The Maps of the Week

It has been a couple of weeks since the last Google Maps Mania weekly round-up so this time around we have a special Google Maps of the Fortnight edition. You might also want to check out this round-up of the 200 Best Maps of 2013.



Mapping the Sea is a gorgeous interactive map of the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides.

The map was created by artist Stephen Hurrel and social ecologist Ruth

The Maps of the Week

We've featured a lot of Carto DB Torque powered maps in the last month.
This animated map of the geography of 400,000 hours of TV news is among
the most interesting.

The Internet Archive geo-coded 400,000 hours of U.S. television news and mapped the locations mentioned in each report. The Animated Geography of TV News
map animates through the locations mentioned in the news providing a

The Best Google Maps of the Week

The beginning of this week saw the release of three outstanding Google Maps based applications.


Disney released an amazing animated movie creation tool using Google Maps Street View.

After you enter your address into Disney's Giant Steps you can watch a video of a giant Goofy landing on your street (with a little help from Google Maps satellite view). Goofy then walks down your street (using Street View imagery) and actually opens the window of your house.


Floating Shiny Knot is another impressive experiment that superimposes animation on top of Google Maps Street View. Here however the effect is rather more artistic

The application superimposes an animated shiny knot on top of any Street View image (you can choose a chrome or glass finish for the knot). The effect is very impressive and if you rotate and drag the Street View around then the application soars to even higher levels of impressiveness.


The world has had to wait a long time for this meeting of Tower Defence and Google Maps but the wait is now over.

MapsTD is an amazing tower defence game built using the Google Maps API and the new 8-bit map tiles.

In the game you can choose from a number of locations around the world. When you have selected a location you then have to defend it from attackers by strategically placing your defence towers. If you've ever played a Tower Defence game you should know what to expect. If you haven't then where have you been for the last few years?

The Google Maps of the Week

Today's release of the 8-bit map tiles for Google Maps has to get a special mention this week. The NES version of Google Maps is all sorts of awesome. If you haven't seen it yet then go to Google Maps and select the 'Quest' button.

However there were some other brilliant maps released this week.


The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change released this real heat map for England. I say 'real' because it actually uses Google Maps to display heat use at building level throughout England.

The CEO - Heatmap shows heat demand from individual buildings throughout England and provides a range of tools to help developers and planners identify priority areas for low carbon heat projects.


AllTrails wasn't released this week but it was the first time I stumbled upon it. AllTrails currently has over 200,000 members who have mapped over 45,000 trails. The trails includes routes and information on many different activities including hiking, mountain biking, skiing, and snowboarding.

It is possible to search for trails by location and the results are displayed on a Google Map. It is then possible to refine the trails shown by the driving distance from your location, the length of the trail and / or its duration.


The Yard Sale Treasure Map seemed to get a bit of buzz this week. You can use Yard Sale to find yard sales happening around your location and plan a route and an itinerary, to help you visit them all.

When you add a location to Yard Sale Treasure Map the nearest sales are automatically added to your itinerary. You can add or remove sales by clicking on their map marker. You can even search for places to stop off on your route. For example if you fancy a coffee between yard sales you can search for nearby cafes and add one to your route.

The Google Maps of the Week

For me the Nature Valley Trail View was the stand-out map of the week.

The map includes a number of trails in the Grand Canyon, each of which can be experienced with a glorious animated custom Street View tour. If you click on the menu link you can select any of the trails and then virtually walk the trail with custom Street Views of the whole trail.

Each tour includes an option to animate a walk on the trail, so you can just sit back and watch as you walk the trail with custom Street Views. Below the Street View is an altitude graph, and a compass rose is also provided.


The World of the Living Dead is a browser based game of zombie survival that makes extensive use of Google Maps.

In the game you have to lead a small squad as you try to avoid the zombie hordes, scavenge for resources and set up safe-houses. Integral to your mission for survival is your handy Google Map. The map shows important locations in the game and luckily includes color-coded zones indicating where the zombies have already gained control.

