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Live Helicopter Tracking on Google Maps

AirFox Live

We have seen real-time tracking of trains and boats on Google Maps, so I guess it was only a matter of time before we saw real-time tracking of a helicopter on Google Maps.

AirFox Live is not just any old helicopter either, but a helicopter with a TV crew aboard! So you can watch live video, shot from AirFox's helicopter, at the same time as following the journey on Google Maps. How cool is that?

AirFox flies out of Schaumburg Regional Airport, in Schaumburg Illinois. Every morning, pilot Kimberly, photographer Matt, and traffic anchor Sondra Solarte take off around 5:25 and are in the air for three hours. So if you drop into AirFox's website any time between 5:30am and 8:30am Central Time you can follow all the action as it happens.

If you log on at any other time you can watch a live 'skyline' web cam instead. I know tomorrow morning I'll be watching live!

Via: TechCrunch

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O'Reilly Where 2.0 Videos

BlipTV are hosting videos of this week's talks at the O'Reilly Where 2.0 in Burlingame, California.

Where 2.0 is a yearly conference of the leading developers in location aware technology. So if you interested in the latest developments in the geo-web you should watch these talks:

"A News Feed for Your Block"
Adrian Holovaty, (EveryBlock and the founder of one of the first Google Maps mash-ups ChicagoCrime.org)

"Building a Programmable GPS Device with BUG"
Peter Semmelhack (Bug Labs)

"State of the Geoweb"
Hanke (Google) and Dangermond (ESRI)

"Augmented Reality Lets the DPD Know Where You Are"
Tom Churchill (Earthscape)

"Convergence of Architectural and Engineering Design and Location Technology"
Geoff Zeiss (Autodesk)

"Modeling Crowd Behavior"
Paul Torrens (Arizona State University)

"The Business Case for Simulation, Gaming, and Virtual Worlds"
Denis Browne (SAP Labs, LLC)

Teething Problems for Google's Face Blurring

This week Google introduced face blurring technology in their new street view imagery for Manhattan. However, either Google are having some teething problems with their new technology or this horse had previously sold his image rights to 'Horse and Hound' magazine.



If you are interested in browsing through some interesting street views these street view directories might interest you:

• Streetviewr
• Street View Fun
• Street View Gallery
• Street Viewer Gallery

Via: Streetviewr

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UK Google Maps Mashup Roundup! (May/08)

UK based geo-developers have been busy as once again we have been inundated with submissions from the eastern side of the pond. I guess it must be time for another UK Google Maps Mashup Roundup!

Get London Reading


In order to get Londoners reading Get London Reading have developed a Google Map to help Londoners find books set near their work, home, or favourite places. So far there are over 400 books geo-tagged, and users can submit their own recommendations - so this number is set to grow.

Each book is tagged on the map with a picture of the book's cover (which I find is always a good way to judge a book). Clicking on the book's cover opens an information window that contains a brief summary of the book in question.

Adding a book to the map couldn't be easier. All you have to do is double click on the location where you want to add a book and fill in the resulting form.

If you have an interest in reading about an area of London there can't be many better ways of discovering what books to read.

Hacienda


Hacienda is a UK property map that shows properties for sale or rent in the UK on an easy to use and interactive map. Users search the map by location, post-code, by school name or by transport type. Results can then be filtered by type of property, price and number of bedrooms.

Available properties are tagged on the map with a small house icon. When you click on a house a photo and details appear in the right hand side-bar.

Britain's Finest
Britain's finest is a Google Map of hotels, bed & breakfasts, leading attractions, gardens, museums, galleries and historic houses in Britain.

Each county in the UK gets its own map with all the hotels and points of interest mapped. Clicking on one of the map tags will display details of the location in the left-hand side-bar.

London Teenage Murders Map

Crime maps are a hot topic in the UK at the moment, as is the recent spate of teenage murders in London. Over the last weekend another innocent young Londoner was killed when he tried to help a shopkeeper whose store was being attacked. This map tags all the teenage murders in London this year.

