Before & After Sandy Satellite Imagery

Google has updated the Crisis Response Map for Superstorm Sandy with some new satellite imagery. The new post-Sandy imagery shows the shoreline from Atlantic City to Cape May, NJ.

The map includes a slide control so that you can compare the new imagery with the Google Maps satellite image taken before the storm.The Crisis Response Map also includes links to power outage information in all the areas affected by the storm.

Find Your Neighborhood with Google Maps

NabeWise is an impressive application to help you find the perfect neighborhood to move into or visit.

NabeWise allows users to select the criteria that is important to them in a neighborhood, from a list of filters, and then displays the best matched neighborhoods on a Google Map. NabeWise includes a number of filters that allow users to select the character, the things to do and the type of people they are looking for in a neighborhood.

Users can also set filters for the average cost of property and to filter parking, public transit and safety. If you like the look of a neighborhood on the map you can click through to get fuller reviews, photos and videos, school stats and a wealth of other information about the neighborhood.

Create Your Own Twitter Map

Tweet to Map is a jQuery plugin that allows you to easily create a Google Map showing location based Tweets.


Using the plugin it is possible to create a Google Map that shows geotagged Twitter messages that have been posted around any location. The plugin includes options to define the radius around a location that you wish to display Tweets in and a hashtag search to show only Tweets including certain hashtags.

It is also possible to customise the map markers with the plugin.

Tweet to Zoom on Google Maps

Nectar, a UK loyalty card scheme, has released a Google Maps based competition, the Nectar Daily Deal Hunt, to promote the launch of Nectar daily deals in the UK cities of Birmingham and Bristol.

The competition takes the form of a treasure hunt in which participants can find prizes using Google Maps and Street View. The cleverest part of the promotional campaign is that to zoom in on the prize locations on the competition Google Map participants have to share the promotion on Twitter or Facebook. The more participants Tweet the more likely they are to be the first to find the hidden prizes.

Calculating Sea Voyages with Google Maps

Searoute Finder is a Google Maps based application to measure port-to-port distances all over the world.

Using Searoute Finder it is possible to enter a port of departure and the port of your destination and find out how far the voyage will be and how long it is likely to take. The estimated length of the voyage is calculated not only on the distance of the voyage but on the weight of the vessel and its speed class.

Searoute Finder is the work of THGIS. They are happy to hear feedback about the map on the Searoute Finder Facebook page or by e-mail at info.thgis.hu.

Add Your Own Street Views to Google Maps

You can now add your own 360 degree photographs to Google Maps. Well you can if you use the new Photo Sphere app on a Nexus 4 phone.

The app allows Nexus 4 owners to easily and quickly capture 360 degree photographs. Once you have captured a panorama the app allows you (if you want) to share it and submit it to Google Maps for the world to see. Your panoramas can then appear on Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Search, Google+ Local, and even third-party sites using the Google Maps API.

You can view the (few) panoramas already submitted to Google Maps on this new dedicated panorama page on the Google Maps Street View Gallery.

Via: Google Lat Long

More Styles for the Google Maps API

On Friday of last week Google unveiled a new look for the base layer of Google Maps. The new look for Google Maps introduced terrain, color gradations to depict vegetation, and labels for natural land formations.

The new look base map was immediately apparent on maps created with the Google Maps API. Personally I think the new base map layer is a big improvement to Google Maps but not all developers will want the new look, or want it on every map. Therefore Google has added two new style controls to the Styled Maps feature of the API.

The two new controls are landscape.natural.landcover and landscape.natural.terrain. These selectors allow you to style the terrain and vegetation colors or even turn them off completely. For more information on map styles, check out the Styled Maps documentation, and use the Styled Maps Wizard to play with the new selectors.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

Following #Sandy with Social Media

Hurricane Sandy Tweets is a Google Map showing real-time Twitter messages containing '#Sandy'. The map also shows the predicted path of Hurricane Sandy. The map zooms and pans to the location of the latest #Sandy tweet and opens an information window to display the actual message.

The map also includes the Google Maps API weather layer, showing the latest cloud coverage and temperatures. 


