Google Ice Maps

Iskart is a map guide to the ice thickness and condition on Norway's lakes and waterways.

Using map tiles from the Norwegian Mapping Authority (Statens Kartverk) with the Google Maps API Iskart provides a guide to ice thickness and snow conditions. The map enables users to find the latest ice thickness measurements, view webcam images and view data from real-time monitoring stations.

Street View Roulette

Here is another clever marketing campaign that used Google Maps to promote the Volkswagen Bluemotion.



To promote the Volswagen Bluemotion's low fuel consumption a competition was created called Bluemotion Roulette. The campaign used Google Maps Street View to turn a real car journey into an online game of roulette.



A Golf Bluemotion drove the E6 Norwegian road with a full tank of fuel. Using Google Maps and Street View entrants were asked to guess where along the road the car would run out of fuel. The prize for guessing correctly was a brand new Volkswagen car.



Unfortunately the campaign website is no longer live but you can see how the campaign used Google Maps in the video above.



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The Google Maps Guide to Hiking in Norway

UT.no is a complete guide to hiking in Norway. The site features hiking routes, cabins, a calendar of events and a hiking map built with the Google Maps API.

As well as the usual Google Map views the map features detailed topographical map tiles. Using the menu in the map sidebar you can select to view cabins, summer trails, winter trails, videos, articles and even current skiing conditions.

Kart - UT.no

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The Mapping Event of the Month

Hurtigruten: Minute by Minute

This is incredible and pretty mesmerising!

Norwegian Public Service broadcaster NRK are live broadcasting the voyage of the cruise liner Hurtigruten around the Norway coastline for 134 hours. As well as amazing live footage you can follow the position of the cruise liner on a real-time Google Map.

No money seems to have been spared for this live broadcast from the Hurtigruten. There seems to be a large number of cameras being used with some excellent editing between the various live views. There is also a pretty cool soundtrack, with the occasional addition of live commentary.

The event is obviously a big thing in Norway. Whilst I've been watching the voyage this morning nearly every house that has been passed has had the owners out front waving flags at the passing ship.

What makes this event unmissable however is the incredible Norwegian scenery which should be viewable for nearly the whole 134 hours, due to the broadcast being timed to coincide with the summer solstice and the Midnight Sun.

The map itself is also incredible. You can add layers of photos and videos of the cruise from a drop down menu. You can also click on the small circles on the ship's track to change from the live broadcast to watch a replay of the footage from the selected location.

There may well be no more posts on Google Maps Mania today ... as I don't think I'll be able to tear myself away from watching this.

Hat-tip: Ogle Earth

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Plotting Road Accidents with Google Maps

Norway's Killing Roads

Bergens Tidende have mapped the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s database of road accidents. They have used Google Maps to plot 11,440 accidents to help give an overview of the extent and causes of Norwegian road accidents.

Each map marker contains details about the accident, i.e. time of day, type of vehicle, age of persons injured etc. Beneath the map are a large number of filters that allow you to create your own assemblies.

It is possible to view the data by year, time of day and by age. It is also possible to filter the results by the day of the week, speed limit, types of road and a number of other factors.

Via: patrickcain.ca

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Some Beautiful Norwegian Google Maps

Storm.no

Norwegian weather forecaster Storm.no have produced a route planner that can not only provide you with directions but can also show you the weather along your route.

The service uses the Google Maps API's driving directions service and overlays the weather forecast for locations along the route. When you enter you starting point and destination Storm.no also asks you to enter a date and time for your journey. In this way the forecast weather for the time of your journey can also be displayed on the map.

Norway Green Tours

Norway's Youth Hostelling Association has created this Google Maps guide to the west coast of Norway. The west coast of Norway is legendary for its fjords and beautiful scenery. With the Green Fjord Experience you can now plan your trip advance.

The Green Fjord Experience map shows the locations of Youth Hostels on the west coast, towns that you will want to visit and the locations of fjords and glaciers that you will want to see. Each mapped location contains brief details with a link to a fuller description elsewhere on the site.

The Norwegian Trekking Association

The Norwegian Trekking Association have produced a very useful Google Map to show trekking routes in Norway.

The map shows all the trekking routes with red or blue lines. The red lines indicate summer routes and the blue lines show winter routes. As well as the routes the map shows the locations of lodges, cabins and emergency shelters.

If you click on a route on the map you can get details of the trek (in Norwegian), including the trek's distance. If you click on a lodge or cabin's map marker you can get details about opening times and the number of bunks provided.

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The Fjords of Norway on Google Maps

Geirangerfjord and Ålesund From the Air

Norway's official tourism website Visit Norway has created a beautiful tour of the Geirangerfjord and Ålesund area. The tour features a number of 360 degree panoramic images that can be navigated via a Google Map.

Geirangerfjord is a UNESCO-protected fjord surrounded by majestic, snow-covered mountain peaks, wild waterfalls and lush, green vegetation. Thanks to Visit Norway you can now experience the fjord from a bird's eye perspective via a number of panoramic images.



The experience is rather like navigating with Street View, only from the air. You can navigate from one panoramic image to the next and you can use the inset Google Map to navigate to other images. Only, instead of the usual grimy city streets of Street View, here you get to fly above one of the most beautiful locations on Earth.



In the unlikely event that you tire of viewing Geirangerfjord, you should check out one of the other panoramic tours created by Visit Norway. You can fly over the pretty city of Ålesund, you can experience the Trollstigen Mountain Road and you can also climb the Trollveggen Mountain Wall.

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The Hells Angels Google Map

Norwegian Hells Angels Map

NRK, a Norwegian national television and radio station, are using Google Maps to show the addresses of Hells Angels' club houses in Norway. NRK say that the Hell Angels have a foothold in many Norwegian cities and have therefore created this application to show where the Hells Angels are active.

NRK have created a very nicely designed Flash application that allows readers to search for Hells Angels' club houses by province. When you select an individual club house a Google Map loads to show its location.

One nice design touch of the site is that the Google Map initially loads in black and white, which complements the overall design of the application. When you roll-over the map it then reverts to the normal Google Maps colour scheme.

Hat-tip: microformats.dk

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Street View Arrives in Norway & Finland

Google have released Street View imagery in Norway and Finland. There also seems to have been lots more Street View imagery added in Canada (including some ski runs taken by the Street View snowmobile), the USA, and Mexico.


Stortinget, Oslo


Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki


Helsinki Cathedral

In Whistler, Canada there seem to have been a lot of ski runs added. I assume these must be related to the upcoming Winter Olympics. In these Street View images Pegman is wearing his ski gear.

Check out this amazing panorama from the top of London Mountain.


Whistler, Canada


Whistler, Canada

Hat-tip: Google Earth Blog

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Norwegian Snow on Google Maps

TV 2 Nyhetene Snow Map

This Google Maps Mashup is a Norwegian version of #UKSnow. Just like #UKSnow it maps Twitter messages about snow. However, whereas Ben Marsh's map shows snow related Tweets using snow map markers, TV 2 Nyhetene are mapping photographs sent to Twitter.

To add a photograph to the map link to a photo from twitpic or yfrog, use the keyword #kulde and include your postcode in the message. Your snow picture will then be added to the map.

TV 2 Nyhetene acknowledge that their map is inspired by the #UKSnow map and also a similar photograph map created by The Guardian that showed snow photos taken in the UK.

Via: Mapperz

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