In mapping the murders in this way the map gives some geographical / spatial awareness of the problem. A small cluster of murders in north London, for example, could be a warning that gang activity is a particular problem in this area at the moment.

Disclaimer: this one was built by me!

Auction Search Kit
Auction Search Kit is a tool to help people purchase goods from eBay. Users enter a search term, their UK post-code and then define the number of miles around their home they wish to see results for.

The results are then tagged on the map. Each information window contains a photo and a brief description of the item.

Auctions Near You
Auctions Near You provides a very similar service, allowing users to search for eBay auctions near their home. Again users enter a search term, their UK post-code and restrict results to a chosen distance.

The results are then tagged on the map. Each information window contains a photo and a brief description of the item.

Match Hotels

Match Hotels is a useful service for sports fans as it allows you to search for hotels in the proximity of sports venues.

To find hotels you first choose the stadium you will be visiting and then enter the distance from the stadium you wish to search. Results are then shown on a Google Map with photographs of the hotels, a brief description and the hotel's star rating.

Match Hotels even has a partner programme - so if you own a sports blog or website you can add Match Hotel to your site and share in any generated commission.

StreetSize
StreetSize is a social networking Google Map mash-up designed "to make it easier for local people to communicate with each other."

Users tag their location on a Google Map and can see other users in their area. It is possible to start a discussion on an area by clicking on the map. So, for example, a group of users could tag a number of restaurants on the map and start a discussion about which restaurant they wish to visit and what time they want to meet up etc.

Cycle Route
Cycle Routes is a Google Map of user submitted cycle routes. Routes are shown on a Google Map and stages on the route are tagged with a red marker. Above the individual route-maps information is given on the ride's difficulty, its length and even how many calories you can expect to burn.

Get biking!
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Google Maps News

Google News on Google Maps

On Tuesday Google added a Wikipedia layer to Google Maps, yesterday real estate was added and now we hear that a news layer will be added to Google Maps next week. Items from Google News will be available on Google Maps via the new 'More' button.

Update: The latest news on this is that Google News will be added to Google Earth not Google Maps next week.

Google Maps API for Flash

The other big announcement made from Google is the Google Maps API for Flash. This new API means that Flash developers can start developing Google Maps mash-ups.

An early example of Google Maps in Flash is this Map Photo Gallery (hint: click on the 'show photo gallery' button at the bottom of the map).

Another early example of Google Maps in Flash is an application from Navx. This map contains a huge database of different collections of locations. Users can add their own collections to the map so this database should grow and grow.



The Google Maps API blog also has another example of a Flash map that is synchronised to a video. When the location in the video changes the map automatically centres itself on the new location.


Just looking at these early example it seems like the Google Maps API for Flash will open up whole new areas for Google Maps mash-ups.

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Real Estate Added to Google Maps

Yesterday Google added Wikipedia to Google Maps, today they have added Real Estate. To display real estate for sale in your location choose the 'Show Search Options' link next to the 'Search Maps' button and then choose 'Real Estate' from the drop down menu (the two points underlined in red on the screen shot).



With the real estate layer turned on available houses and apartments will be tagged on the map and details of each property will be displayed in the left-hand side bar. When you click on a tag an information window opens displaying the price and image of the property. Clicking on the expand button or the 'more info' link will expand the information window and give you more details of the property.

The very first Google Maps mashup was created by Paul Rademacher. His mashup HousingMaps showed Craigslist housing listings on a Google Map. His hack of Google Maps inspired Google to open up Google Maps via the Google Maps API. Paul Rademacher now works for Google so he could well have been the inspiration for this new layer.


In other news Google have announced the latest image update for Google Earth. As always Google has announced the locations that are affected in the form of a quiz. Readers of the Google Earth Blog are normally amongst the first to find the right answers. Updates to Google Earth are usually added to Google Maps a week or two later.