So can you survive the World of the Living Dead?

The Google Maps of the Week

This week we saw some familiar mapping themes but with some new twists. For example, Pothole Season is far from being the first pothole reporting Google Map but the addition of pothole avoiding driving directions is a nice addition to the concept.

You can use Pothole Season to report the location of potholes and you can also use it to get driving directions that shows you the route with the least potholes.


Vasile Cotovanu', Lausanne Transit Network Simulator, is not the first real-time transit network simulator either. Vasile himself is responsible for the Swiss Railways(SBB) network simulator and Romanian Railways(CFR) network simulator.

Vasile's latest simulation however is even more impressive because of the availability of oblique aerial view imagery in Lausanne. The simulator animates the town's buses in real-time based on the Lausanne public transit network time-table.


This week I was also impressed with Tweereal, a real-time Google Map of Twitter users activity. In particular I liked the cool animated map markers.

I also think that Everplaces is a nice addition to the location bookmarking market. Everplaces has some neat features, such as importing your saved locations from Google Maps and the ability to share your favourite locations with friends via the various social networks.

The Google Maps of the Week

Over the years the fashion retailer Uniqlo has created a number of unique maps. Their latest effort, Uniqlo Undercover, is possibly the best store locator map I've ever seen. In fact to call it just a store locator map is an insult really.

Using custom map tiles Uniqlo has in effect created a whole website just with the Google Maps API. My advice is to explore the map yourself. Use the menu at the top right of the map to navigate to the different sections and make sure you zoom in on the map to see each section in detail.


This Canberra Crime Statistics Map from the Australian Federal Police is a very nice looking map with some great design features.

The numbered place-name markers are attractive and dynamic (the numbers change depending on the crime or date selected). If you zoom in on the map the shaded polygon areas are also dynamic. If you mouse-over an area it grows by a fraction to help highlight the selected neighborhood.

There are a lot more great design features on this map, for example, just look at that great map sidebar.


Shoes About Town is another inspired promotional campaign, this time from New York shoe salon Bergdorf Goodman.

This promotional campaign encourages people to take an Instagram photo and then post it on Twitter with the hashtag #BGSHOES. The photos of the shoes then appear on a great looking custom map, created using the Google Maps API.

The Google Maps of the Week

My favourite map this week was by far Old Maps Online. Old Maps Online is a map that helps you find old maps.

Of course I'm going to like it.

Using the map it is possible to search for historical maps published online by libraries around the world. All you have to do is click on a location on the map and the search results are automatically presented in the map sidebar with a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.


This week I was also impressed by the NBN Rollout map.

In Australia a new broadband network is being rolled out. Over the next ten years over 200,000 km of fibre-optic cable will be deployed across the country and up to 6,000 homes a day will be connected to the new network.

Australians can use the NBN Rollout Google Map to see when their homes will be connected to the network. The use of shaded areas on the map to represent the progress of the rollout provides a visually attractive and simple guide to the progress made in different areas of the country.

The Google Maps of the Week

The USA National Phenology Network's Phenology Visualization Tool helps monitor the influence of climate on the phenology of plants, animals, and landscapes in the U.S..

The site allows users to select a plant or animal and view where that species has been reported on a Google Map. It is then possible to view an animation of the species' phenology (phenology refers to recurring plant and animal life cycle stages) through time. If you animate the species data through time, with climate visible, you will see the climate data on the background change alongside the phenology data.


Good baristas and café owners can be hide to find, especially when you travel somewhere new. Beanhunter is a website that can help you find great coffee wherever you go in the world.

You can search for cafés submitted and reviewed on Beanhunter on a really nicely implemented Google Map. The map includes the option to filter the cafés shown by ratings, the number of reviews and you can even order the results by rating, number of reviews and by the date of the cafés' listing.


The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan has released a real-time map of radiation measurements in Fukushima Prefecture. The Japan Radiation Monitoring Map uses Google Maps to show the radiation levels measured by monitors throughout the Fukishima Prefecture.

