Live Real-time Location Sharing

If you want to share your location with someone in real-time then you can do so quickly and for free with Track on the Map. However there are no privacy settings with Track on the Map so before adding yourself the application you need to be aware that your location will be available to the whole world.

If you have a GPS enabled device, like a mobile phone, lap-top or i-pad, you simply need to share your location with Track on the Map and your live real-time location is then instantly displayed on a Google Map. You can then share the map with anyone who you want to keep updated with your current location.

Track on the Map has no privacy controls and anyone who visits the website will also be able to see your current location, therefore I wouldn't use your real name if you choose to add a device to the map. The 'stop tracking' button is also a little slow and the application seems to take a little time to remove your marker from the map.

Utah is Weird

I've taken my Autocomplete Map to another level by adding the states of the USA. If you zoom in on the United States on the map the autocomplete results suggested by Yahoo for each state will appear on the map.

I've also now added a number of towns and cities in the US and in England. Just keep zooming in on the map to get the town names to appear.

This map uses the Google Maps MapLabel Library. The library includes a handy function that allows you to show or hide labels by zoom level. I've used this in the Autocomplete Map to remove the USA label as you zoom in and to add labels for each of the US states. The reference documentation for the MapsLabel library can be found here.

Mapping Turkey

Sick of turkey yet? If not it is time to find out where your Thanksgiving dinner came from.

Around 250 million turkeys were produced, millions of barrels of cranberries gathered, a sweet load of sweet potatoes picked and hundreds of thousands of acres of green beans harvested for this year's Thanksgiving dinners. The Smithsonian has put together this ESRI map which shows you where in the USA these four staples of the holiday meal may have originated.

You can select either turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes or green beans from the Thanksgiving plate in the map sidebar and view the areas in the United States where these foods were raised or grown.

Guess the City on Street View

Is this Las Vegas or Dublin? Hmm, that's a tough one.

WhereAmIDriving is another Street View guessing game. You probably know the format by now. You're shown a random Street View image and you have to name the location using the visual clues in the Google Maps panoramic imagery.

The game has obvious similarities to GeoGuessr. The major difference seems to be that WhereAmIDriving sticks to major cities, which mean that there are likely to be more visual clues on which to base your answer.

Oh - and the rounds aren't always as easy as in the screenshot above.

(Note: WhereAmIDriving didn't work for me in FireFox but worked fine in Chrome)

The Google Autocomplete Map

The USA and Saudi Arabia are evil, the UK is finished and of course Greece is the word.

If you want to know what the English speaking world thinks of your country just use Google and autocomplete will do its best to tell you. The Autcomplete Map is a Google Map of sometimes funny and sometimes insulting Google autocomplete suggestions for countries around the world.

If your country isn't on the map it's because it's too small and insignificant for anyone to bother searching for. Joke! Seriously - there are a lot of countries in the world and I haven't had time to map them all. I also got bored of the '(name of country) is boring' or '(name of country) is evil' responses from autocomplete so I stopped adding them to the map.

At the risk of upsetting many citizens of the world I haven't always selected the top answer from Google. I tried to avoid too much repetition and just occasionally, where the second, third or fourth autocomplete suggestion seemed more appropriate, I decided to use that instead.

Mapping the Comet of the Century

In about two hours time Comet Ison will reach its closest approach to the Sun. It will be just 1.2 million km from the Sun and the solar heat could cause the comet to break apart.

If the comet survives it should be visible in the early morning sky (in the northern hemisphere) in early December. The Sky Live has created an Ison Tracker map that charts the current position of the comet using an accurate view of the star field surrounding the comet.

If the comet survives its encounter with the sun it may be visible with the naked eye and will almost definitely be visible with binoculars. The Ison Tracker map will help you locate Comet Ison in the night sky.