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Wikipedia Added to Google Maps

In what is proving to be another busy day for Google, Wikipedia articles have been added to Google Maps. The new Wikipedia tags can be turned on via a 'More' button that has been added to the top right hand corner of the map.



When the Wikipedia tick box is selected small 'W' tags appear on the map where Wikipedia articles are available. Clicking on the 'W' tag will open an information window containing the Wikipedia article.

Panoramio photos can also be turned on via the same 'More' button. The photos option however feels a little superfluous considering Panoramio photos were added last week and can also be turned on in the left-hand panel. Intriguingly the photos turned on by the 'More' button contain a Panoramio logo whilst the ones accessed by the left-hand side panel don't, even though both sets of photos are served by Panoramio.

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Google Street View Image Update

Google this morning announced their first image update for Street View. The area affected is Manhattan, which now has more recent and sharper imagery.

The Google LatLong blog says that Google have also used this opportunity to introduce new face-blurring technology. In recent weeks the Google Street View cars have been spotted all over Europe and Australia. Many European countries have different privacy laws than the United States, for example, in France I believe it is illegal to publish someone's image without their permission. This new face blurring technology is obviously Google's response to these privacy concerns.

Update: Andrew Foster on The Official Google Australia Blog says that Google are "aiming to launch the Street View feature for Google Maps in Australia, later in 2008." Foster goes on to say that "In Australia (and New Zealand), Street View will also feature face-blurring, as well as image removal tools." So I guess New Zealand is going to get Street View this year as well.

Via: Google LatLong: Street View revisits Manhattan

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Tagging Art on Google Maps

Paintmap


We have Google Maps mash-ups that geo-tag photos, videos and web-cams so why not one that tags oil paintings? That's what a collective of Spanish artists thought - so they built Paintmap.

This is their mission statement:

"Paintmap is a geolocation-oriented painting sharing website with the following goals: on one hand, it allows painters all around the World to locate physically the subject painted by others and learn about the artistic activity at a given area. On the other hand, Paintmap allows Google Maps users to complement the physical and photographic knowledge of a given area with the artistic descriptions provided by users. Last but not least, Paintmap will contribute to the capture of our nature and human heritage through the artistic work of users as a record for future generations."

In essence Paintmap allows any artist to showcase their work on a Google Map and provides the rest of us with another, aesthetically pleasing way, to explore the world via Google Maps.

StreetArtLocator


Another Google Map trying to geo-tag the visual arts is StreetArtLocator. StreetArtLocator is a user contributed map of street art.

The user contributed examples are colour coded on the map under a number of different categories;
graffiti, gallery, painting, stickers, stencil, sculpture and installation.

When you click on a tag an information window opens with a photo of the tagged art work.

For helping me discover where this Banksy (on the right) is located this map will remain one of my favourites for a very long time.

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Google Maps and Rumsey Historical Maps

David Rumsey's amazing collection of historical maps has been available as a layer on Google Earth since 2006. Now they are available on Google Maps!



The David Rumsey Google Map Collection contains an amazing 120 historical maps overlaid on Google Maps. For, example, the screen shot above shows an 1832 map of London overlaid on the current Google Map of London (it also reveals that my house in east London was been built on top of a marsh). Each map's transparency can be adjusted with a slider button, so it is possible to find a location on the present Google Map before overlaying the historical map.

Highlights of the new maps include the first accurate survey of Yosemite Valley, California, from 1883, maps of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Washington DC, Denver, Chicago, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Calcutta, Lima, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Beijing, Tokyo, Kyoto, and more – all from times ranging from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries.

Via: Google LatLong: New Rumsey Historical Maps and new ways to view them

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Video Sharing on Google Maps

myTAGeo

myTAGeo takes videos and web cams from multiple video sharing sites and adds them to a Google Map. Users can create their own map of their own videos or add videos from any of the major video sharing sites. The address of the map can then be shared with friends and family or the map can be embedded into a web page or blog.