If you want to view the latest Instagram photographs with the hashtag Sandy then you can view this map from Gramfeed. The locations where #Sandy photos have been submitted to Instagram are displayed on a Google Map and you can view all the pictures beneath the map.

Also See

Google Crisis Response has released two maps in response to Hurricane Sandy:

• Hurricane Sandy: NYC - this map, specifically for New York, features layers to display evacuation zones, open shelters, weather information and live webcams.
• Hurricane Sandy - shows the path of Hurricane Sandy and layers to display cloud cover and weather radar imagery. The map can also be used to view public alerts, emergency shelters, recovery centers and hurricane evacuation routes.

• The New York Times Sandy Map - shows Sandy's predicted path, recent satellite images and the latest weather warnings.

Google Maps the Road to Darwin Records

Darwin Records has released a Google Map to promote the release of 'Iron in the Soul' by Sic Defence. Using the Styled Maps feature of the Google Maps API Darwin Records have turned off every layer in this map except the road layer. 

There have been more revolutionary Google Maps based apps to promote the release of new songs but the simple use of the Styled Maps feature in the Darwin Records map has resulted in a very effective and striking map.


John Mayer's song Born and Raised can be listened to on this Google Map.

Shadow Days allows you to watch an animated Street View movie of any journey within the USA. To create your own movie you just need to set a starting point and choose a destination. You can then watch as the application animates through selected Street Views from your journey and you can listen to John Mayer at the same time.


Singer Lykke Li also used Google Maps to help promote her album Wounded Rhymes. In this app you have to follow the directions given by a compass rose in Google Maps Street View to reach a new destination and to hear the next song on the album.


The Wilderness Downtown is perhaps the most inspired use of Google Maps to promote a band.

This impressive Google Chrome experiment combines video, Google Maps and Google Street View and choreographed multiple windows to help demonstrate what is possible with HTML5. The experiment is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire's song "We Used To Wait" and was built entirely with the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas.

UK National Statistics on Google Maps

The UK's Office for National Statistics is using the Google Maps API and Google Fusion Tables to help visualise a number of economic and demographic data sets.

The Income Estimates Map is a map that allows users to view the estimated average weekly household income for neighbourhoods throughout the UK. Users can click on a location or use the search box to search for an address and view the average weekly income in that area.

The Urban Rural Definition Map is a map of the UK showing whether each neighbourhood is designated as urban, rural or 'town or fringe'.

The Public and Private Sector Employment Map shows the subregional distribution of public and private sector employment and allows users to explore the distribution in their area.

The Households in Poverty Estimates Map provides estimates of the proportion of households in poverty in UK neighbourhoods.

Google Crisis Map for New York City

Google has created a New York specific Crisis Response map for Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy: NYC features layers to display evacuation zones, open shelters, weather information and live webcams. The map also includes a storm surge layer that shows the probability of a storm surge over six feet in the city.

The Google Crisis Response page also includes a number of useful links, incuding to New York City's official emergency notification system and the National Hurricane Center advisories.

You can easily share and embed this map on your website by clicking the "Share" button at the top right hand corner of the map and grabbing the embed code. 

The Google Maps of the Week

Over the last couple of years we've seen quite a few clever promotional campaigns centred around Google Maps. However I think that the promotional campaign for the movie Silent Hill is the first to actually create a Google Map for a fictional town.


The Silent Hill Map does a pretty good job at replicating the Google Maps map style. The map itself allows the user to explore the fictional town of Silent Hill and even includes three short clips from the movie presented as Street Views. If you click on any of the three map markers and then select the 'street view' link you can watch a short clip from the movie presented in the form of Google Maps Street Views.

The map also includes links to a Residential Silent Hill Directory, where you can explore the characters in the film and even add yourself to the town's directory of residents. 


Elsewhere this week I liked two very different approaches to real-estate mapping.


Locatable is an interesting new real-estate application to help house hunters find properties to buy in London. The app lets users define a search area by travelling time (by road or rail) from any location.