Hat-tip: Mapperz

Hiking in Slovakia on Google Maps

TuristickaMapa.sk is a Google Map of hiking trails in Slovakia. Users can use the site to find hiking trails in Slovakia or use it to plan their own hiking trails.

To search for hiking trails already mapped select the 'Katalóg trás' tab in the map side-panel. You can then select to view a trail on the map from a list of hikes. The length, maximum altitude and estimated time to complete the trail is given for each trail.

When you select a hiking trail it is displayed on the Google Map with an elevation chart of the route. Creating your own trail is a simple matter of just right-clicking on the map to set the way-points of your planned route.

Mapping the Exchange of Bitcoin

The peer-to-peer currency Bitcoin has been hitting the news quite a lot recently. As the currency becomes more well known I've begun to see more and more Bitcoin related maps.

Want we really need is a Bitcoin Treasure Map that shows the location of the $6.5 million dollars of Bitcoins buried in a landfill site in Wales.  Unfortunately that map doesn't exist but I can point you towards some real-time maps of Bitcoin transactions and a map of establishments where Bitcoins are accepted.

CoinStream is a Google Map of Bitcoin transactions happening around the world. The map includes a number of filters that allow the user to refine the value, fees and number of results displayed on the map. You can also mouse-over any of the markers displayed on the map to view the value of the transaction undertaken at that location.

Fiatleak is another real-time map of Bitcoin transactions. Fiatleak however displays the exchange of world currencies into Bitcoins. The value of the Bitcoins is displayed in green and the last exchange rate for each currency is shown in purple and updated in real-time.

BitcoinMaps is a Google Map of establishments around the world that accept Bitcoins. Anyone can add an establishment to the map by filling in a short form. If you select an establishment on the map you can view the establishment's details beneath the map.

Over 700 Videos on One Google Map

I finally got around to updating one of my API v2 maps to v3 of the Google Maps API. Video Map is a Google Map of over 700 videos of landmarks around the world.

All you have to do is click on a marker on the map and you can then watch a YouTube video filmed at the selected location. After watching a video just use the 'Zoom Out' button to return to the world map view.

The data for the map is a few years old now so there might be a few deleted videos in the collection.

Where in the World Guessing Games

Where is ..? is a simple Google Maps based geography guessing game. The game follows a now recognizable format for these type of Google Maps based games - the player has to point to a serious of named locations on a map and is awarded points for how near they guess to the correct location.

After five guesses you are given your overall score for the round. If you score well enough you progress to the next round. Fail to pass the round and you have to start all over again.


Uncharted.fm is a great way to learn about and explore the countries of the world with Google Maps.

The Uncharted.fm country quiz is very well done. The quiz takes you through progressive stages exploring different continents and parts of the world. In each stage of the quiz users are shown a number of countries on Google Maps and told the name of each country. The user is then tested on the countries that they have been shown.

If the user answers wrongly then Uncharted.fm uses audio and text to reveal the correct answer so that learning is reinforced as the quiz progresses.


Localiz.me is an interesting variation on the Google Maps 'find the location' game. The game allows you to set a clue about a location that you can then Tweet to your followers or share on Facebook. Your followers can then try to find your hidden location on localiz.me by zooming in on a Google Map.

You can try to find locations sent to you by your friends or you can try to find any of the locations hidden by other localiz.me users. When you zoom in close enough on the correct location a map marker will appear informing you that you have found the correct location.

Here's one to get you going - 'Napoleon's railway journeys to the English capital always end here.' - http://localiz.me/maps?mapid=30

Mapping Public GIS Data with Google

Australian mapping blog All Things Spatial reports on a recent trend in Australian local government for using Google mapping technologies to present GIS data to the public. Recently state agencies in both New South Wales and Queensland have released Google Earth files to help make GIS data more widely accessible.

The Queensland Globe is an initiative of the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines. It contains a number of layers that can be viewed in Google Earth such as 'land parcels', 'boundaries' and 'road and rail centre lines'.