The measurements displayed on the map are updated every ten minutes. The map uses a marker clustering system to show how many radiation monitor measurements are available at different locations. If you click on a marker all the measurements from that point can be viewed in the map sidebar.

The Google Maps of the Week

The idea of providing coupons in context is inspired. Vyaggio is a great application for getting driving directions with coupon deals at rest stops along your route, so not only do you get directions but you get news of great deals to be had on your journey.

If you don't want driving directions that's fine as well. You can also use Vyaggio to find restaurants, shops, hotels and cafes offering coupon deals in European towns. The coupons can be searched by location and filtered by category.


Another app providing deals in context is Wo-Wollen-Wir-Essen.de (where shall we eat?). Imagine it is lunch time and you want to eat. Wouldn't it be great if you could turn on your phone and view nearby restaurants with great lunch-time deals?

Wollen-Wir-Essen.de is a German Google Maps based website and mobile application that does exactly that. Using the app you can quickly see and browse through local restaurants' lunchtime offers on a handy Google Map.

Currently the site has lots of suggestions for where you can eat during the day in Hamburg. Coverage outside Hamburg is currently patchy but I'm sure that will improve as the app's popularity grows.


Sketchmap.co.uk, is an application for creating and sharing maps with friends. It is a great tool for quickly sketching out a location or a route that you need to share with others.

No registration is necessary and the provided drawing tools are very easy to use, so you can create and share a map with Sketchmap in a matter of seconds. As well as the handy drawing tools the map has available a number of layers, including administrative boundaries, listed buildings, scenic interests and geology.

Google Maps of the Week

The stand-out map of the last week has to be Blocky Earth, a fabulous WebGL experiment using the Google Maps API to show a 3d representation of the Earth.

To view the map you will probably need to use the Chrome browser as Blocky Earth uses canvas and WebGL to render locations representing terrain and elevation with cubic blocks. The map includes a search option so you can choose to view any location on the Earth.

The map also has options to zoom in and out, rotate the map and to view it in full-screen mode.


I really shouldn't claim one of my own maps as one of the best of the week. Especially when this map is still far from perfect but ... IT'S STREET VIEW ON MARS!

Martian Street View uses panoramas of Mars captured from NASA's Mars' missions with the Custom Panorama function in the Google Maps API to help you take a virtual walk on the moon.


Weather Underground's WunderMap now allows the user to view historical weather records on a Google Map.

A calendar control above the map allows the user to select a date and view the historical weather records for that day. The records include radar, storm reports and even weather related photographs and webcam images taken on that day.

Google Maps of the Week

This week's most popular map on Google Maps Mania by a country mile was the Skyrim Map. This map of the popular role-playing game was viewed by at least five times more people than any other map I posted about this week.

The Skyrim Map uses custom map tiles with the Google Maps API to provide an interactive map of the Elder Scrolls game-world of Tamriel. The map includes the option to view markers showing the locations of holds and primary locations in the game.


Personally my favourite map of the last week was Ejecuciones en Chile entre septiembre y diciembre de 1973. This map is a powerful and poignant animated map visualisation of people executed by the Chilean military dictatorship between September 11 and December 31, 1973.

The map animates through a time-line of the executions geo-locating those murdered by place of death or where the body was discovered. As well as providing an animated time-line of the executions the map can be browsed by location, date of death, cause of death and by the name of individual victims of the 1970's Chilean dictatorship.


Finally, this week I was alos impressed with Deutsche Telekom's Worldwide Operations Map. The map itself is a simple store-locator that shows the scope of Deutsche Telekom's worldwide operations and lists the names of its companies operating in various countries around the world.

The map uses the Google Maps API Styled Maps feature to create a map that complements the colors of the company's corporate style and website design. There is nothing amazingly innovative about the map but it does it's job with little fuss and yet has a striking design.

