Hacks & Mashups

Link Roundup: Early July Edition
Off camping for a few days; here are a few links to tide you over: Roger Hart’s very good blog, GeoCarta, has moved to a new address and a new platform. The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center’s map collection is… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Categories: Blogs, Books, GIS, Hacks & Mashups, Industry News, Libraries, Triangulations (Links)
More Google News: Banned in Minnesota; New Developer Blog
Two more recent Google-related items: North Oaks, a rather xenophobic town in Minnesota — the streets are privately owned — has asked Google to remove it from Street View; Google has complied with the town’s request. Google’s gotten into trouble… »
Posted on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 4:06 PM
Categories: Blogs, Censorship & Security, Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Google Earth in a Web Browser
Google has announced a new plug-in and API that will allow Google Earth to be run from within a browser, once the plug-in has been downloaded. Windows-only so far (but most browsers on Windows), so I can’t add to what… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 8:11 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps API for Flash
The Google Maps API now has a Flash version, alongside its regular JavaScript and static versions. On the Google Maps API blog, Mike Jones writes: So, what do I like about the API for Flash? Smoothness and speed are a… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 7:43 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Yahoo’s Internet Location Platform
Yahoo’s announcement of its Internet Location Platform will be of great interest to web developers and programmers interested in geolocating data, but completely abstruse to everyone else. The platform uses something called Where on Earth ID (WOEID), a numerical tag… »
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 7:19 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
OpenStreetMap Adds Export Feature
OpenStreetMap adds an export feature that, as you might expect, goes beyond embedding a map on your site: Want a static map for your blog, without having to spend hours fiddling with JavaScript? No problem - just export in PNG… »
Posted on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 7:35 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Géoportail API
Géoportail, the mapping site of France’s Institut géographique national, is getting an API this month, Renaud Euvrard reports (in French). Two APIs, actually — regular and pro versions — with a 3D API slated for the summer. (Géoportail’s coverage is… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
A List Apart: ‘Take Control of Your Maps’
On A List Apart, an online magazine about web design by and for web designers (who can be an obsessively exacting lot), Paul Smith has an article about going beyond the Google Maps API (or presumably others) for a site’s… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 7:25 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Contour Lines and Other Stories: A Google Roundup
Contour lines have been added to Google Maps’s terrain map layer, which adds its their usefulness (especially, for example, in a mountain context). But it has some way to go before it’s a suitable replacement for a topo map;… »
Posted on Friday, April 4, 2008 at 9:31 AM
Categories: Blogs, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Online Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
New Jersey State Atlas
I learned about the New Jersey State Atlas, a Google Maps mashup of New Jersey state data, on MetaFilter Projects, where its creater, John J. Reiser, posted it. Here’s how he introduced it: Originally a product of “hey, what… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 8:47 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
‘A New Golden Age of Cartography’
“A new golden age of cartography has suddenly dawned, everywhere. We can all be map-makers now, navigating across a landscape of ideas that the cartographers of the past could never have imagined,” writes Ben Macintyre in his Times column. “Where… »
Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps Astronomy Mashups?