After defining the area of search users can specify the type of property that they require (price and number of bedrooms). The travelling time area is displayed on the map with an orange polygon. Users can then click anywhere within the polygon to view a list of properties around the chosen location.


mapthatpad is an amazing application that allows you to map real-estate listings from a variety of different online sources. Using the app it is possible to collect and save real-estate listings from a number of different online real-estate sites and create a Google Map of all the properties that you are interested in buying.

Using mapthatpad it is possible to simply cut and paste the url of a real-estate listing from a number of websites, for example Craigslist or the New York Times, and instantly view the listing on a Google Map. If cutting and pasting is too difficult then you can download a bookmarklet that allows you to simply press a button on a real-estate listing to view a Google Map of its location.

Registered users of mapthatpad can add real-estate listings from a number of different websites and save their map for later reference. mapthatpad works with Craigslist, the New York Times real-estate listings, oodle, Street Easy, Rent Easy, Urban Edge and RDNY. It is also possible to add listings from other websites by adding them manually to the map.

Hurricane Sandy Satellite View

The New York Times has created a Google Map of Hurricane Sandy's predicted path.

As well as showing Sandy's predicted path the map shows a recent satellite image of the hurricane. The satellite image really helps to show the sheer scale of Hurricane Sandy. Above the map is a handy prediction of the chances of the hurricane effecting New York.

The prediction, at the time of writing, says "There is a 56% 85% chance of tropical-storm-force winds in New York, NY in the next 5 days".

Hat-tip: Virender Ajmani

Video Driving Directions

Google has applied for a European patent that includes "full-motion video of 360 degrees images, and live feeds from video cameras to provide enhanced driving directions". Microsoft are also working on video driving directions for Bing Maps. You can see a preview of Microsoft's research into video driving directions in this video,



If you can't wait for Google and Microsoft to finish their research into video driving directions then you can check out VidTeq who already have video driving directions in place in Bangalore.


VidTeq perhaps is the best example of how video driving directions should work. Using VidTeq it is possible to enter a start address and destination and then preview a suggested route on a map and a view a video of the journey.

As the video of the route plays arrows are superimposed on top of the video player to indicate when turns are required. Beneath the video the step-by-step directions scroll upwards to reflect the position displayed in the video.

If you want to view video directions on VidTeq then you can use the example directions given below the search box, 'S R & K B to Dhruv Inc'.


Virtual Highway is an experiment by the New Zealand Transport Authority to provide video footage of key travel routes and maps of the New Zealand state highway network.

Virtual Highway doesn't allow users to request driving directions but you can see how video driving directions could be provided by stitching together the required video segments from different roads.


Google's patent application however mentions "full-motion video of 360 degrees images". Streetview.ch is a nice example of how 360 degree panoramic video can work with Google Maps.

Streetview.ch includes a number of video Street Views shot on Switzerland's roads. It is a little like Google's Street View only it uses panoramic videos rather than still panoramic images. As you play a video you can pan it around and look in any direction. As the video plays a marker on the map shows the current location shown in the video.

Again Streetview.ch doesn't have a facility to search for driving directions but again you can see how interactive video driving directions could be provided by stitching together the required video panorama segments from different roads.

One Million Tweets Mapped

Version 2 of Maptimize, a marker clustering solution for Google Maps and other mapping platforms, has been released.

To help demonstrate the power of Maptimize v2 a map of one million Twitter messages has been released. The One Million Tweet Map on first loading shows a few hundred thousand tweets using the marker clustering system. The map then adds geo-located tweets to the map in real-time. The new tweets are shown by small red dots, which appear on the map and then fade away whilst the clustered numbered markers update to reflect the new number of tweets at that location.

The map can also be used to find twitter trends. If you pan the map around then the map updates to show the trends at the selected location.

The demo map uses Open Street Map but Maptimize can just as easily be used with the Google Maps API.

Finding Beer in Paris with Google Maps

Paris can be an expensive city and many venues, especially those aimed at tourists can charge inflated prices for food and drink. The rather unFrench sounding MisterGoodBeer has created a really great mapped guide that can you help you find where to buy a cheap beer in Paris.

By default the map shows bars charging a maximum of 4€ for a beer. However if you want to pay even less for your beer you can use a drop-down menu to only show bars that charge a maximum of 2.50€. Bar prices can vary according to the time and day (e.g. happy hours). This presents no problem to MisterGoodMap as it also allows you to query the map by day and time.