When videos are tagged they also appear in the World Map, a map of all the submitted videos.

As well as tagging videos to a Google Map it is possible to create a map of web cams. This Wave Map, for example, is a map of surf cams in California.

Other Video Maps

Seero - live video tracking on a Google Map (see example below)
Virtual Tourism - my own video mapping site
TURNHERE - a travel and video site
Virtual Video Map - a Google Map of videos from around the world
Venividiwiki - a travel site that includes a number of videos

Seero are broadcasting live this week from Where 2.0 in California. For the occasion they have created this embeddable player.

Via: Ogle Earth

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Twitter on Google Maps

Twitter Spy

Twitter Spy is a new rival to TwitterVision. Twitter Spy, like Twitter Vision, is a Google Map showing in real-time the latest messages on Twitter.

However, whereas as TwitterVision displays real-time messages on a full-screen Google Map, Twitter Spy uses a smaller map and utilises the remaining screen space to display the latest tweets outside of the map (check the screenshot above).

The avatar of each member's message is tagged on the map and the map recentres on the location of each member when a new message is posted. Twitter Spy also catches any URL's posted by users and the latest ones are posted in a sidebar.

Other Twitter Maps

• TwitterVision
• - the original real-time map of tweets
• Create Your Own Twitter Map - a great article on how to create your own Twitter Map by Tony Hirst
• Twitters - a Twitter map which shows the plotted Twitter members in a sidebar beside the map
  

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Google Maps Mashup Roundup for the Netherlands

Amsterdam Helicopter Game

I love this helicopter game!

In the game you get to fly a helicopter around Amsterdam visiting various bars and restaurants - and who wouldn't want to do that?

The address of the bar you have to find is displayed on the screen and its location is shown by a little red dot on the map. When you find the bar another bar or restaurant address appears. If you can't find a bar or restaurant you can use one of your three wild-cards and move onto the next bar. What's more you can add any of the bars and restaurants to your list of favourites.

Absolutely awesome! But remember kids don't try this for real.

Nomadic Milk Shopping

If flying a helicopter is not your kind of thing perhaps you would enjoy a more leisurely journey by milk cart.

Nomadic Milk Shopping is a 'GPS docu-fiction' by Esther Polak. The central theme of this 'docu-fiction' is the Opzeeland Dairy Route by night. Essentially Esther seems to have followed a mail cart on its night route and filmed the experience.

The route of the milk cart has been synchronised to the video so as you watch Esther's docu-fiction you can follow the current location of the film on a Google Map.

Kunst op de Kaart


Kunst op de Kaart is a Google Map showing over 2000 Museums and Art Galleries in the Netherlands. The museums are tagged on a Google Map and details of each museum is given in a handy sidebar. When you click on a museum in the sidebar its location is highlighted on the map. If you click on a tag an information window opens containing a link to the website of that museum.

HEBUUV

Heebuv is a concept for including location specific chat on Google Maps. Currently the site is only a demonstration of how the concept might work. Active discussions are tagged on a Google Map. Clicking on a tag opens the chat feature, where you can read the discussion so far and add your own comments.

At the moment the site doesn't include the ability to start your own chat, but the idea is that users will be able to click anywhere on the map to start their own discussion.

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New - 'Explore this Area' Feature in Google Maps

Explore this Area


Google Maps has added a great new option in Google Maps to explore an area through photographs and YouTube videos. Now when you do a location search in Google Maps you are given the option to 'Explore this Area'. When you choose this option photos from Panoramio and videos from YouTube can be loaded onto the map.

As has become Google's custom this new feature is introduced with a video -

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Google Maps Mashup Roundup for 7 Countries!