Mike Pegg notes that despite the fact that it’s been a few months since the Google Maps API supported Moon, Mars and Sky, “we have not been inundated with Google Maps mash-ups that have taken advantage of these new astronomical… »
Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Categories: Astronomy, Hacks & Mashups
MapQuest Platform: Free Edition
MapQuest has relaunched its mapping APIs, calling them the MapQuest Platform: Free Edition. I’m not exactly sure how this works: MapQuest has had a free API along with commercial partnerships; I don’t know if this is meant to replace both,… »
Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 3:38 PM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
‘The New Cartographers’
In These Times has a wide-ranging article on “the new cartographers” — i.e., the popular use of new mapping technologies. For some, mapping has become a vibrant new language—a way to interpret the world, find like-minded folks and make fresh,… »
Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Static Maps API
Google has released a “static maps” API: using an image URL, you can generate a map image without using JavaScript, which can be useful in certain circumstances where slow page loads, or JavaScript compatibility, are an issue. Documentation here. Note… »
Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Swiss Trains in Real Time
Centred on Zürich, this site provides real-time positions of Swiss trains — the icons freaking move — based on their schedules. “The current view is based on the Swiss train timetable, and does not yet show the actual GPS-positions… »
Posted on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Categories: Cities, Hacks & Mashups, Railroads
Early Google Maps Hack Retired
The end of an era. Adrian Holovaty’s chicagocrime.org, one of the original Google Maps hacks that predated the release of the official API and that was frequently held up in the media as practically the archetype of the mapping hack,… »
Posted on Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Sky Updated, API Supports Astronomy Layers
I still find the Google Sky interface less appealing than some dedicated planetarium software I’ve tried, but I’m still interested in the most recent updates, including, among other things, imagery from space-based telescopes and imagery layers from 17th-century celestial… »
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Categories: Astronomy, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups
Our Dumb World Online
Catholicgauze points out that some content from The Onion’s Our Dumb World (reviewed here) is being put online, a bit more each week, both as a Google Maps mashup and a Google Earth layer; brief bullet-point-sized excerpts in each case…. »
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 7:43 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups
Custom Icons for Google Maps
Custom icons for Google Maps. Ostensibly just fun, but this can be quite practical. The standard set of icons is useful but limited: imagine, for example, adding a set of map symbols from another source…. »
Posted on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 8:50 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Yahoo MapMixer
Also announced last week, a beta release (of course) of Yahoo’s MapMixer tool, which allows you to overlay an image atop of Yahoo’s mapping engine. It seems analagous to Microsoft’s MapCruncher, which was released last year. Yahoo! Local and… »
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 8:44 PM
Categories: Georeferencing, Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps Now Embeddable in Web Pages
Google Maps are now embeddable as HTML in blog posts and other web pages. (If you’re familiar with embedded YouTube videos, it works exactly the same way.) This includes map layers (such as My Maps or a KML file)…. »
Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 7:55 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps: Ad Layer, Geocoding, Rush Hour Traffic
A few items about Google Maps, some of which of interest to developers, others to everyone. An ad layer for Google Maps (see previous entry) is described as “ready for early testers”; at some point it will be unleashed for… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 9:02 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Traffic Conditions
The Amateur Mapping Revolution
Map hacks have been around for a couple of years, but the real revolution in online mapping is much more recent — and involves the ability of amateurs, rather than programmers, to create maps using online tools. That’s the argument… »
Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 8:27 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
The Million Marker Map
One of my favourite web writers ever, Maciej Ceglowski, announces “an experimental set of Flash and JavaScripts add-ons to the Google Maps API” that allows for the presentation of very large datasets — the Million Marker Map: One challenge we’ve… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 9:37 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
More About Mapplets
Google’s Mapplets, announced at the end of May, is coming along nicely: it’s now fully integrated into the “My Maps” tab of Google Maps, and you can save Mapplet content to a personal map. Google LatLong, Google Maps API Blog;… »
Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps: UK Geocoder, Palm OS Application
I’m working on a big post on Google Maps on the iPhone today — or, more precisely, on the reaction to Google Maps on the iPhone — and I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to finish… »
Posted on Monday, July 9, 2007 at 10:36 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mobile Devices
More About My Maps, KML and Mashups
Darren McEntee writes, about my post about using Google My Maps KML in mashups, Can you please add a small piece of info in regards how to add a KML file to Google My Maps? I have tracked some past… »
Posted on Friday, July 6, 2007 at 7:29 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Questions
Shaded Relief in Virtual Earth, Google Maps
A nice touch. In its most recent update, Microsoft Virtual Earth added shaded relief to its road maps. This is something Google Maps lacks, but Google Karten notes that the map tiles from the Shaded Relief world map (see previous… »
Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2007 at 4:24 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
A Google Maps Roundup
About a month’s worth of links related to Google Maps from my increasingly preposterous queue. Because the news wasn’t all about Street View. The imagery update announced in early June for Google Earth was applied to Google Maps only a… »
Posted on Monday, July 2, 2007 at 9:18 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Wired’s July Issue: Google Maps and the Hyperlocal Future
Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World, from Wired’s July issue, is a far-reaching state-of-the-topic article that looks at Google’s mapmaking ventures and the tremendous amount of amateur mapmaking it’s stimulated. Covers all the bases. Noteworthy: “Today,… »
Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 1:30 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Miscellaneous Google Things
Mashup makers take note: the Google Maps API now supports driving directions. Google has gone and bought photo-geotagging site Panoramio. At a Developer Day talk, Google’s plans for integrating AdSense into its map products. (Disclaimer: I make money from AdSense.)… »
Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 8:43 PM
Categories: Geotagging, Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
MapQuest ActionScript API
Also announced at Where 2.0: an ActionScript API from MapQuest. (ActionScript is the scripting language used in Flash applications.)… »
Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 6:40 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Mapplets
Google’s been busy today. They also announced a developer preview of Mapplets, which to me seems like a mashup in reverse: instead of importing Google’s maps to data on your web site, data on your web site is imported into… »
Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 6:34 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Finally Gets a Map Blog
Yahoo and Microsoft have had mapping blogs for a while, but not Google — at least not until today, when the Google Lat Long Blog, which covers Maps, Earth, Local and the mapping API, made its debut. Now where’s the… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 8:00 PM
Categories: Blogs, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Yahoo Pipes Adds GeoData
Pipes is a relatively new Yahoo service that allows users to do all sorts of things with feeds, though I haven’t yet had an opportunity to try it. It has now added geodata support, which means that RSS feeds containing… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 8:34 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Virtual Earth API Version 5.0
Version 5.0 of the Virtual Earth API went live today; features include new and/or improved shape layer classes and customizable keyboard and mouse events. Mashups will need to upgrade to the new API to use the new features…. »
Posted on Friday, April 27, 2007 at 9:05 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Maps and Wikis
A couple of extensions that allow wiki developers to add Google Maps to their wiki installations — at least, insofar as I can figure it, if they’re using MediaWiki: Extension: Google Maps and Google Maps Widget. Oddly enough, I’ve been… »
Posted on Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 10:17 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google’s My Maps: A Roundup
O’Reilly Radar notes the fact that the maps are not only shareable, but searchable. Free GeoTools tests the accuracy of position markers generated in My Maps when they’re imported, as KML, into Google Earth: the test location was off by… »
Posted on Friday, April 6, 2007 at 7:12 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Google’s My Maps: KML Can Be Used in Mashups
Something about Google’s My Maps thing that they don’t mention in the user guide: the fact that these maps are available in KML means not only that they can be viewed in Google Earth, but also that they can also… »
Posted on Friday, April 6, 2007 at 6:09 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
GeoRSS, KML Added to Google Maps API