To give users a quick guide to beer prices all the bars shown on the map have numbered map markers that indicate the rough price of beer at that establishment. 

Crisis Response Map of Hurricane Sandy

Google Crisis Response has released a map of the track and predicted path of Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy has been battering the Bahamas and could hit the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic early next week. Currently Sandy's projected path means that it could hit New Jersey next Tuesday.

As well as showing Hurricane Sandy's predicted path the map includes layers to display cloud cover and weather radar imagery. The map can also be used to view public alerts, emergency shelters,  recovery centers and hurricane evacuation routes. 

One layer that could prove very useful to home owners shows the current probability of wind exceeding 39 mph at different locations.


The New York Times has created a Google Map of Hurricane Sandy's predicted path.

As well as showing Sandy's predicted path the map shows a recent satellite image of the hurricane. The satellite image really helps to show the sheer scale of Hurricane Sandy. Above the map is a handy prediction of the chances of the hurricane effecting New York.

The prediction, at the time of writing, says "There is a 56% chance of tropical-storm-force winds in New York, NY in the next 5 days".


WYNC are also using Google Maps, in their case to display New York City Evacuation Zones.

The map shows three zones in the city:

• Zone A - with the highest risk of flooding from ANY hurricane near NYC.
• Zone B - potential flooding from a Category 2+ hurricanes.
• Zone C - potential flooding from a Category 3-4 hurricane hitting just south of NYC.

Silent Hill is now on Google Maps

The website for the new Silent Hill Revelation 3d film includes a Google Map of Silent Hill.

The Silent Hill Map does a pretty good job at replicating the Google Maps map style. The map itself allows the user to explore the fictional town of Silent Hill and even includes three short clips from the movie presented as Street Views. If you click on any of the three map markers and then select the 'street view' link you can watch a short clip from the movie presented in the form of Google Maps Street Views.

The map also includes links to a Residential Silent Hill Directory, where you can explore the characters in the film and even add yourself to the town's directory of residents.

Don't Wait for Grand Canyon Street View

The big Google Maps news this week is that the Street View team have started collecting imagery from the Grand Canyon National Park.

Using the Trekker, a wearable backpack with a Street View camera system, Googlers are this week hiking around the Grand Canyon National Park, including the ridge, the famous Bright Angel Trail, the South Kaibab Trail and more.


If you can't wait a few months for the Street View imagery of the Grand Canyon to appear on Google Maps then you should check out the Nature Valley Trail View.

The Nature Valley Trail View has created some amazing custom Street View tours in the Grand Canyon and in the Great Smokies and Yellowstone National Parks. 

Toronto's Languages on Google Maps

Statistics Canada has released figures today from the 2011 census concerning the languages spoken by Canadians.

Global News has again been quick off the mark in mapping some of the latest census data to be released. The Know Your Neighbourhood Map now includes options to view the concentration of some of the different languages spoken in Canada's major cities.

Users can select to view a number of heat maps showing the percentage of speakers of Punjabi, Tagalog, Spanish, Chinese, English, Italian, Aboriginal and French in the each of the cities' different neighbourhoods.


Whilst on the subject of languages I think you might also like this amazing map of languages used on Twitter in London. The map created by Ed Manley and James Chesire shows the languages used within around 3.3 million geolocated tweets captured in London over the course of this summer.

The map unsurprisingly shows a lot of languages being used around the Olympic Parks (NE on the map). Russian language tweets (pink) appear in some of the more expensive residential areas and Arabic tweets (green) in the even more expensive property zones. French tweets (red) seem to be concentrated north of Hyde Park and down in south-east London.

India's Biodiversity on Google Maps

The India Biodiversity Portal is a participatory platform for creating and sharing biodiversity information for the Indian subcontinent.

The maps section of the India Biodiversity Portal has a collection of more than one hundred interactive map layers that can be viewed on a Google Map. The layers are organised by theme (Biogeography, Abiotic, Demography, Species, Administrative Units, Land Use Land Cover, Conservation) and by geography.

Users can add multiple layers to the map and order the layers as they require.