Time to get caught up on some newly introduced Google Maps mashups from the following countries: UAE, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil, Korea, Turkey, China. If you know of any other new maps mashups from these countries, please post a comment below! :)

Brazil: Philips maps digital tv signal reception quality:

Brazil: imobilien real estate mashup
Brazil: Mapia is a city guide for 16 Brazilian cities
Turkey: Emlak Haritam is a Turkish real estate mashup
Singapore: PropertyGuru maps for sale and rent properties
China: Chinese real estate mashup
UAE: Places.ae uses Google Maps
UAE: Dubai City info Google Maps mashup
India: SadakMap lets public/private groups blog on a Google map
Malaysia: Mapdoo lets you create your own map
Worldwide: Falamosportuges maps Poruguese language businesses
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GeoGraffiti

GeoGraffiti

GeoGraffiti describes itself as a "free verbal message board for exchanging location-specific community information." In essence it is a location based social community built on Google Maps - but with a big difference - users geographically tag a Google Map with voice messages from their cell phones.

The video below has a good example of one possible use of GeoGraffiti. Suppose you are on your way to work and you hit traffic, how do you warn other drivers? Well with GeoGraffiti you can use your cell phone to leave a voice message on a Google Map informing other users of the problem.

The big advantage of GeoGraffiti over other social community Google Maps mash-ups is exactly this kind of situation. When a user does not have access to a computer keyboard they can still geographical tag a Google Map with a voice message. This video gives other examples of how GeoGraffiti could prove invaluable to its users:

GeoGraffiti certainly has the features to make it a useful social sharing site. Users can define the geographical area they are interested in, they can become fans of users whose messages they like, they can refine their search of voice messages by 'most popular' or 'most recent'.

As with all social community sites GeoGraffiti is dependent on users. If the site garners a number of enthusiastic early users this site could really take off.

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Google Maps in Webby Award Winners

The Webby Awards for 2008 were announced today. Four of the winners use Google Maps:

• Chow- the People's Voice Winner in the Food and Beverage section
• Yelp - the Webby Award Winner in the Guides / Ratings / Reviews section
• Trulia - the People's Voice Winner in the Real Estate section
• Kayak - the People's Voice Winner in the Travel section

Chow

Chow is a great website for anyone who loves food. The site is full of recipes, food discussion boards, videos and restaurant and bar guides.

The restaurant and bar guides are of course driven by Google Maps. Each geographical area covered gets its own Google Map. The location of bars and restaurants are tagged on the map like many other review sites. However what sets Chow apart is that you can narrow the tagged search results by nearly a hundred different categories of food, from Afghan to Vietnamese. I know when I'm searching for a restaurant I tend to be concerned first with the location and then with the type of food I would like. It is therefore invaluable to be able to quickly see, for example, all the sushi restaurants in the Bay Area.

Yelp

By coincidence Yelp also tags restaurants on Google Maps. Similarly the restaurants on Yelp can be searched by location and the search results narrowed by a huge number of different categories. Yelp's big selling point is the huge number of user submitted reviews that are available for most of the listed restaurants.

Yelp was first reviewed on Google Maps Mania way back in November 2005.

Trulia

Trulia is a real estate website that uses Google Maps to show the location of available properties. The search results can be narrowed by location and by price.

Trulia also recently added a street view option (where available). Which means you can now virtually explore an area you are interested in before visiting for real.

Trulia was originally reviewed in October 2005.

Kayak

Kayak is a travel search engine that searches hundreds of travel sites from all over the world for flights, hotels and rental cars. The hotel section of the site utilises Google Maps to show the results of hotel searches.

Clicking on a tagged hotel on the map opens an information window revealing the cost per night and the hotel's star rating.

Kayak is also used in a website we reviewed on Monday called MapifiedKayak.


Congratulations to all four winners!

Hubble Birthday

Interacting Galaxies Map

April 24th was the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Telescope. To mark the occasion NASA and ESA released a series of images of interacting galaxies. Some day these new images will be added to Google Sky. However if like me you can't wait for Google to update its Sky imagery you can view some of the new images on this Google Map of interacting galaxies.