GeoRSS and KML support has been added to the Google Maps API, which should have a major impact on how map mashups acquire their data. Since GeoRSS appears to be trivial to add to RSS feeds (Flickr can outputs GeoRSS… »
Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 8:30 PM
Categories: Geotagging, Hacks & Mashups
Mashups and Businesses
An article about the proliferation of map mashups does not sound exactly groundbreaking in 2007, but this piece from Information Week looks at how businesses are integrating map APIs into their web offerings. Via Anything Geospatial…. »
Posted on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 8:55 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Detroit Through the Years
I can’t see it because I’m on a Mac and this is a Virtual Earth mashup, but Detroit Through the Years, which displays aerial views of Detroit from 1949 to the present, sounds like a fascinating project. Let me know… »
Posted on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 5:57 PM
Categories: Cities, Hacks & Mashups, Satellite & Aerial
Yahoo! Maps Mashups
Webmapper notes the availability of the first book about the Yahoo mapping APIs, Yahoo! Maps Mashups. “It was about time, especially as the Google Maps API is covered in quite a few books already,” writes Edward. The book’s author,… »
Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 9:45 AM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
The Other Shaded Relief Site
The Shaded Relief world map should not be confused with Tom Patterson’s Shaded Relief site (previously); instead, it’s a Google Maps mashup with a custom layer. “We have created a custom layer using SRTM30+ and SRTM90 DEMs and used VMAP0… »
Posted on Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 6:30 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
EWG U.S. Mining Database
There has been an explosion in mining claims lately; the Environmental Working Group’s U.S. Mining Database uses the Google Maps API to show active mines and claims on federal lands in the western United States. (There’s also a Google Earth… »
Posted on Sunday, December 17, 2006 at 7:04 PM
Categories: Energy & Resources, Environment, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Satellite & Aerial
Toronto Transit Map
Torontoist calls this transit map of Toronto “the best map ever in the history of anything.” What it looks like to me is the TTC transit map superimposed on a Google Maps interface. Not that that isn’t impressive in… »
Posted on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 9:51 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Toronto
Ask MetaFilter Roundup
Recent map- and GPS-related questions on Ask MetaFilter (they even come with answers): Why haven’t GPS prices dropped as much as other electronics? The consensus seems to be that the GPS electronics cost next to nothing; the price point is… »
Posted on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 8:18 AM
Categories: GPS, Hacks & Mashups
London: A Life in Maps — Now Open and Online
The British Library exhibition, “London: A Life in Maps,” is now open, both in real life and online. The virtual exhibition that Peter Barber referred to is now online as part of the overall London: A Life in Maps web… »
Posted on Sunday, November 26, 2006 at 4:03 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Hacks & Mashups, London, London: A Life in Maps
ACME Mapper
ACME Mapper started out as a front end for TerraServer; it’s now a Google Maps mashup that adds TerraServer data (including USGS topo maps) and NEXRAD weather radar data as additional layers — though these added layers are U.S.-only. Via… »
Posted on Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 6:17 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Topo Maps & Trails, Weather & Climate
Google Earth Data in Google Maps Redux
You could previously view Google Earth KML files in Google Maps, but, the Google Maps API Blog reports, you can now do a few more things with KML/KMZ files (e.g., image overlays) within the Google Maps interface…. »
Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 10:33 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth: Excerpt
ExtremeTech has published a sample chapter of its book, Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth by Martin C. Brown. The excerpt deals with customizing the map output for a community site (e.g., icons and markers, loading data in from XML),… »
Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006 at 10:45 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Top Ten Non-Google Map Mashups
From Lifehacker, a top-ten list of map mashups that aren’t based on Google Maps. Thanks to Joel Riggs for the link…. »
Posted on Friday, November 3, 2006 at 2:54 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
MapKit
Platial has introduced MapKit, which integrates their service, built atop the Google Maps API, into your web page or blog (though there seem to be issues with certain blogging engines, including WordPress and Blogger). It looks profoundly easy to… »
Posted on Friday, November 3, 2006 at 9:15 AM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
Firefox Mapping Extensions
Mapz: A GIS Librarian takes a look at some mapping-related Firefox extensions: All Your Maps Are Belong to Us, which converts URLs for other mapping sites to Google Maps; GMiF, which embeds a Google Map on a Flickr photo page… »