Google Maps: Weekly Round-Up

Google was very busy last week, with the launch of Street View in South Korea and the release of fresh 45° imagery in 24 cities on Google Maps.

Google Hotel Finder also started experimenting with an isochrone layer that allows users to search for hotels within a defined travelling time of a location.

Elsewhere I was impressed with the use of Google Fusion Tables in Google Maps by two newspapers.


Both the Edmonton Journal and Global News released election related maps powered by Fusion Tables.

Both maps include selectable layers and a dynamic legend. If you want to know how to create a dynamic legend with Fusion Tables and Google Maps then you should dive into the code in this Fusion Tables API Example Map.


The New York World also produced an excellent Google Maps based visualisation of the Proposed New York Senate Districts.

This visualisation of the proposed rezoning works brilliantly in map form, not only because of the obvious geographic nature of creating new senate districts but because the map perfectly illustrates the disparity in the population sizes between the up-state and down-state proposed districts.

Google Maps of the Week

The German courts recently decided that Berlin Airport can operate flights between 5 am and midnight. Residents who live close to the airport say that this gives them just a 5 hour window in which it is possible to sleep.

German newspaper Taz this week created a very useful visualisation of air pollution caused by aircraft at Berlin Airport. Fluglärm-Karte BBI-Airport Berlin shows the number of decibels along the flight paths to and from the airport and in the immediate vicinity.


Google Maps that show the current weather and short-term forecasts are always useful. Combine the weather with real-time geo-tagged Tweets about the weather and you get a very interesting application.

Wettervolke is a nice Google Maps based application to view the current weather and local Twitter messages about the weather.

The current weather conditions are displayed on a Google Map using the standard weather map symbols. The current temperature is also displayed directly on the map. As well as the current weather conditions it is possible to view a forecast for the rest of the day and for tomorrow's weather.


WorldMap is a new open source mapping platform from Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis. One feature that makes WorldMap very useful is the thousands of data layers that the service provides. Users of WorldMap can also easily import and display their own data layers on a map.

WorldMap has already created over 700 mapping layers and users have created more than 500 maps. Therefore, as well as creating their own maps, users can search and view maps from the hundreds of maps already created.

Google Maps of the Week

Two of my favourite maps of the last week were environmental maps that both present users with access to large amounts of useful data.


Vizzuality's Carbon Calculator is a very impressive Google Maps based app that details the potential contribution of any area in the world to climate change mitigation.

The map allows users to draw an area anywhere in the world and view the carbon currently stored in the area, as well as the amount of additional carbon that potentially could be sequestered through restoration.


The United States Environment Protection Agency this week launched a Greenhouse Gas Data Publication Tool that allows users to view and sort 2010 greenhouse gas emissions data from over 6,700 facilities.

The tool uses Google Maps to allow the user to search and display the data in a number of ways, including by facility, location, industrial sector, and the type of GHG emitted. The tool can be used by individuals and communities to identify nearby sources of greenhouse gas emissions.


My other favourite map of the week is not environmentally themed but is impressive none-the-less. HotelMaps.com is a hotel finder that uses Google Maps to help you locate and book hotels near any destination.

What makes HotelFinder.com stand out from other map based hotel websites is the use of dynamic map markers to quickly show the user the price and star ratings of the recommended hotels. Using the map it is possible to search for hotels by date and location but the user can also refine the price, the star ratings and the guest ratings in their search.

Google Maps of the Week

Street View Stereographic was by far my favourite map of the past week.

Street View Stereographic allows you to view any Street View image in a stereographic projection. You can get an idea of the views possible with the screenshot above. Street View Stereographic uses WebGL so you will probably need to use the Google Chrome browser to view the app.


One of the most retweeted maps of the week was KNGF Maps. KNGF Geleidehonden (The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation) trains puppies to be guide or seeing eye dogs. To help promote the charity and help raise some of the mobility issues faced by the visually impaired KNGF created this walking directions map.