All Your Property Search on Google Maps

mapthatpad is an amazing application that allows you to map real-estate listings from a variety of online sources. Using the app it is possible to collect and save real-estate listings from a number of different online real-estate sites and create a Google Map of all the properties.

Using mapthatpad it is possible to simply cut and paste the url of a real-estate listing from a number of websites, for example Craigslist or the New York Times, and instantly view the listing on a Google Map. If cutting and pasting is too difficult then you can download a bookmarklet that allows you to simply press a button on a real-estate listing to view a Google Map of its location.

Registered users of mapthatpad can add real-estate listings from a number of different websites and save their map for later reference. mapthatpad works with Craigslist, the New York Times real-estate listings, oodle, Street Easy, Rent Easy, Urban Edge and RDNY. It is also possible to add listings from other websites by adding them manually to the map.

Searching for Property with Google Maps

Locatable is an interesting new real-estate application to help house hunters find properties to buy in London.

The app lets users define a search area by travelling time (by road or rail) from any location. After defining the area of search users can specify the type of property that they require (price and number of bedrooms).

The travelling time area is displayed on the map with an orange polygon. Users can click anywhere within the polygon to view a list of properties around the chosen location.

More than a Marker

Here's a rare non-Google map that is so good it has to get a mention.

Rennes - Visualisation de Donnees is a great mapped visualisation of demographic, employment and housing data in Rennes, France.

Data on the map is represented by small coloured map markers. However the magic happens when the user selects a neighbourhood on the map. When an area is selected the markers fly off the map and sort themselves into the appropriate categories in bar chart form.

The effect is impressive and, more importantly, vastly improves the legibility of the data.


On a slightly related subject if you are interested in using the Google Maps API to visualise data then you should check out today's Google Maps Developers Live session, Visualising Data with the Google Maps API. The session is live from 10 a.m. Pacific time. In the session Google will be explaining how they used the Maps API to visualise the Climatological Database for the World's Oceans.

New Englands Fall on Google Maps

It's that time of year again to check out the New England Foliage Map. This crowdsourced map helps to show where New England's legendary fall foliage is in its fullest splendour.

The map aggregates user reports to try and show where New England's trees are showing their fall colors. Users can also submit photos to the map, so the map is also a great place to browse photographs of New England in the fall.

Civic Engagement with Google Maps

YXE Voices is a civic engagement platform to promote the sharing and discussion of ideas on ways to improve the city of Saskatchewan.

Each month YXE Voices asks a different question of the community, collects answers from citizens and promotes discussion through user comments. For example, this month YXE Voices is asking the citizens of Saskatchewan what are their important elections issues.

Users can contribute to the debate by completing a short form with their answer and their location. Contributions are then added to a Google Map. If you click on another user's comment you can add your thoughts on the issue raised.

Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem

RouteXL is a Google Maps route planner that can help you solve the 'travelling salesman problem' of finding the optimum route for multiple stops.

Using RouteXL is very easy. Just add your addresses to the map and RouteXL will plan your route, taking in all your stops in the shortest distance. Users can add routes by clicking on each location on the map or they can simply use the 'import' option to just cut and paste in a list of addresses.

After a route has been calculated users can save the route or bookmark the link to the route map. Users can also print out the driving directions for the route and download the GPX for their satellite navigation device.

Suggest a Bike Hire Station on Google Maps

Capital Bikeshare, Washington, D.C.'s bike hire scheme, is using Google Maps to show the locations of bike stations across the city. The map shows the locations of all the capital's bike stations and also tells you how many bikes and empty docks are available.

Capital Bikeshare also want to know where users would like to see the service extended. You can show where you would like to see future stations on the Bike Arlington Crowdsourcing Map. The map allows users to suggest locations for future Capital Bikeshare stations, comment on any suggested stations, and "like" or "dislike" suggested stations.

Paragliding with Google Maps

Paragliding Map is a Google Maps based app to help you plan paragliding flights.

ParaglidingMap.com takes current weather observations, and makes a rules-based decision on whether each flying site around the world is flyable or not. The decision is based on a number of factors, including current wind direction, current wind speed and gust strength and current weather observations (clouds, fog, rain, thunderstorm, föhn, etc).