Posted on Thursday, November 2, 2006 at 8:34 AM
Categories: Geotagging, Hacks & Mashups, Software
Zoomatron
Zoomatron uses MapCruncher to overlay nautical charts on top of the Virtual Earth interface. Massachusetts and Washington states. The method reminds me of what Skyvector.com did with aeronautical charts. Via Windows Live Local/Virtual Earth. See previous entries: MapCruncher Update; MapCruncher…. »
Posted on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 10:02 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Nautical
Seattle 911 Mashup Falls to Security Concerns
The API is only one half of a map mashup; the other half is the data being plotted on the map. In many cases, mashup makers do not own the data they’re mapping, but are using public (or at least… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 8:26 PM
Categories: Censorship & Security, Hacks & Mashups
Two Books About Google Maps Mashups
Two books about programming with the Google Maps API are coming early next year, Google Karten reports: Beginning Google Maps Applications with Rails and Ajax, in the same series as the previously mentioned book about PHP and Ajax, and… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 6:12 AM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
New York City Subway Smell Map
Gawker’s New York City Subway Smell Map, a Google Maps mashup with attitude: “Created from reports sent in by Gawker readers, the map displays particular smells — horrific and sublime — encountered throughout New York’s subway stations.” And you thought… »
Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 at 6:34 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, New York
Yahoo! Updates Mapping API
Yahoo! has updated its AJAX mapping API to version 3.4; among other things, it now includes polylines and a traffic data layer…. »
Posted on Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 4:24 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
UN Atlas Presented via Google Maps
The UN Environment Programme’s atlas, One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, was announced in June 2005 and has been available as a free download since at least last February. (You can always buy the book, of course.)… »
Posted on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 9:25 AM
Categories: Books, Environment, Hacks & Mashups, Satellite & Aerial
Google Maps API Update
On the Google Maps API Blog, an explanation of recent performance and imagery upgrades to the API. The improved imagery was noticed on Google Maps proper last week; this post includes a list of the areas that got those imagery… »
Posted on Saturday, September 16, 2006 at 10:07 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
MapCruncher Update
MapCruncher, the Virtual Earth tool that allows you to integrate your map or image into their mapping system, is now natively supported by the API, the developers report. See previous entries: Live Local/Virtual Earth Update; MapCruncher…. »
Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 7:38 AM
Categories: Georeferencing, Hacks & Mashups
Mapping Regions in Google Maps
One drawback to Google Maps — and presumably to the other mapping services — is that while it’s easy to map points and lines (“polylines”), mapping regions (“polygons”) is something altogether different. And that makes it rather difficult to do… »
Posted on Tuesday, September 5, 2006 at 7:53 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax
Books about Google’s mapping services continue to appear. Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax is a new book about producing web applications using the Google Maps API and your data, whether your data is small and simple… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 3:14 PM
Categories: Blogs, Books, Hacks & Mashups
Thota on Virtual Earth APIs
Chandu Thota reports that he has an article on the Virtual Earth APIs in the September issue of MSDN Magazine: “In this article, I’ll highlight some of the most salient features of the Virtual Earth APIs and show you how… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 10:48 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
DigitalGlobe Imagery Exclusive to Google
Ben has posted an e-mail exchange to the Geowanking mailing list that confirms that, according to a DigitalGlobe representative, “Google has signed an exclusive agreement with us to display our full-resolution imagery on the web,” which means that Google Maps… »
Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 at 5:54 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Satellite & Aerial
Ordnance Survey Maps Mashup
This page overlays out-of-copyright Ordnance Survey maps (circa 1925 to 1945) on the Google Maps interface. Via Map GIS News Blog Etc. Etc. See previous entry: Ordnance Survey Overlays on Multimap Aerial Photos…. »
Posted on Friday, July 28, 2006 at 8:14 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps API Update; GZoom
Revision 2.59 of the Google Maps API adds four new features, including speed improvements, custom cursors, and an accuracy attribute for the geocoder, the Google Maps API Official Blog reports. Meanwhile, Andre Louis writes to tell us about his project,… »
Posted on Friday, July 21, 2006 at 7:41 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
An Israel-Lebanon Roundup