The NSW Globe similarly allows users to view a range of state data in Google Earth. Layers include 'land parcels', boundaries' and historical aerial imagery of the state.

Tables for Two in New York

The New Yorker's Tables for Two column has been running since 1925. The weekly magazine has now created an online interactive Google Map of some of the best Tables for Two reviews from the last few years.

The New Yorker Tables for Two Map shows the locations of restaurants reviewed by the New Yorker. Users can click on any of the restaurant markers on the map and read a short snippet from the New Yorker's review. Each restaurant includes a link to read the full review on The New Yorker website.

Environmental Pollution on Google Earth

ClimateViewer 3D uses the Google Earth plug-in to track climate change and environmental pollution across the globe.

The application includes a large number of layers that can be viewed on a Google Earth map. These include pollution layers, weather, satellites and emergency alerts. The pollution layer includes data from the Environmental Protection Agency and a layer displaying the Ten Most Radioactive Places on Earth

There are really too many layers in ClimateViewer 3D to mention them all. The application even includes the option to load your own KML files (or KML files from elsewhere on the internet) and view the file on the ClimateViewer Google Earth map.

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Somebody has put together a nice map of links to transport themed Street View images. Street View Transit Collections is organized into three categories, Stations, Airports and Museums.

My favorite links are in the museum category, which links to such gems as the Porsche Museum, the majestic Queen Mary and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. I love museums so I relish the chance to tour museums around the world on Street View that I will probably never get to visit in person. However I know some of you will get just as much pleasure from taking tours of train stations and airports that appear on Google Maps Street View.

Trips Away on Google Maps

TripStamp is a new Google Maps application that allows anyone to easily create a digital scrapbook of their trips and travels.

Log-in to TimeStamp with your Facebook account and you can quickly start mapping your travels by adding places you have visited to your own trip map. You can add photos and videos to each place that you add to the map and you can also add your thoughts about each location.

Once you have created a map of your trip you can share your TripStamp with friends and family on your favorite social networks.

Mapping the Rainbow Nation

You can do some great things with WebGL. You can also create some silly maps, like this psychedelic, glowing rainbow map.

The map is similar to the Burning Map Style, designed by Stamen, in that it provides an interesting demo of using WebGL with OpenStreetMap data. Both maps are pretty but you probably won't be using either map style in a serious application anytime soon.

The Frequent Travelers Reward Mapper

Many frequent travelers take advantage of the reward packages offered by the top hotel chains. These programs offer award points to customers that can be redeemed for free nights in hotels around the world.

AwardMapper is a useful Google Map for anyone who travels frequently and needs to find hotels where they can redeem their hotel award points. The map allows users to search the map for hotels by location and by the number of award points. The map even includes the option to search for individual hotels belonging to specific hotel chains.

The Maps of the Week

Google Business Photos has been a huge innovation on Google Maps in the last two years. Being able to provide indoor Street View imagery of business premises has proved very popular acorss the globe.

If you own a restaurant then Google Business Photos is a great way to showcase your restaurant to potential customers. The restaurant GOSP in Denmark has taken this concept a stage further and actually developed an indoor Street View table booking system. Not only can potential customers take a tour around the restaurant in Google Maps Street View, but if they like the look of a particular table then they can click on an overlaid marker and book that table for lunch or dinner.

The Google Business Photos Booking System was developed by Big-e, an e-business online development team. I can see a huge potential for such a booking system not only for restaurants but for booking stadium and theater seats.


John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago in Dallas, Texas. ESRI has put together a 3d map of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, that should keep conspiracy theorists busy for the next 50 years.

JFinteraKtif includes 3d buildings, the route of the president's car, the Grassy Knoll, the trajectory of the bullets fired from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository building and even the trajectories of some of the conspiracy theory shootings.

The map was created using information from key witness statements and is overlaid with photographs taken at the time. Links below the map allow the user to view the map from the point of view of key positions (e.g. from the position of the Grassy Knoll).


