Google Maps Tour de France Live Tracker 2007

Tour De France Live Tracker 2007:

The 2007 Tour de France is underway and the Ubilabs Tour de France Live Tracker 2007 is live once again. This Google Maps mashup will let you track the stage that is currently underway, and follow GPS-tracked cyclists that are deep in the race.. in real-time! See their exact location, as well heart rate, cadence, speed and power. Cool team jersey map markers indicate the T-Mobile, Gerolsteiner, Discovery Channel, CSC, Saunier Duval and Liquigasracer cyclists on the map. This mashup even makes use of the Twitter API for constant updates (See Live Ticker)! This is a great way to keep up with the race through a truly interactive Google Maps interface! Hurry to take a good look at this mashup before the Tour wraps up in beautiful Paris on July 29th!

Tour de France Links: Wikipedia, Official Tour website, Technorati


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Dubai, Abu Dhabi (UAE) now on Google Maps!

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Added to Google Maps!


The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on the map! Residents of and visitors to the UAE can now view streets and roads for major cities such as Dubai and Abu-Dhabi! While map searching isn't yet available there, searching for "User-created content" on Google Maps searching will. For example, center the map on the UAE and enter "Ski Dubai", or other search terms for Dubai to see where users of the geoweb have plotted locations for their content. It's very helpful.

New Google Maps mashups from Dubai:

Interactive Map of Gulf Architecture - Created using Google My Maps
Here are two photosets of trips I took to Dubai in 2005 and 2006..
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(Near) Real-time cloud imagery on Google Maps!

Update - these sites no longer work so dead links have been removed.

Sterling Udell, creator of the DayLightMap Google Maps tool (which lets you see a world day/night view of the earth) has added a VERY cool new feature.. "Near Real-time" NASA cloud imagery! Take a look:

The images are obtained from NASA and are up to date within the last 6 hours. You can also take a look at the timestamp for the cloud imagery! Pretty nifty! :) Sterling has more info about the imagery on the left side of the page. Be sure to also check out his really amazing "World city lights at night" map which shows a satellite image of the world's city lights taken from space!

Big News: Google Maps Street View

(Updated May 30th/07: YouTube demo clip, more details..)

Google has just launched an absolutely mind-blowing new feature for Google Maps called "Street View", and it's available for the following US cities: San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami. Street View gives you the ability to view 360° panoramas of street-level imagery on Google Maps:



For a cool demo of how this works, take a look at this fun YouTube clip:

..This page features the same YouTube clip with more information and links to read about.

This new Maps viewing experience is much better test driven than being read about so head over to Google Maps (or follow the direct city links above), center the map on the US and click "Street View" up at the top. Choose a city with a camera marker and zoom in to have a play!

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Magnificent Moscow Metro Mashup (Google Maps)

A Magnificent Moscow Metro Mashup: - (Update - these sites no longer work so dead links have been removed)

Boris Vikhanskiy of Russia dropped me a line to inform me of a new bilingual (Russian and English) transit mashup he has created for the Moscow subway system. As far as transit mashups go, this is one of the better I've seen in all ways. For the network itself the mashup has routes, station schemas and exits (more on that in a moment) and public transportation by each station. The UI for the map itself features a tool to measure distance, a way to pass a created path as a link and print/email options. This, among many other features.

My favorite part of this map is that it keeps surprising you as you get further and further down in zoom levels. At first you see the color coded spaghetti polylines going every which way to illustrate the various routes. Zoom down a bit more and stations appear. Even further and text labels appear.. then when you reach zoom levels 1 and 2 the actual schema for the station with each of the stairways and exits is displayed! Take a look:

Be sure to take a look at the bottom of the map to find detailed instructions on how to use every part of Boris Vikhanskiy most awesome Google Maps transit mashup for the city of Moscow, Russia!

More Russian Google Maps Mashups:

• Wikimapia - This world famous Google Maps mashup was created by two developers in Moscow
• domnakarte.ru - A new Moscow housing mashup
• Virtual Moscow - A great tourism mashup for Moscow showing highlights and virtual tours

Facebook + Google Maps = Friend Mashups

+  (update - these sites no longer exist so dead links have been removed.

Can't get enough of Facebook? Try something new on Facebook by using these Facebook Google Maps mashups to make your own buddy mapping mashup by plotting your Facebook friends on a map! It takes a few seconds to do and the resulting map shows geographically how near and far your friends really are!