A black-and-white graphic from the Globe and Mail (direct link to image). A map-intensive Flash presentation from the Guardian. A Google Earth layer (KMZ format) showing the attacks on both sides — now, of course, it can be viewed… »
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 at 9:00 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Israel-Lebanon Conflict
Mumbai Bomb Blasts
A few web pages place the locations of yesterday’s bomb blasts in Mumbai, India (which you may know as Bombay) on Google Maps: there is this one (via Matt) and “>this one (via Ogle Earth); the latter is a KML… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 at 8:28 AM
Categories: Current Events, Hacks & Mashups
Map Mashups: ‘The Fool’s Gold of Web 2.0’
On ZDNet, Phil Wainewright dismisses “Web 2.0” mashups — especially map mashups — as “fool’s gold”: they don’t integrate any data that wasn’t semantically easy to integrate in the first place (i.e., it’s not exactly rocket science to put geotagged… »
Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 at 10:37 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
SXSW Audio: How to Make the Most of Maps
Via Daring Fireball, I stumble across a page of podcasts from the SXSW Interactive conference from last March, and notice that one of them is from a session about maps called “How to Make the Most of Maps.” The description:… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at 10:01 PM
Categories: Conferences, Hacks & Mashups, Podcasts & Audio
MTMaps
The MTGoogleMaps Movable Type plugin (now at version 4.0) has some competition, kind of: MTMaps, now at version 0.6, which also uses Google Maps. Developer Patrick Calahan writes, “MTMaps is different from other map plugins in that it associates map… »
Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 8:52 PM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
Google Roundup: Geo Developer Day Recap; Geotagging in Picasa
A look back on Google’s Geo Developer Day on Monday, with some additional links on the subject. For summaries of the event, look at these reports from MacWorld and Search Engine Watch. The Google Maps API Blog discusses the… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 10:29 AM
Categories: Conferences, Geotagging, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups
Yahoo! Local and Maps Blog
The folks behind Yahoo! Local and Maps now have a blog. In their most recent post, they announce they’re lifting restrictions on commercial uses of the mapping API…. »
Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 9:45 PM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps Update: KML, Geocoder, Enterprise
Also from Google’s Geo Developer Day. In addition to the new version of Google Earth and upgraded imagery for Google Earth (coming soon to Google Maps), an entry in Google’s official blog announces the following major new features of Google… »
Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 at 5:39 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
A Microsoft Roundup
Jeff Thurston thinks that MapCruncher (see previous entry) is “innovative”: “It would be interesting to see ‘artistic’ mapping using MapCruncher — personal mind maps, etched drawings, action/reaction layers and other kinds of unique maps created with this product. In other… »
Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 6:47 PM
Categories: Georeferencing, Hacks & Mashups
Major Windows Live Local Update
Windows Live Local got a major update today; see the official blog for an overview of what they call “the biggest release yet of Windows Live Local.” The update includes real-time traffic data (the TechCrunch post covering the launch has… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 10:11 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps, Satellite & Aerial
MapCruncher
MapCruncher is this new thing from Microsoft Research that uses the Virtual Earth API (I guess it’s Virtual Earth for the technology, Windows Live Local for the online mapping site) to integrate your own maps into their system: Once you… »
Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 9:45 PM
Categories: Georeferencing, Hacks & Mashups
ASCII Maps
Probably the strangest Google Maps hack I’ve yet seen: ASCII Maps, which renders maps in coloured text characters. Weird, and possibly neat, but really quite useless. Crashes in Safari. Via O’Reilly Radar…. »
Posted on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 at 7:28 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Neogeography
I must confess that I haven’t yet taken a very close look at Platial.com, a web site built on the Google Maps API (see previous entry), so it was only via this National Geographic News article about mashups that featured… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at 8:14 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
CNet: Monetizing Map Mashups
A story on CNet about companies building their businesses around map mashups by Elinor Mills: “The main reason for caution is the very thing that makes mashups so popular — they’re fairly easy to create, and it’s not that difficult… »
Posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at 8:21 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps Mania Turns One