I've been linking to a lot of Torque powered maps over the last two weeks. Carto DB's Torque library is a great way to animate large amounts of data on Google Maps.

CartoDB has created another superb example of the library in action. CartoDB's map of Nine Years of Tornadoes in the US animates through NOAA's National Weather Service data. The map includes a neat playback control that allows you to view the animation chronologically or select to view the data for any month.

Mapping the TARDIS

To celebrate 50 years of Dr Who the UK's Ordnance Survey has mapped the locations of all 73 police boxes that are still in their original locations. Fans of Dr Who will know that the TARDIS is permanently stuck in the shape of a police box because its chameleon circuit is broken and it can no longer change its appearance to match its surroundings.

Police boxes were installed throughout the UK in the early 20th century. They were introduced so that the police, or members of the public, could contact police headquarters. In addition to a telephone, they contained other police equipment such as an incident book and a first aid kit.

The Ordnance Survey Police Call Boxes map shows that there are still a few police boxes left in England, Scotland and Wales. For some reason Glasgow and Edinburgh seem to be home to a large percentage of the remaining boxes.


The Earl's Court police box that appears on Google Maps Street View (and which you can explore inside) does not feature on the Ordnance Survey map. The Ordnance Survey claim that this is because it was not a functioning police call box. However they are wrong on that count. Although the box was built in 1996 it was installed as a functioning police box and (as a sign of the times) as a CCTV camera.

If the Ordnance Survey map has piqued your interest in Dr Who related locations then check out this Google Sightseeing post looking at locations that have appeared in Dr Who over the last 50 years.

Mapping the Grassy Knoll

John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago in Dallas, Texas.  ESRI has put together a 3d map of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, that should keep conspiracy theorists busy for the next 50 years.

JFinteraKtif includes 3d buildings, the route of the president's car, the Grassy Knoll, the trajectory of the bullets fired from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository building and even the trajectories of some of the conspiracy theory shootings.

The map was created using information from key witness statements and is overlaid with photographs taken at the time. Links below the map allow the user to view the map from the point of view of key positions (e.g. from the position of the Grassy Knoll).

Mapping the Traffic in Mumbai

Traffiline provides real-time traffic information in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, helping motorists avoid the worst congestion on the cities' roads.

The website uses Google Maps to show the current state of traffic in each of the three Indian cities. The traffic information for the map comes from sensors in taxis and public transport vehicles and also from Tweeted updates from the application's many users.

The current state of traffic is displayed on the Google Map with color-coded lines and the latest traffic updates are displayed in the map side-bar.

Remembering JFK

Slate has mapped over 400 streets, parks, and schools named after John F. Kennedy around the world. Fifty years after the American president's assassination his name lives on in locations named in his honor, not only in the USA but in many other countries across the globe.

The Slate map uses the OpenStreetMap platform and used OSM data to find points of interest named 'Kennedy'. Only those locations that could be verified as being named after JFK have been added to the map.

Where the Streets Have Your Name is a great application that you can use to create a Google Map showing all the places around the world that have your name.

The app can also be used to do a little research into the worldwide reputation of American presidents. If you enter Kennedy and Nixon into the app you get two very different maps.





Looking at non-English speaking countries is particularly informative. It is less likely that geographical locations in these countries are named after different Kennedys or Nixons.

The results show that continental Europe has commemorated the life of Kennedy by naming numerous places after the president. For some reason Europe has not been so keen to name streets and squares after Richard Nixon.

In fact you have to go back to George Washington to find another American president who has been commemorated in place names outside of the U.S. to quite the same degree as JFK.

Oh My Sweet Timelord

OMG the Daleks have invaded the TARDIS!

We had to somehow celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr Who on Google Maps Mania. Luckily the TARDIS does feature on Street View. So if you want to take a personal tour of the Doctor's time & space ship on Google Maps you can. And yes, it is bigger on the inside.

