give me the Coffee on Google Maps

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.

Beanhunter is also available as a handy app for iPhones and Android phones.

Nuke That Google Map

NUKEMAP is a nuclear bomb effects calculator for Google Maps. The calculator allows the user to select a location on Google Maps and view the likely effects of a nuclear bomb on the surrounding area.

The calculator includes a number of features, including radii effects polygons showing the extent of the likely fireball, radiation fallout and air blast. The map also allows the user to determine the size of the bomb or select from a number of historical nuclear bombs.

Would I Survive a Nuke? is another little Google Maps application that allows you to see the likely effect of a nuclear bomb falling on any location.

The application allows you to select a location, the size of the bomb and view the likely effects of the bomb striking at your chosen location.

Ground Zero II is a similar application that includes more bomb choices and also includes a wind direction selector that will show you the likely fallout area of a nuclear bomb striking at a particular location.

If you are interested in knowing where the nuclear warheads near you actually are then you should check out the Mother Jones Nuclear Facilities Map. This map of the USA shows where the military stores its nuclear warheads, nuclear labs and civilian nuclear power plants.

Alternative Entrepreneurs on Google Maps

Citizens in the Lab is a Google Map of interesting projects in new kinds of employment and social enterprises which embody "new values, cultural centres, galleries, projects and teams".

As an example of the kind of projects Citizens in the Lab is interested in they point to how Brixton Village in London was re-energised by young entrepreneurs and artists working together to revitalize a fading historic market. The map includes similar types of co-operative projects around the world.

If you know of any projects that are missing from the map you can add them by registering with CommunityWalk.

The Russian Street View Gallery

The new release of Street View in Russia has captured some great images of buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I've started to put together a Russian Street View Gallery to showcase some of the best Street Views in Russia.

The gallery uses the Google Street View Image API to provide preview images of the Street Views in the gallery. Just click on any of the small thumbnail images to view the full Street View in the full Google Map.

Street View Launched in Russia

Red Square

Google Maps now has Street View imagery in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. There is also a little pocket of Street View around the Qolsharif Mosque in Kazan. Street View Fun also discovered that one street in Lodz, in Poland has also been given Street View.

In Moscow you can now take a virtual stroll on Google Maps around Red Square and the Kremlin. In St.Petersburg you can stroll around the whole UNESCO Heritage site of the centre of St. Petersburg. This includes the Winter Palace and The Peter and Paul Fortress.


The Peterhof Palace, St.Petersburg

Some more Russian landmarks that can now be viewed in Street View are:

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow
The Peterhof Palace, St.Petersburg (and all the Palace gardens)
The Old St.Petersburg Stock Exchange
The Church of the Saviour on Blood, St Petersburg

Via: Google Lat Long

The London Mugging Map

UK charity Witness Confident has launched a new Google Map called StreetViolence.org that allows victims of street robberies and assaults to add the crime to a Google Map. The charity believe the map will alert the community to potential risks, allow victims to post appeals for witnesses and can be used to thank passers-by who helped.

The UK government already provides a crime map for all of England and Wales, which is available at Police.uk. However Witness Confident argue that the government's map does not allow users to distinguish violent crime carried out by strangers from domestic or acquaintance violence, which leads users to believe that 'the risk to them of violent crime is worse than it is'.

Currently the map appears to be populated with 'Test Markers' which I'm pretty certain will also lead users to believe that crime is worse than it is. Presumably the test markers will be removed soon.

Avoid the Cones - Driving Directions

ZoneCone shows the location of traffic cones (and therefore annoying roadworks) in Montreal Canada. On its own that would be a useful application for drivers but ZoneCone includes driving directions as well - so drivers can now get directions that avoid all those time consuming delays caused by roadworks.

The driving directions work similarly to the normal Google Maps driving directions. However ZoneCone also gives you warnings about all the road obstructions that you are likely to encounter on the route. In addition each warning comes with the starting and end dates of the planned work being carried out.

The suggested route that appears on the map is also editable. Users can therefore drag the route around obstructions and avoid all those annoying road cones.

