Webcams of the World

Today I've viewed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. All before breakfast and all from the comfort of my own home.

igoCam is a Google Map of some of the best live travel webcams from around the world. Which means all you have to do is click on a marker on the map to view a live webcam of the selected location. A handy day / night layer on the map even shows you which webcams are currently in daylight and which ones might be a little dark.

An 'Explore' option allows you to filter and search the available webcams by theme, country and quality of stream. Each of the webcams shown on the map also has a unique web address. This means that if you find a webcam view that you like you can share its URL with your friends.

Live Video Cam Mapping

I've always been very keen on webcam maps. There is something very satisfying about being able to view live snapshots of locations around the world thanks to people sharing their webcams feeds. This Ivideon TV map of live video cams takes this voyeuristic thrill to a whole new level.

Most webcam maps provide updating still images of locations around the world. Ivideon cams however are actually live video feeds, many of them with sound. You can therefore use the map to watch live video streams simply by selecting a marker on the map.

Ivideon customers around the world are sharing their live streams on the map. However Ivideon seems to be particularly popular in countries in Eastern Europe.

Living Room Cams on Google Maps

I feel dirty.

I've just been watching live webcam footage of a young family whilst they eat their evening meal. The family have installed a TRENDnet home security cam.

For about a year now it has been fairly well known that insecure TRENDnet cams can be accessed online in real time. TrendNET has released firmware fixes that can make cams secure but the number of insecure cams is obviously very high, at least judging by the number of live feeds on this Cam Map.

Ski Resort Webcams on Google Maps

If you want to check out the skiing conditions at your favourite resort you could do worse than check out the Sion Valais Webcam Navigator.

The Webcam Navigator is a Google Map showing European ski resort webcams. Thumbnail images of the latest shots from each webcam are shown on the map. You can click any of the thumbnail images to view the full-size image on the Sion Valais website or you can choose to view local points of interest at each ski resort.

Live Mobile Videos on Google Maps

GeoCam.tv

GeoCam.tv is a Google Map of webcams from around the world. The site has recently added live streams from Qik.com. The videos from Qik.com are real-time video streams from users' mobile phones.

What I like about GeoCam.tv is that all the webcams can be viewed directly on the map. Currently the map shows over 1000 webcams from around the world, as well as the live Qik.com feeds. To view a cam just click on a map marker and the webcam image will open in an information window.

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New Year's Mashups on Google Maps

Map Clock
Use this Google Map to find out whereabouts in the world it is midnight right now. This ingenious Google Map has an embedded clock that changes to show the time in the current map view.

The map sidebar includes some quick links to find the time in cities around the world.

World Webcams
Times Square Live Streaming Cam
This live streaming webcam of Times Square has a lot of different views, so you should catch all of the midnight action.

Nasdaq Times Square Live Streaming Cam (Windows Media Player link)
This live streaming webcam is centred on the Nasdaq Market Site Tower on Times Square.

Sydney Harbour Bridge
This live streaming cam of Sydney Harbour should catch the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks.

Grand Place, Brussels Live Streaming Cam
This streaming webcam has a great view of the Grand Place in Brussels.

Google Maps Mashups to help you ring in the New Year:

• World Weather
• World Sunrise Times & World Times
  
• World Daylight Map
• World Webcams
• New York City webcams
• Taxi Fare Calculator (US/Canada)
• Stay Up Maps (US)
• World Live Music Map
• World Transit Mashups

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Live Webcams on Google Maps

GeoCam.tv

Here is another Google Map of webcams from around the world. What I like about GeoCam.tv is that all the webcams can be viewed directly on the map.

Currently the map shows over 1000 webcams from around the world. To view a cam just click on a map marker and the webcam image will open in an information window.

Some other webcam maps:

• Webcams.travel
• Fisgonia - This English/Spanish webcams map has over 300 camera views from all over the world in 11 categories.
• 300 Great Lakes webcams (US & Canada)
• USA Webcam Map
• WebcamVue
• Webcam Galore

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Webcams on Google Maps

Webcam Galore

Webcams Galore has compiled links to over 7000 outdoor webcams around the world. It is possible to view the location of each of the webcams on a Google Map.