After 50 years of trying we also thought that it was about time that the Daleks were allowed inside the TARDIS. So here is a Dalek inside the TARDIS.

I created this little view using the Teammaps Street View Overlay Library. The library is licensed under the Apache License so you can use it to create your own Street View applications with marker overlays.

I don't think the possibilities of Street View overlays have been fully explored yet. This Street View Restaurant Table Booking System gives you some idea of the possibilities of using overlays with Street View.

But - back to the sci-fi. Google Sightseeing has put together a great post looking at locations that have appeared on Dr Who over the last 50 years.

Nine Years of American Tornadoes Mapped

CartoDB has linked to a number of of new Google Maps that are using the CartoDB Torque library.

The new maps include CartoDB's own animated map of Nine Years of Tornadoes in the US. This map animates through NOAA's National Weather Service data. The map includes a neat playback control that allows you to view the animation chronologically or select to view the data for any month.


Another nice example of the Torque library in action is this LIRR Animation. This map simulates one day on America's busiest commuter rail system, the Long Island Rail Road, using real data from Nov 12, 2012.

Another Torque powered map is this animation of Crimes in San Luis Obispo. The map animates through all reported crime in the Californian town between January 2012 and June 2013.

Mapped Time-Line Libraries

TimeMapper is an open-sourced map time-line creation tool that uses the TimelineJS library. To create a mapped time-line with TimeMapper you need to create a Google Spreadsheet (containing your dates and locations) and connect the spreadsheet to TimeMapper.

The resulting mapped time-line integrates a Leaflet map, a TimelineJS time-line and your data. Users can click on interactive elements in the time-line or markers on the map to navigate through the data or they can navigate chronologically through the data using the data window view.


MyHistro is a tool for creating interactive Google Maps based time-lines.

Using myHistro it is possible to create a mapped time-line of any subject. A time-line can be of pictures and places you visited on your last vacation, the life of Marilyn Monroe, an account of battles in the American Civil War or anything else that you want to map.

Completed time-lines can be navigated by clicking on the time-line (positioned above the map) or by clicking on individual map markers. Each time-line map can also be viewed as a chronological animation by using the playback controls. 


Timemap is a JavaScript library to help add a SIMILE time-line to an online map, including Google Maps. The library includes a number of sample maps that show how you can use the SIMILE time-line with Google Maps.

The library includes some demonstration maps created using Timemap. For example, the Temporal Heatmap from a Google Spreadsheet example is a map with markers that are sized on the map according to a data point in a spreadsheet. It is a great template for showing expanding and shrinking data points over time. In the example map the markers show cumulative deaths from asbestosis and silicosis in Texas over time.

Time-Map is a similarly named Javascript library for Google Maps that adds a fully functioning time-line to a Google Map. The time-line element includes three different time sliders that allows the user to change the year, month or day. As the user drags the time-line the markers are automatically updated on the map.

Location in Advertising

Using location in advertising is hard. Google has tried advertising on Google Maps and it also offers advertising options to developers in the Google Maps API. From what I can tell neither approach has really worked in monetizing Google Maps.

The other long running attempt to use location in advertising has been to send text messages to consumers based on their whereabouts. If you are a regular attendee at online mapping conferences and meet-ups you will probably be as bored as I am of pitches from geniuses who claim to have discovered a new method of sending consumers text messages (containing adverts or coupons) based on their location.

My instinct is that people don't want ads on their maps and they don't want to be bombarded with text messages every time they walk past a store.



So location in advertising is hard. However British Airways has managed to crack location rather spectacularly in their new advertising campaign in London. And they have done this not by using the location of consumers but by using the locations of BA planes.

In London British Airways are launching new video billboards that react when planes fly overhead. Using the Automatic Identification System (AIS) the billboards are able to track the position of British Airway flights and to display flight details live in video adverts.