I have to add the disclaimer that this map is one that I put together myself. I produced the map by overlaying the Hubble images on Google Sky. The images are loaded onto the map via a KML of the interacting images. This means that you can also view the images in Google Earth.

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A Spain Google Maps Mashup Roundup (May/08)

Spain continues to be a source for great Google Maps mashups! It has produced some of the greats of the Google Maps mashup world: Panoramio, Tagzania and Wikiloc (to name just a few). The great mashups continue with more from great Spanish geo developers.. Keep it up Spain! :)

Live Spain Traffic Mashup:

David Fernandez has created a real-time mashup that monitors all traffic incidents across Spain. It even mashes up photos from Spain's own Panoramio! (Languages: Espanol, Valencia, Catala, English)

Anunciatupiso: Spain Housing Mashup - Anunciatupiso is a housing mashup that will let you search many Spanish web housing sources for pretty much any type of housing. This includes all types of residential and commercial housing). Search results are mapped or you can start out by exploring listings on the map instead. (Language: Espanol)

Balearic Islands Mashup: Ibiza - Mallorca - Menorca - Formentera

The Balearic Islands, between Spain and the North Africa coast are a travel mecca. Elena Vera has created a series of mashups for the 4 islands that make up the archipelago. The maps include an overlay of the municipal boundaries and placemarks for points of interest around the island. These points of interest include details of where towns and beaches are located along with lighthouses and ports, natural areas, places of cultural interest and events. All of this information is also available in KML format for a deeper dive using Google Earth. (Languages: English, Espanol, German)

Mallorca Island: Santa Ponsa Map - Here is another Google Maps mashup that will help you locate bars, restaurants, hotels etc.. for Santa Ponsa on the island of Mallorca. (Language: English)

Updates to Wikiloc - Jordi Ramot from Spain dropped me a line to let me know that Wikiloc now has over 10,000 GPS trails from across Spain and Europe. A revamped KML feed also makes it easy to discover tracks using Google Earth! I encourage people from all over the world to populate this fantastic service and share your trails! :) (Languages: English, Espanol, Catala, Galego, Euskaraz, Francais, Italiano, Svenska, Dutch )

Meneame Mapped stories and links - This Spanish equivalent of Digg maps it's popular stories and links by geo! (Language: Espanol)
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Get Gmapified with these great Google Maps mashups!

I enjoy finding people who have a true passion for the Google Maps API. As always Google Maps Mania is as much about the people as it is the mashups so I'd like to introduce you to "Olbibigo" of Paris, France. Olbibigo (as he has asked to be called) is a software engineer-team leader and is one of those people with a passion for the Maps API and geo as a whole. I stumbled across a mashup created by him and blogged it on a links roundup post back in January. He had done a nice Google Maps + Kayak mashup called Mapified Kayak which is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com. Shortly after the post Olbibigo dropped me a line to inform me of 6 of his other Google Maps projects, which has since grown to 13.. I was amazed when I checked out his great, full featured and very useful mashups and decided they collectively demanded their own post.

Here are Olbibigo's Google Maps mashup creations.. Trust me here, looking through these and checking out the great UI and overall application for each of them is time well spent:

