The Google Maps of the Week

This week I was very impressed with Walk Score's new neighborhood pages. The new neighborhood pages not only show you a neighborhood's 'walk score' but also provide a bike score, a public transit score and a eating / dining out score.

Here are links to a few example neighborhoods pages: Capitol Hill, Seattle |  Park Slope, Brooklyn  |  South Loop, Chicago.


I have seen a lot of weather forecasting apps built with the Google Maps API over the years. However Isitunsunshine's simple user interface still managed to impress me this week.

The application includes a very handy time-line slider tool that allows the user to quickly view the weather forecast for the next few days. Just slide the tool to any day and the map instantly updates to display the forecast.

Users can switch between temperature, wind, precipitation and other forecast views. The time-slider tool includes a useful chart view which also instantly displays a graph of the chosen forecast over the next few days. 


After Earth Decay is a Google Map that allows you to observe how the world will look one thousand years after humans have left the planet. Using a time-line slider tool you can view satellite images of the Earth over the next thousand years and observe continental drift in action as South America crashes into Africa.

In Street View mode you can view future images of famous locations around the world and witness the collapse of the Eiffel Tower and the erosion of the White House and other globally important buildings and monuments.

Disclaimer: After Earth is of course a promotional website for M. Night Shyamalan's film of the same name and the events depicted on this map are entirely dependent on Will Smith's ability to accurately predict the future.