Congratulations to Google Maps Mania on its first anniversary. I’ve given up trying to keep track of all the hacks and mashups — my present policy is to blog about them generally, and include any mashups when talking about a… »
Posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at 7:52 AM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
Gmaps 101
GISuser.com has posted the first part of a three-part series on the Google Maps API, specifically on version 2. The first part is an introduction which thankfully doesn’t appear to assume too much prior knowledge; parts two and three will… »
Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 at 8:19 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Schuyler Looks at the APIs
On the Mapping Hacks blog, Schuyler Erle takes a look at the “big three” online mapping APIs: “The big three — Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Virtual Earth — have basically converged, and their map display APIs look more or less… »
Posted on Saturday, April 8, 2006 at 8:22 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Camera with GPS, GPS with Camera
More geotagging coverage. Tim’s page covers the steps involved in taking photos from a GPS-compatible digital camera (in this case, the droolworthy Nikon D200) and placing them on a Google Map; with source code (via Google Maps Mania). On the… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 4, 2006 at 10:46 AM
Categories: GPS, Geotagging, Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps: API Update, Advertising Appears
It’s been in development for a while, but version 2 of the Google Maps API was officially released today. Besides technical improvements such as a smaller JavaScript codebase, Google has lifted the page view limits and has promised 90 days’… »
Posted on Monday, April 3, 2006 at 5:21 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Triangulations: March 27
Jeff Thurston’s contribution to the debate over free geodata looks at the question of scale: if you want geospatial data to be free and updated regularly, consider the huge amount of territory that has to be mapped. Wired’s piece,… »
Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books, GIS, GPS, Hacks & Mashups, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Triangulations: March 15
Boing Boing reports that the archive of silly Tube maps (previously mentioned here) has gotten into a spot of legal trouble and has been taken offline. As a followup on this question, have a look at Stefan’s post about… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 9:06 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Triangulations: March 13
The Batch Geocoding Blog has a comparison of the Google, MapQuest and Yahoo! mapping APIs; it’s a quick outline of what the author sees as the pros and cons of each. Via Very Spatial. Alex Stengel says MapMemo 2.5… »
Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 at 10:00 AM
Categories: Blogs, Collecting, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Macintosh, Satellite & Aerial, Triangulations (Links)
Triangulations: March 10
(I’m going to try calling these link roundups “Triangulations” and see how that goes.) Via GPS Tracklog, the difference between Garmin’s and Magellan’s topo maps. The National Geographic Society is planning a “mega-map” of the Sonoran Desert region. “It will… »
Posted on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 6:36 AM
Categories: Environment, GPS, Hacks & Mashups, Macintosh, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Question: Topo Maps in Google Earth?
Evan Roberts asks, Why do you think Google hasn’t integrated USGS topographic quads as a layer in Google Earth? Not enough of a demand? Not relevant to its business model? Don’t want to step on the toes of GPS partners?… »
Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2006 at 8:35 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Questions, Topo Maps & Trails
MapQuest (Finally) Has an API
MapQuest finally has an API: they’re calling it the OpenAPI, it’s in beta, it was announced yesterday at O’Reilly’s Emerging Tech Conference, and (naturally) it has a blog (via Spatially Adjusted). From what I gather — see Mapping Hacks and… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 at 11:46 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Mapping the Winter Olympics
I’m not the most consistent of bloggers even at the best of times, but, depending on how things go, over the next two weeks posts to The Map Room might be a bit sporadic due to the demands of one… »
Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 9:48 PM
Categories: Cities, Current Events, Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps Hacks
Google Maps Hacks is now out and Directions has a review: “This book, started not long after Google Maps debuted last February, is dated. Google Maps is now known as Google Local. Throughout, we hear about how the software is… »
Posted on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
NPR on Google Maps Mashups
More radio news. Our friend Mike Pegg of Google Maps Mania was on NPR’s All Things Considered today, talking about Google Maps mashups, bien sûr; here’s the story page, from where you can listen to the audio. In referencing this… »
Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 10:25 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Podcasts & Audio