XC Planner is a Google Maps based planning tool for paragliders.

Using the tool you can select the location of your paragliding flight. You can then drag and drop the turning points and define a number of options and even view past thermal patterns on the map.


If you want to have a taste of paragliding but are scared to try the real thing then this awesome paragliding flight simulator from ParaglidingEarth.com is what you need.

Before starting your flight you can choose the colour of your glider, your take-off heading, the wind speed and direction, the thermal density, thermal height and even the thermal size. When you are ready just press 'Let's Fly!' You can then glide to your heart's delight with a little help from the Google Earth plug-in.

The Google Maps of the Week

Trip maps created with Go Pro Travelling now include some amazing animations that show the progress of a trip on a Google Map.

Every trip map created with the app is now automatically transformed into an animated map! Users can use the play and pause buttons to play back a trip, view the trip in chronological order or use numbered buttons to skip to any part of the journey.

The animations between the different stages are pretty amazing. Planes, cars and people fly, drive and walk across the Google Map creating stunning transitions between the different stages of the journey. The screenshot of Go Pro Travelling above doesn't really do the animations justice so check out this example of an animated trip map.


MIT has used the Google Maps API to create a Solar Tool that shows the solar potential of rooftops in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The map colors the rooftops of Cambridge buildings to help indicate the amount of solar energy that could be produced with solar panels. Users can click on individual buildings to see how much electricity can be produced from solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, how the financial investment will pay off, and how much pollution will be reduced. 

Custom Street View in Thailand

Bangkok Street View is a nice example of a Google Map that uses its own interactive panoramic imagery to extend coverage where Google Street View doesn't reach.

Bangkok Street View has a lot of Street View type coverage in the Thai capital. Users can navigate the imagery using a Google Map. The map uses the familiar blue lines that are used by Google to show where the interactive imagery is available.

If you want to quickly view the imagery of popular destinations in Bangkok you can also use the drop-down menu at the top of the map to zoom to temples, palaces and well known monuments.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

Using Google Maps for Airspace Awareness

The Kansas Department of Transportation has released an Airspace Awareness Tool that uses Google Maps and the Google Earth plugin to display useful information for pilots.

Pilots can use the map to view the location of aviation obstructions, such as wind turbines and towers, in Kansas. The tool includes a number of other useful layers that can be overlaid on the map, such as military training routes and special use airspace. It also includes a selection of handy tools for drawing and measuring on the map.

Hat-tip: Mapperz

There's No Blue on Google Maps

The World Atlas of Language Structures is a large database of structural properties of languages.

The geographical differences in the different language structural properties covered on the website can be viewed on separate Google Maps. For example, the Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories map shows how many categories for colors different languages have around the world.

If the color categories map grabs your interest you can read more about how different languages develop words for color in an interesting article on Empirical Zeal, The Crayola-fication of the World.

The article helps to explain why for some cultures there is no blue on Google Maps.

Street View Haiku

In my never-ending quest to design the perfect Street View slideshow I today started working on a little app to present some beautiful Street View images with accompanying haikus.

Street View Haiku allows the user to scroll through a (very small) number of Street Views and poems. To navigate through the Street Views you need to click on the orange circles in the map sidebar.

The app works best in Firefox and Chrome. Sadly Internet Explorer users will more than likely just see a blank page. And - I apologise to all viewers for my bad poetry.

Google Maps Has Been Rickrolled

Google Maps has been rickrolled by Google. This week Google released indoor Street View imagery of their Data Center in Lenoir, NC and one Google employee decided to rickroll the Street View camera by making sure Rick Astley videos were playing on his computer monitors as the imagery was captured.


Bletchley Park, the home of the UK's main codebreakers during WWII, is now on Street View. The Street View trike has managed to penetrate where thousands of German spies couldn't and enabled Google Maps to show Street View from all around the Bletchley Park estate.

This is where British cryptanalysts and mathematicians, such as Alan Turing, famously broke the German Enigma code.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny


Postcards from Above is a nice collection of Google Maps satellite images that have been processed to resemble vintage postcards