• Mapified Kayak - As mentioned above, this is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com
• ParisParis - A self-described "social mashup" that helps people in Paris find just about anything by adding/removing layers! Check out the awesome info-window/bubbles atop the very unique map markers.. There is even an API that is provided for this as a web service!
• Where are Trains - French rail mashup that lets you trace in real-time every TGV (french high speed trains) departing from and arriving to Paris. Olbibigo has built a tutorial to let you "add your own flavour to it". Be sure to check between 7.00am-23.30pm Paris time.
• My Korea - This mashup instantly fills the Korean Google Maps mashup void. My Korea will help you to map and learn about Korean cities, transportation, parks, World Heritage Sites. Olbibigo even lets you explore Korea's past by overlaying a map from 1745 and its present by showing the places he has visited!
• Overflown Countries - Add a start and end point for a long haul trip and learn all the countries your flight will pass over.. What an awesome tool!
• RoadTrip in the USA and elsewhere - Similar to Overflown Countries this tool will work the same for road trips. Click a start and end point within the US, Canada or France and this tool calculates Google Maps directions, elevation and specific state, province and counties. Click "Animate" to watch a car trace the route right on the map. Nice work!
• "Template" - Olbibigo's template that you can use as a starting point to build your own Google Maps mashup. From the page: "..To get all needed files, you can use the "Save as complete page" function of your current browser. You should get 6 files (with ".htm", ".js", ".css" and ".png" extension)."
• I Need a Bike - A bicycle rental mashup for companies and several cities throughout France: Vélib' in Paris, Vélo'v in Lyon and Le Vélo in Marseille (Fr). There is an insane amount of information that is on offer here in a beautifully designed UI
• Mapified RSS - This is a cool geo tool that lets you paste in an RSS feed URL to instantly map the locations of the posts/news articles.
• Mapified Stock Indices - Map daily changes to the asian stock indice.
• My Local News - This mashup takes your IP address (if available) and matches it with local news for that geo.
• GMapsPolyTool - A tool to let you easily draw and encode polylines and polygons.
• GoogleMaps vs YahooMaps - Compare the two maps services.

Keep a close eye on the page I've pulled these links from as Olbibigo creates more Google Maps tools and mashups.. You'll enjoy a special section at the bottom of the page: "The 5 most impressive and/or useful Google Maps mashups I've ever seen ... until now".

Well done! Keep the the great mashups coming Olbibigo! :)
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Indian Google Maps Mashup Roundup!

Mapofi

Mapofi is a real estate website for India and Dubai. The mapped properties are searchable by location and by type of property, and search results are tagged on a Google Map. Clicking on a property tag opens a window with images and information about the chosen property.

It is also possible to search the area around properties for hospitals, government offices, landmarks, markets, banks, and churches and temples.

NewHomeGuide
NewHomeGuide is also a real estate website for the major Indian cities, but specialises in newly built homes. Cities are selected from a drop down menu. The map then shows the selected city and the newly built homes. Each property comes with a link to the website of the property developer.

The India Real Estate
The India Real Estate is a real estate listings website for the whole of India. The site's database of properties is searchable via a full screen Google Map. The initial map view shows individual properties tagged in red and clusters of properties tagged in blue. Clicking on a blue tag gives you the option to zoom in on the chosen area. Clicking on a red tag gives you the option to view the property details.

Find My Ghar

Find My Ghar is a real estate site for Bangalore. Users can post a property for sale and the property then appears on a Google Map of available properties. Clicking on a tag opens a window with the property details. There is also the option for users to add a comment to each property.

This site also has a very useful option to receive e-mail alerts for chosen areas. To receive an alert of new properties you can select areas on a Google Map and the areas you have chosen are then shaded on the map.

Homeineasy
HomeinEasy is a classified real estate website for the city of Pune in India. A Google Map of Pune is provided with different districts of Pune represented by a small house-shaped tag on the map. Clicking on a tag will take you to a listing of available properties in the chosen district.

Map My Temple
Map My Temple is a user submitted Google Map of temples in India. Users can submit photographs and details of temples and plot their location on a Google map.

The home page of the site shows a Google Map of all the submitted temples. Clicking on a tab of an individual temple opens an information window with a short description of the temple and a photograph. Clicking on the photograph takes you to an individual page on the chosen temple. The page contains a fuller description and a zoomed in Google Map of the temple's location.

Need Grub
Need Grub is a restaurant review site for India. Google Maps of individual Indian cities and districts within cities are provided with all the restaurants tagged. Clicking on a tag provides you with the address of the chosen restaurant and a link to a page of user reviews.