Virtual Earth Dashboard Widget
A Virtual Earth Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and a tutorial explaining how it was done. See previous entries: More Widgets; Houston Traffic Widget; Dashboard Widgets…. »
Posted on Thursday, December 1, 2005 at 3:16 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Macintosh, Online Maps
Google Maps WordPress Plugins
The WordPress Geo plugin allows bloggers using WordPress to specify a default location for their blog and assign geographic coordinates to specific posts. Dylan Kuhn takes this one step further with his Geo Mashup plugin, which takes that geographic data… »
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 8:14 AM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
Yahoo! Directions on an iPod
iPods have been used for subway maps before (see previous entries: 1, 2, 3); now this site generates driving directions from Yahoo! Maps that can be exported to a photo-capable (i.e., colour-screen) iPod. Via Scoble…. »
Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 3:01 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mobile Devices, Online Maps, Roads
CNet on Mashups
As part of a series on new web technologies, CNet has a long article about mashups that, like previous articles from other news organizations, serves as both an introduction to and summary of the whole Google Maps (and Yahoo! Maps,… »
Posted on Friday, November 18, 2005 at 8:57 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps: API Blog, Wayfaring
Google has launched a Google Maps API blog to keep developers better informed about changes to the API, plus, they say (because there’s only one post so far), tips and so forth. Via Google Maps Mania. But if the API… »
Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 12:15 PM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
A Greasemonkey Script Combining Google Maps and Flickr
GMiF (“Google Maps in Flickr”) is a Greasemonkey script (a Firefox browser extension) that allows you to see your geotagged photos on Google Maps from within Flickr. Thanks to Noel for the link…. »
Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 at 9:46 PM
Categories: Geotagging, Hacks & Mashups
Yahoo! Mapping APIs
Simon Willison takes a look at Yahoo’s various mapping APIs. It’s a good (if brief) overview. Via Daring Fireball Linked List. See previous entry: Yahoo! Maps Upgrade…. »
Posted on Friday, November 4, 2005 at 11:04 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Google Maps Plugin for Movable Type
If you’re a blogger using Movable Type — which reminds me that I need to upgrade to version 3.2 at some point — you might be interested in the MTGoogleMaps plugin. It requires a Google Maps API key, naturally, but… »
Posted on Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 10:27 AM
Categories: Blogs, Hacks & Mashups
Scoble on the Map Wars: We’re Doomed
Scoble says both Yahoo! Maps and Virtual Earth are doomed: “it’s not about maps, it’s about the advertising platform that Google has built. It’s not about prettiness, it’s about who has the most user generated content (I still hate that… »
Posted on Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 10:08 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Yahoo! Maps Upgrade
Breaking news: Yahoo! has upgraded its mapping service with a new, Flash-based beta version with substantial interface improvements. In the 15 seconds or so I’ve had to play with it, it works very well — the inset for zooming is… »
Posted on Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 8:34 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
More Yahoo! Maps Mashups
John Musser provides some examples of mashups using the Yahoo! Maps API from Yahoo!’s application gallery. Via All Points Blog. See previous entries: Yahoo! Maps API; Yahoo! Maps Hacks…. »
Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2005 at 10:17 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
The New York Times on Mashups
Today’s New York Times has an article about mapping hacks and mashups (free registration required); it touches on the Google Maps API, naturally, but also mentions Yahoo!, Microsoft and the new Ning.com. Thanks to Joel Riggs for the link…. »
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 8:43 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups
Tracking Hurricane Wilma
Here we go again. Google Earth Blog has a collection of downloadable automated storm tracking tools (KMZ file). Google Maps Mania points to a couple of Google Maps based storm trackers. Spatially Adjusted links to ESRI’s existing hurricane viewer and… »
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 9:17 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Weather & Climate
Virtual Earth Mobile
Here’s another Virtual Earth port/hack to an unexpected but welcome place: Virtual Earth for Windows Mobile — i.e. Pocket PCs and Windows-based smartphones. Via the Virtual Earth team blog and Spatially Adjusted. See previous entry: A Microsoft Roundup…. »
Posted on Monday, October 17, 2005 at 7:20 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Online Maps
Mapping the Pakistani Earthquake
Speaking of Kathryn Cramer, she’s also put together a useful Google Maps mashup of earthquake data that allows us to see, quite precisely, where the quakes and aftershocks ha