You can see the result in the video above as a child in the advert points at planes flying overhead and the plane's flight number and origin or destination is displayed live on the billboard.

Research Paywalls Around the World

Information wants to be free and public funded research should be free. However around the world research is often hidden behind paywalls. In reponse to this situation Open Access has released the Open Access button.

The Open Access Button is a browser bookmarklet that you can use to report and map paywalls blocking access to research that you find while browsing the internet. After you bookmark the offending paywall you just need to complete a short form and the site is added to the Open Access map of research paywalls.

What's Open on Google Maps

Have you ever left a bar at two in the morning in desperate need of a burger or pizza? What's Open is a handy little Google Maps based app that allows you to search for nearby food and pizza establishments that are open when you need them.

What's Open uses the Google Places API to only show you establishments around you open right now. Share your location with the application and all the pizza and food establishment still open in your area are displayed on a Google Map. You can even click on each establishment's marker to find out how many hours are left until it closes.

If you are the sort of hard drinking party animal who is more likely to be desperate for a drink at two in the morning then don't worry. What's Open is open-sourced and you can grab the code for the app from GitHub. All you have to do is copy and paste the code and switch out 'pizza' for 'bars' and you can find all the nearby bars still open for your all-night drinking pleasure.

Mount Rushmore on Street View

There has been a big new addition to Street View on Google Maps in North America. Google has worked with the U.S. National Park Service and Parks Canada to add more than 44 beautiful locations to Street View.

You can now visit the blurred heads of Mount Rushmore in Street View, Lincoln Memorial Park, the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park and Banff National Park in Canada. Visit the Google Views collection for other highlights from this latest addition to Street View.

The Mapping Our World Exhibition

The National Library of Australia Mapping Our World exhibition is an opportunity to view some rare and unique maps from around the world. The exhibition is running from now until 10 March 2014.

Even if you can't get to Canberra to visit the exhibition in person you can still view seven of the maps from the exhibition in a special online application developed with ESRI Australia. The Mapping our World app allows you to zoom in and explore the maps and the history behind these extraordinary cartographic documents.

The maps include the Ramsey Abbey Higden map from the 14th Century, the Fra Mauro Map of the World (1448–1453) and the Jean Rotz Atlas (1542).

The Last Picture House in Harlem

Steven Melendez has mapped the rise and fall of movie theaters in New York over the last eighty years. Movie Theaters of NYC allows you to view an animated Google Map of movie theaters in New York since 1940.

The map shows the popularity of cinema in the 1940's and 1950's and then a gradual decline from the 1970's to the present day. Each of the markers displayed on the map include links to read more about the selected movie theater.

The Indoor Street View Booking System

I really don't have much desire to review the inside of most businesses and stores on Street View before I visit. However when I'm eating in a restaurant I do actually like to sit in a nice environment. I can therefore see the benefit of scoping out what a restaurant looks like on Street View before visiting.

Similarly if you own a great looking restaurant Google Business Photos is a great way to showcase your restaurant to potential customers. The restaurant GOSP in Denmark has taken this concept a stage further and actually use indoor Street View as a table booking system. Not only can potential customers take a tour around the restaurant in Google Maps Street View, but if they like the look of a particular table they can click on an overlaid marker and book that table for lunch or dinner.

The Google Business Photos Booking System was developed by Big-e, an e-business online development team. I can see a huge potential for such a booking system not only for restaurants but for booking stadium and theater seats.

Indoor Street View is now available in a large number of theaters and stadiums around the world. If you are about to book a ticket for a concert or sporting event in a huge stadium wouldn't it be great to be able to tour the stadium first in Street View and check out the possible view from individual seats before booking your ticket?

Languages of Twitter Mapped

You might think that a map showing where people use different languages on Twitter wouldn't be very informative. Hopefully not many people will be surprised that there are a lot of French speakers in France and a lot of Italian speakers in Italy.

