Sharing Your Movements with Google Maps

MapHook

This free iPhone application allows you to tag locations on a Google Map. The application lets you search for interesting places nearby, view other users' MapHooks, read Wikipedia entries about local points of interest or read Yelp reviews of nearby businesses.

When you leave your own MapHook at a location you can attach photographs, submit information and add a category to the MapHook. You can also attach Wikipedia entries and Yelp reviews.

It is possible to set different privacy settings for each MapHook that you post, giving access to 'Everyone', 'Co-Workers', 'Family', 'Friends' or 'Me'. MapHook also allows you to combine your entries so that you can create a collection of MapHooks that could, for example, record places you visited on a vacation.

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Low Carbon Travel Ideas with Google Maps

Loco2 Low Carbon Travel

Loco2 is a new website featuring low carbon holiday and travel ideas. Currently the site is concentrating on travel routes and holiday ideas for Europe.

The Loco2 Journey Planner uses Google Maps to show the location of submitted destinations. If you click on any of the destinations you will be taken to the details of the journey. On the journey plan site for each destination you will find a Google Map that shows the steps on your journey, the estimated time of the journey and the carbon footprint.

The journey planner explains each step on the journey and also provides information for each of the locations that you pass through. The information on locations includes links to travel articles from The Guardian, 'things to do' from Qype and details about hotels and hostels.

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Bird Spotting with Google Maps

GeoBirds

Geobirds provides a 'Range Maps' service to show sightings of different bird species in the USA. The site uses data collected by the United States Geological Service.

GeoBirds Range Maps allows you to search for bird sightings in summer and winter at any location. To search the map you first need to choose a location and then choose a bird species from the map sidebar.

Geobirds then displays the results of your search on a Google Map. The blue markers on the map represent bird sightings in winter and the yellow markings display summer sightings. Year round sightings are shown by purple map markers.

Beaky Birdsearch

Beaky Birdsearch is a geographical search engine of UK bird species. The application uses Google Maps to allow users to search for the distribution of birds throughout the UK.

The data for the application is from the 2009 RSPB Big Birdwatch survey which asked members of the public to record the birds that they spotted in their own gardens. To search the map you can enter a bird species or you can select one from the drop-down menu.

Other Birdwatching Maps

• Birdpost
• Birdtrack India
• Birds of Central Park
• White Tailed Eagles - site tracking two eagles on the Isle of Mull in Scotland
  
• Aviatlas

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Real-Time University Bus Maps

Transloc - Transit Visualization System

Transloc TVS have produced a large number of real-time Google Maps showing the locations of buses on a large number of US university transit systems.

Using a Transloc map students can view in real-time the position of buses on a campus map. The maps show the buses in real-time actually moving on the map. Each map also includes the bus routes and the position of stops on that route.

Using the map sidebar you can select to view any route or any combination of routes on the map. Transloc is also available as an iPhone application.

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Google Maps Of Govt Spending and Cuts

Where are the Cuts?

The economic downturn has led a number of governments to launch stimulus packages to try and boost the economy. Around the world there have been a number of attempts to map these stimulus packages. In the UK the British government have taken a different approach and are drastically cutting public spending.

Where are the Cuts uses the Ushahidi crowd-sourced mapping platform to try and crowdsource where the cuts in spending are taking affect. You can use the Where are the Cuts Google Map to view where cuts have been made in locations around the UK. If you know of a cut that has not yet been mapped you can add it to the map.

Nation Building

In Australia the government have created a Google Maps mashup to show where the country's tax dollars are being spent as part of the federal government's stimulus plan. To ensure that the program is delivered with full transparency the Australian Government has created an entire website, Nation Building - Economic Stimulus Plan, which is dedicated to news, stories and progress reports so citizens can monitor how their money is being spent.

The Google Map plays a large part in showing where and how the money is being spent.

Canada's Economic Action Plan

In Canada the GoogleMapsDev team have used the Google Maps for Flash API to map over 7,000 projects funded by the Canadian Government as part of its $61 billion dollar economic stimulus package.

USDA ARRA Projects Map

In the USA USDA have created a Google Map to show where and how the United States Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Department of Commerce projects (funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) are putting Americans back to work and rejuvenating the nation's economy.

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Create Your Own Smartphone Guides

Geodelic

Geodelic is a smartphone application that allows you to search for nearby points of information. From the Geodelic app you can search for places around you based on distance, relevance, and interest. Geodelic also lets you create your own GeoGuides that you can then access from your iPhone or Android phone.

To create a GeoGuide you first need to choose a location using Google Maps. Once you have chosen your location you can then search for points of interest to add to your guide. To add points of interest you just need to enter a term into the search box. For example, you can choose to view local cafes, restaurants, bars or museums. Geodelic will then add points of interest to the map that match your search criteria. To add any of the mapped POI's to your guide you just need to select it and press 'add'.

Once you have added all the points of interest that you want to your guide you can then add categories. You can create any category that you want. For example, you can add a 'restaurant' category and then add all your selected points of interest that are restaurants to that category.

Once you have finished creating your GeoGuide you can then publish it and share it with the world. After your GeoGuide has been published you can access it from your Android device or iPhone. You now have your own personal guide for your chosen location.

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Check-in with Google Maps

You Scoop it

You Scoop it is a new social network that is trying to crack the crowded location check-in market. You Scoop it lets you find, review, write about or check-in with anyone, anywhere or anything. Using You Scoop it you can find and follow your friends, earn badges and unlock achievements.

Like Foursquare and other LBS applications You Scoop it lets you check-in at locations around the world. The site uses Google Maps to show you the location of places. You can then check-in, write a review and add pictures of videos.

You Scoop it differs from other location based services in that it isn't restricting itself to locations. You can also check-in people and things. Using You Scoop it you can write a review about a person and post pictures and videos of them. Or you can write a review about an object, such as a product, and share that information with your social network.

You can connect your You Scoop it account with Facebook but at the moment there doesn't appear to be any smart phone applications. If You Scoop it is serious about breaking into the LBS market then they really need to start thinking about how users can check-in via their phones.

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Find Co-Working Spaces with Google Maps

Loosecubes

Loosecubes is a website to find and share co-working spaces. Anyone who has a few extra desks or office space can use Loosecubes to rent the space.

If you are looking for a co-working office space you can use the Loosecubes Google Map to find a desk near your location. You can refine the results shown on the map to show properties that are available to rent by the day or those that require a minimum of a month. You can also refine the results to show 'open desks', 'private offices', 'conference rooms' or an 'event space'.

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Rainfall on Google Maps

NEXRAD Rainfall Map


NEXRAD is a radar system that measures precipitation and wind. The NEXRAD Rainfall Map uses the rainfall data collected from the National Weather Service radars to help you find daily rainfall information for anywhere in the lower 48 states.

The site includes two tools for extracting rainfall data. The first tool uses Google Maps to allow you to select any location and any date and view the rainfall for the place and time in tabular form.

The second tool lays down an interactive, dynamically generated KML of a rainfall surface over Google Maps. In the resulting map you can click on any NEXRAD cell and extract the rainfall date from the chosen cell.

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Watch News Videos on Google Maps

Mapeas

Mapeas lets you watch news videos from around the world directly from Google Maps. Using the map you can browse and watch video news by location. So, for example, if you want to watch news videos of the Chilean miners' rescue you can just zoom into Chile on the map, where there is a large cluster of news videos of the rescue.

The videos are categorised into Business, Entertainment, General, Science and Sport. You can view all categories on the map at one time or select to only show videos from one category.

To view a news video just roll-over a map marker and click on the video thumbnail.

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