Each restaurant is given its own page with a small Google Map showing the restaurant's location. The page contains ratings of cost, service, hygiene, ambience and overall value as well as user submitted reviews.

Eatables
Eatables is a directory of hotels and restaurants in Chennai and Kolkata. A map of each city is provided with individual locations tagged on the map. The tags are colour coded by category, showing restaurants, hotels, cafes and pubs.

Each tag contains a brief description of the restaurant and a link to a forum discussion of that venue. Users can submit restaurants themselves by clicking on a location on a Google Map and completing a simple form.

Indian Premier Cricket League
Indian Premier Cricket League is another Google Maps Mash up from the prolific Virender Ajmani. Virender's Google Map shows the home grounds of each of the Indian Premier Cricket teams. Clicking on one of the tagged grounds zooms the map into a satellite image of the clicked ground. An information window gives details of the chosen team, the latest news via RSS and even includes an embedded video about the team.

Previous Indian Google Map Mashups

The first Indian Google Maps Roundup
Three More Indian Google Maps Mashups

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Google Maps as an Election Predictor

London Mayoral Election Map

The BBC have created a map for the London Mayoral election which allows users to predict who they think will win. Users set their location on the map, say who they are going to vote for and leave a comment.

The tag for each user is colour-coded depending on their chosen preference. It is therefore possible to get a fair idea of how the election might pan out just by looking at the map.



At the moment the map seems to be suggesting a lead for Boris Johnson (in blue) over Ken Livingstone (in red), which seems to be in line with what the pollsters are predicting.

The London Mayor election results are expected in about two hours from now, so we should soon be able to tell how accurate a prediction method a user-contributed Google election map can be.

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Community Mapping the World

Two new websites have decided to enter the already crowded community mapping arena. Just two days ago we reviewed ZoomAndGo, a social network of reviews, photos and videos of global locations tagged on a Google Map, and now today we have learned of two more community maps.

iGuide

iGuide takes a different approach to community mapping than ZoomAndGo. Rather than trying to create their own community of users the iGuide takes advantage of the many existing community generated websites that already exist, like Wikipedia and YouTube.

iGuide boasts that its Google Map includes reviews of over 16,000 destinations around the world. Each destination is tagged on the map with a little red dot. When you click on the red dot you are then inundated with information about the location. You can choose between reading a Wikipedia article, viewing YouTube videos or just browsing through photographs of the location.

Each location also carries links to flight and hotel booking websites. So the iGuide could prove invaluable in helping you plan and book your summer vacation.

MAPme

MAPme is a community mapping site that can help you create your own Google Map and share your creation with the world. Users can create Google Maps of their favourite places, their travels or create a community map with their friends.

Users can add photos and video to their maps, apply categories and tag hotspots on their map. Each user created map includes other social networking features, such as the ability to enable comments or allow others to embed the map in a blog or website or export the map data to Google Earth or a Sat Nav device. The site also promises that in the near future members will be able to add their maps to Facebook.

Via: Mapperz

Real Time Ship Tracking on Google Maps

Hi-Def San Francisco

Hi-Def San Francisco have created an amazing Google Map that tracks in real time all the ships in San Francisco Bay. Every commercial vessel, and some large pleasure craft, in the bay transmit their position using AIS, which allows Hi-Def to up-date the position of ships on the map every 15 seconds.

Hi-Def also takes a photograph of every vessel as it crosses an imaginary line between the camera and the Trans America building. This means that when you click on a tagged ship on the map you can actually see a recent photograph of that very ship. As well as a recent picture, each vessel is tagged with its type, e.g tug, tanker etc, its current speed and its current heading.

If that isn't enough for you Hi-Def have also created an amazing Quick-Time video of a day's traffic tracked on a Google Map and this image of 30 day's cumulative traffic:


This image is cropped from the much larger original at Hi-Def San Francisco.

I could sit and watch this all day.

Other Ship Tracking

Hurtigruten - Scandinavian ship tracking

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