However the Languages on Twitter map is fascinating to explore. The map allows you to select to view just 'English', 'Spanish' or 'Other' on the map. If you view just English speakers on the map you get a real sense of how English is the lingua franca of Twitter. My guess is that there are a lot of non-native speakers who use English to be able to communicate with their followers around the world.

In comparison Spanish is spoken widely on Twitter in the Americas and in Europe but isn't spoken very much in rest of the world. It is a shame that you can't drill down and view 'other' languages individually on the map but they are color-coded so you can zoom in on individual cities and countries and get a sense of the other languages spoken on Twitter.

This is another one of those maps that only seems to work in Chrome.

The Maps of the Week

The University of Maryland's Global Forest Change Map is a Google Map showing forest extent and forest change globally between 2000 and 2012.

By comparing over half a million satellite images the University of Maryland were able to analyse forest loss and gain across the world. From the analysis they have created a number of overlays showing both forest loss and forest gain. You can view all of the overlays on this Google Map and observe the results of global deforestation.


An Englishman's bedsit is his castle. Which is lucky because in the present housing market bubble a bedsit is about all you are likely to be able to afford in the UK.

Illustreets has created an awesome animated Google Map of England and Wales showing the monthly volume of home sales by postcode from January 2009 to August 2013. The map provides a great illustration of how the property market in the UK has recovered since the beginning of 2009. The map also shows the seasonal patterns of property sales in the UK, dropping off in the winter months, especially in January, and rising again in the spring and summer months.

Users can adjust the value of properties that they wish to display on the map and select any postcode to view a chart showing median house prices vs. monthly property sales.


CartoDB's Torque allows developers to render large, time-series data on a map in the client. The library effectively provides a simple method to animate large amounts of data on a map.

A good demonstration of Torque in action is this Amsterdam: Fire Engine Callouts map. The map uses the Torque library to animate 62,415 fire brigade call-outs in Amsterdam between January 2006 and September 2010.

Night Insects Near The Rice Fields

If you want a nice gentle start to your Sunday morning might I suggest that you tune into this Sound Map of Doi Saket. Doi Saket is a rural village in Thailand surrounded by rice fields. This sound map allows you to take an aural tour around the village and listen to the sounds, both natural and man-made.

It is very relaxing listening to the sounds recorded around Doi Saket. If you just leave the map up in the background each recording seems to seamlessly blend into the next, so you can progress from listening to 'A Wind Chime And Children At The Buddhist Temple' straight into 'Night Insects Near the Rice Fields'.

Last Chance to See

Google will stop supporting the Google Maps API v2 on November 19th. This means that you only have a few days left to upgrade your v2 maps to v3 of the Maps API.

All applications still using v2 will from the 19th be served a special, wrapped version of the v3 API instead. This wrapped version of the API will work for the most simple maps but is not likely to work for a lot of applications. If you still need to upgrade your maps to v3 then you might want to have a look at Google's guide to upgrading.

If Google's guide to upgrading doesn't help then your best bet is to ask for help on Stack Overflow (use the google-maps tag).

None of my maps using Google Maps API v2 get much traffic these day. I'm therefore leaving them alone as I'm intrigued to see which ones will break and which ones Google's wrapper will save. One map which I'm pretty certain will stop working is my Star Viewer app. This was one of my own most viewed maps (back in the day). Therefore if you want one last chance to view some amazing astronomical animated videos on top of Google Sky you only have two days left to visit, before it implodes into the black hole of Google's deprecation.

Mapping Top Secret America

The Washington Post has used the Google Maps API to map the rise of domestic counter-terrorism organizations in the United States since 9/11.

The Top Secret America map allows users to search for counter-terrorism organizations by address, by the type of organization, by jurisdiction and by whether the organization was established before or after 9/11. A bar chart beneath the map also shows the number of organizations established in each state.

The map shows both government organizations and private-sector companies that do domestic counter-terrorism and top-secret work.