Google Maps of Phytophthora Infestans

Phytophthora infestans causes the serious potato disease known as late blight or potato blight. The organism can also infect tomatoes. The IPCC Tomato-Potato Smith Late Blight Map shows the current conditions for the disease throughout the United States.

The map uses three colors of map marker to show where there are currently low conditions for the disease, where spores are forming and where infection is possible. The map is updated daily and it is possible to view the daily maps produced going back to 2009.

A Video Map of the London Olympics Park

The Guardian's Alternative Olympics Park Tour is an interesting mapped video guide to the 2012 London Olympics Park and the surrounding area in east London.

The tour starts in north Hackney and winds along the Lea River into the Olympics Park. The route is displayed on a Google Map and points of interest along the way are indicated with numbered map markers. If you click on a map marker you can view a video introduction given by Simon Cole, of Hackney Tours.

The map does work well as an introduction to the 2012 Olympics Park but I can't understand why The Guardian removed the navigation controls from the map. If you are going to include a map in your tour why then make the map difficult to navigate?

Record Your Ski Runs with Google Maps

Recon Instruments make micro optics display systems with GPS tracking technology for outdoor sports - in effect a heads up display for your ski goggles.

The HUD lets you view maps and statistics, such as your current speed and altitude. The devices can also record your ski runs, which you can replay later on a Google Map. The Google Map animated replays of your ski runs show your route, your current speed and altitude and some impressive statistics such as your average and maximum speed and altitude during your run.

The home page of the Recon Instruments website shows recent recorded ski runs by users, so even if you haven't bought a HUD you can view the ski runs added by those who have. The home page also features a Google Map of added runs so you can search for recorded ski runs on your favourite pistes throughout the world.

Google Maps Chrome Extensions

ShowOnMap is a handy Chrome extension that highlights all the location keywords on a web page and shows them in a pop-up map, without disturbing the user's browsing experience.

Using this extension whenever you browse the web you can click on any location and immediately view it on a Google Map without having to leave the web page.


Carbon Footprint for Google Maps is a browser extension for Chrome that automatically estimates the total CO2 emission for a driving route. The estimation is shown in Google Maps next to each stage's distance.

To see how many trees you need to plant and how long you need to wait for them to offset the displayed CO2 emission, just hover the mouse over the estimation.

Full-Screen Google Maps is a Chrome Extension that adds a 'view in full-screen' button to Google Maps.

When you browse Google Maps you can hit the button and elements in Google Maps that take up screen space (such as the panel or the search bar) are then removed from the screen.

Your Twitter Friends on Google Maps

Twitter Friends Map lets you view the people you follow on a Google Map. Once you connect the map with your Twitter account you can view the locations of all the people you follow on Twitter.

The map includes a novel marker clustering solution. Clusters of your friends are shown by a number within a white circle marker. If you mouse-over the marker it expands to display the profile pictures of your friends.

If you like the map or the marker clustering solution you can view the code on gihub.

The Google Maps of the Week

The idea of providing coupons in context is inspired. Vyaggio is a great application for getting driving directions with coupon deals at rest stops along your route, so not only do you get directions but you get news of great deals to be had on your journey.

If you don't want driving directions that's fine as well. You can also use Vyaggio to find restaurants, shops, hotels and cafes offering coupon deals in European towns. The coupons can be searched by location and filtered by category.


Another app providing deals in context is Wo-Wollen-Wir-Essen.de (where shall we eat?). Imagine it is lunch time and you want to eat. Wouldn't it be great if you could turn on your phone and view nearby restaurants with great lunch-time deals?

Wollen-Wir-Essen.de is a German Google Maps based website and mobile application that does exactly that. Using the app you can quickly see and browse through local restaurants' lunchtime offers on a handy Google Map.

Currently the site has lots of suggestions for where you can eat during the day in Hamburg. Coverage outside Hamburg is currently patchy but I'm sure that will improve as the app's popularity grows.


Sketchmap.co.uk, is an application for creating and sharing maps with friends. It is a great tool for quickly sketching out a location or a route that you need to share with others.

No registration is necessary and the provided drawing tools are very easy to use, so you can create and share a map with Sketchmap in a matter of seconds. As well as the handy drawing tools the map has available a number of layers, including administrative boundaries, listed buildings, scenic interests and geology.