To view the Google Map of a webcam just click on the 'Details' link under each listed webcam. The link takes you to a small Google Map displaying the webcam's location.

If you click on the small map a larger Google Map opens which you can then browse to find webcams throughout the world. If you pan the map then the webcams in the current view are dynamically loaded.

Some other webcam maps:

• Webcams.travel
• Fisgonia - This English/Spanish webcams map has over 300 camera views from all over the world in 11 categories.
• 300 Great Lakes webcams (US & Canada)
• USA Webcam Map
• WebcamVue

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Traffic Cams Added to Driving Directions

Check Your London Driving Route for Traffic

Google Maps mashups based on Transport for London data are now coming thick and fast. Last week Tfl, the body responsible for public transport in the UK capital, released a Transport for London API. Yesterday we saw the Live London Underground Map and, this morning came, Live Line, two mashups built on real-time train positions on the London Underground network.

This afternoon I found this traffic webcam map for London. The map lets you get driving directions for any route in London and then view all the traffic cams along the route. This allows drivers to see at a glance how much traffic is on the roads on the planned route.

This is a great idea that I don't think I've seen implemented elsewhere. Considering that traffic cam feeds are fairly abundant around the world I have a feeling a lot of map developers will jump on this idea and create something similar for other cities. At least I hope so.

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Chatroulette on Google Maps

Chatroulette Map

My face blurring algorithm is not quite as smart as Google's

Chatroulette is a popular website which pairs random strangers for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website are randomly connected to somebody else with a webcam. At any point, either of the users may leave the chat by starting another random connection.

Chatroulette Map is a map of images (presumably) taken from Chatroulette webcam discussions. I'm not sure if the map is officially from Chatroulette or if someone is scraping the data. However the map contains a lot of captured images from users' webcams and the images seem to be from recent discussions.

Apparently users of Chatroulette are often connected to male exhibitionists - so be warned many of the images on this map are NSFW!

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Viewing Webcams with Aerial View

Webcams.travel

Webcams.travel have added Google Map's new aerial view to its maps of travel cams. Currently aerial view is only available in Google Maps Labs or, to developers, through the Google Maps API.

The use of aerial view really adds to the user experience in surfing the map for webcams. The aerial view imagery allows you to rotate the map image to more closely match the view as shown in the selected webcams.

Aerial view is currently available in Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego and Portland. If you browse Webcams.travel in satellite view the map will automatically switch to aerial view where it is available.

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5000 Webcams on Google Maps

WebcamVue

WebcamVue is a new free directory of over 5,000 webcams around the world. Rather than the still image webcams of most webcam maps all the webcams on webcamVue seem to show live streaming shots of their location.

The site includes Google Maps for each of the countries featured. It is therefore possible to zoom in on your location and find the nearest webcams directly from the map. All the webcams are shown on the map with yellow map markers.

Clicking on a map marker opens the webcam directly on the map. Clicking on the camera view will also open the webcam in a new window with a larger view of the webcam.

Some other webcam maps:

• Webcams.travel
• Fisgonia - This English/Spanish webcams map has over 300 camera views from all over the world in 11 categories.
• 300 Great Lakes webcams (US & Canada)
• LiveLook - Webcam map with a night / day guide.
• Singapore Webcams
• USA Webcam Map

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New Worldwide Webcam Google Map

Worldwide Webcams Maps

Mashed World has created a number of webcam Google Maps for different countries around the world. The webcams for each map are provided by webcams.travel, who recently had a layer added to Google Maps.

When you roll over one of the webcam map markers on the map a thumbnail appears showing the latest image from the webcam. Clicking on a webcam marker opens an information window with a link to that webcams page at webcams.travel.

Some other webcam maps:

Fisgonia - This English/Spanish webcams map has over 300 camera views from all over the world in 11 categories.
300 Great Lakes webcams (US & Canada)
LiveLook - Webcam map with a night / day guide.
Singapore Webcams
USA Webcam Map

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