Facebook Friend Mapper - This one is pretty straightforward. Follow the link and login to Facebook. Once you've logged in, friends automatically become mapped for you across a Google Map. The map locations pull from the hometown that your friend has set.

Map Your Buddies - This mashup combines Facebook, Google Maps and Amazon to allow you to map your friends to a Google Map. The Amazon ingredient in this mashup checks out your friend's music interests and suggests a CD from Amazon. Follow the steps at the bottom of the page to get going. This app might expose how few of your friends have music interests set but it does map friends pretty well, especially grouping many in one location.

Facebook UK Friend Plotter - This is a UK specific Facebook friend mapping app that will map where your friends are in the UK. This is great for the UK Facebook crowd, but since I personally hail from Southwestern Ontario, Canada I did expose one flaw in this app. My area of Southern Ontario was settled by the British so all of my Facebook friends are displayed in the locations where these Ontario place names originate in the UK (places like London, Windsor, Blenheim (woo hoo!), Chatham etc..)

See more Facebook mashups on ProgrammableWeb..


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Welcome to Google Maps Mania!

Welcome to Google Maps Mania! If this is your first time here.. Welcome! This is a blog that covers all the cool new Google Maps mashups, tools and applications being created by people all over the world. Posts also cover features and additions to Google Maps itself such new mapping data being added, new features and so on.

Here are some cool mashups to get you started:

• Dig a very deep hole
  
• Live Helsinki Transit Map
  
• Wikimapia
  
• Healthmap
• Global Incident Map
• WalkJogRun
• Top eBay Real Estate Auctions
  
• Real-time Trains in Dublin
  
• FindByClick World Coffee Finder
• Jotle places mashup
• WeatherBonk
• Google My Maps
  
• Recent Canada Roundup
• Recent USA Roundup

Some other places to check out while you're here:

Mashups and Tools Index - A long list of mashups by category
Mashups By Country - Collections of mashups by specific country
Special Features - Special posts of collections of mashups (travel, music etc..)
Media & Blog Mentions - What the press and blogosphere have to say about this blog

Google Maps update for: Russia, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania!

Google Maps Mania readers from around the world are noting updates to Google Maps in several countries worldwide today! Here is the rundown of countries that are seeing updates:

• Russia
• Turkey
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Greece
• Croatia
• Slovenia
• Lithuania

In some cases there are enhancements to the road/street maps that were there previously (Greece for example) and for some countries streets and roads are completely new (Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey) This update of streets, roads and other points of interest will have a huge impact on users of Google Maps in these areas. It means that satellite imagery is now more relevant and easier to identify when "sightseeing" using the hybrid map view toggle. In addition, Google's new My Maps map creation tool is now instantly available for millions of people to begin creating and sharing interesting maps for these countries!

Know of other countries seeing updates or want to leave some feedback? Post a comment! :)

[Thanks to Scott Dexter for the tip!]

For other recent feature and functionality updates to Google Maps, click on the "Google Maps" label below:

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Google Maps adds live traffic for US cities

Google Maps has today rolled out a new feature: Live Traffic Conditions.


The data is available by clicking the new "Traffic" toggle button to the left of "Map - Satellite - Hybrid":


..When you select this option traffic signals appear for cities which have live traffic available. Click the icons and a zoom option appears:

Color coded routes indicate traffic levels for that city.. Give it a try! :)

Google Maps Creation Tools Mega-Post - Part 11

Here again is another (the 11th) roundup of the latest Google Maps Creation (and Viewing) Tools and Resources. I've assemble these lists over the past few years to help you discover the countless sites created by people on the web to assist you with building your own Google Maps mashup or with diving deeper into the Google Maps API. Check out the bottom of this post to learn why this is a "Mega-Post"!

New tools to create your own map:

• TinyMap - Quick and easy Google Maps
• Add your own map markers on CommunityWalk - Automatically adds a legend icon, shadowing and IE printing functionality. (Example here)
• GeoMonkey - Build your own map and explore others.
• Mapdaze - Google Maps creation tool meant for embedding into blogs.

Google Maps Viewing Tools:

• Google Maps Directions Bookmarklet Generator - This is cool. Add your consistent starting point for directions you run. Gens code that, once saved can be used for quick Google Maps directions later.
• Widgetop Google Maps Widget - Works for Firefox or Safari. Check out the website to learn how Widgetop works.
• More Google Maps Creation Tools here..