Street View - Hot or Not?

Beautiful Streets is an interesting 'pairwise survey' from OpenPlans to find out how people perceive different urban environments.

The survey presents a series of Street View images of two different streets and asks the user to simply choose which is more beautiful. The Street Views are randomly selected from 200 streets in Philadelphia.


MIT's Place Pulse project is a crowd-sourced experiment also examining people's perceptions of different urban environments.

The project presents two Street View images from Google Maps and asks users to vote for which place looks more 'unique', 'safer' or 'upper class'.

As well as contributing to the research by answering the questions you can view the results and view which of the Street Views appear most or least safe, unique or upper-class to the majority of respondents.

Real-Time Marijuana Prices Mapped

The latest trend in retail mapping appears to be tracking the street price of marijuana. Cannaberg.com is a Google Map monitoring the current strains and prices of weed at different locations around the world.

This isn't exactly a new idea. The guys behind The Price of Weed have long been enterprising supporters of the free market in wacky baccy. In order to gauge the true street value of this globally traded product the Price of Weed are also trying to crowdsource the cost of marijuana and display the results on a handy Google Map.


However before rushing out to find your local dealer you might want to take a little look at Young People's Stories

Australia's National Cannabis and Information Centre put together this rather beautiful collage using the Google Map's API. The collage contains nine real stories, by young people, telling their experience of using cannabis. And, whilst the map may be pretty, their stories aren't.

The names of the nine narrators are linked at the top of the mapped collage. When you click on one of the names the map zooms in on that young person's part of the collage and an information window opens on top of the map containing their story.

Also See

Potlocator - mapping medical marijuana dispensaries
Weedmaps.com - map of doctors and dispenseries

Google Ice Maps

Iskart is a map guide to the ice thickness and condition on Norway's lakes and waterways.

Using map tiles from the Norwegian Mapping Authority (Statens Kartverk) with the Google Maps API Iskart provides a guide to ice thickness and snow conditions. The map enables users to find the latest ice thickness measurements, view webcam images and view data from real-time monitoring stations.

Pegman Falls in Love on 2nd Avenue

New York singer and songwriter Ramzi has a new song out called 2nd Avenue. The video for the single tells the sweet story of how the Street View guy - Pegman, falls in love on 2nd Avenue.

The video was written, produced and directed by Joe Gabriel

Watch 3D Previews of Hiking Routes

If you want to encourage your friends to join you on a hike then you could do worse than show them a 3d tour of the route using the Google Earth plugin.

MapMyHike is a website and mobile application for mapping and finding great hikes. You can search for a hiking route by location or by zooming in on a Google Map and searching for all the hikes in the current map view.

Each of the hikes come with extensive details about length and elevation, and a dedicated Google Map of the route.It is also possible to view a tour of the selected hike with the help of the Google Earth browser plugin. The tour really gives a great idea of the terrain, difficulty and scenery that you are likely to experience on the hike.

If you like the features provided by MapMyHike then you will probably also enjoy MapMyRun and MapMyRide from the same stable.

Driving Directions with Coupons

Vyaggio is a great application for finding coupon deals on your European excursions.

Vyaggio allows users to get driving directions with suggested rest stops along the route. Vyaggio even shows you the stops with great deals and coupons, so not only do you get directions you get great deals on your road trip.

If you don't want driving directions that's fine as well. You can also use Vyaggio to find restaurants, shops, hotels and cafes offering coupon deals in European towns. The coupons can be searched by location and filtered by category.

Street View Japan - The Inside Story

The Japanese Street View Gallery is a great collection of some of the most interesting places in Japan, as captured by Google Maps Street View. The collection includes some great new indoor Street Views.

The new Street View locations take us inside a number of temples, churches and even deep underground inside the Japanese Akiyoshido caves. Why not take some time out today from your busy schedule and make a virtual visit to the amazing Shisen-dō zen gardens?



If you are at all interested in art then you should also view famous Japanese artist Hokusai's stunning ceiling painting of a phoenix at the Gansho-in Temple.