The map is a pretty impressive iteration of Google Maps driving directions. The map includes the usual driving, public transit and walking directions but also includes some novel seeing eye dog directions.

If the user selects the seeing eye dog directions they are presented with a blanked out map. When the user asks for directions a seeing eye dog walks the route and lights up the way on the map.


The Domesday Book was the result of a survey carried out in England and parts of Wales in 1086. The book is one of the first and therefore oldest public records in England and is a great resource for geographers, genealogists and historians.

The Open Domesday Book is the first free online copy of the Domesday Book. It also includes a great Google Maps interface that allows users to search for locations and quickly find references in the Domesday Book to locations and places nearby.

The Best Google Maps of the Week

Where the F..k Should I Go for a Drink? was probably the most shared of this week's Google Maps. The viral nature of the app might have had a lot to do with the title of the map but it is actually a brilliantly executed pub and bar locator.

If you share your location with Where the F..k Should I Go for a Drink? you will be shown a Google Map of your current location with directions to a nearby bar or pub. If you don't like the chosen pub you can simply click to get alternative recommendations.


Locating London's Past is a superb tool for exploring London's past on Google Maps.

The map allows users to visualise data relating to seventeenth and eighteenth-century London against John Rocque’s 1746 map of London. The data sets that can be viewed on the map include records of Old Bailey Proceedings, coroner's records, historical directories, plague deaths, archaeology finds and much more.


Google's own Build the Memory app is a powerful insight into the devastating effect of this year's Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The app features new Street View images of the affected area, which you can compare to Street View images taken before the earthquake.

This week also saw two new video maps. MapsTube lets you search for videos on Google Maps. It is a great way to search for videos shot at specific locations anywhere in the world. ZDF - Geothek, on the other hand, lets users browse a map for video clips from the German public broadcaster's archives that cover both current and historical events around the world.

The Google Maps of the Year

Picking the best Google Maps of the Year is incredibly difficult. In picking my favourite Google Maps of 2011 I am in no doubt that I have forgotten some exceptional Google Maps - but, for what it's worth, here are the maps that most impressed me this year.

New Media Companies

This year the quality in design and usability of Google Maps based application seems to have taken a huge step forward. This is in part due to the impact of innovative new media companies such as Vizzuality and Ubilabs. Both of these companies consistently produce outstanding Google Maps that nearly always make it into my Google Maps of the Week round-up.



This year's Ubilabs releases included Die Asphaltsurfer, Swiss Post - Running View and Blitzer.de.

Vissuality's releases included DontFlush.me and El Microscopio del Voto (Spanish election results).

Newspaper Visualisations



Newspapers around the world continue to produce excellent Google Maps applications to help illustrate news articles. The New York Times continues to lead the way in producing stunning map visualisations. This year the Times' maps included Destruction in Haiti, Then and Now, NYT: Where I Was Map, How Manhattan’s Grid Grew.

An honourable mention must also go to German newspaper Zeit for Verräterisches Handy. This Google Map mapped the location data collected from one man's mobile phone over six months.

Marketing



Many of the most innovative uses of Google Maps this year were released as part of marketing campaigns. Amongst the best marketing maps were RCZ View (Peugot), Gran Turismo 5, Levi's Roadwear and MINI Maps

HTML5 & WebGL

Developments in web technologies continues to open up new possibilities in online mapping. Amongst the best maps using cutting edge web developments were Urban Arteries, Grand Theft Auto IV - Custom Street View and Chaos in Your Town.



Viral

You don't have to have a huge web team behind you to create a great Google Map's based application. Individual developers can still have inspired ideas that grab the attention of web users around the world.

My favourite 'viral' maps this year were #rorschmap, Street Views Patchwork and ExtendNY - New York City Expanded.

And Finally .... The Winner is ....

In the end my favourite Google Map of this year was not so much a map as a full scale media event. Hurtigruten: Minute by Minute was a week long live broadcast by Norwegian Public Service broadcaster NRK of the voyage of the cruise liner Hurtigruten around the Norwegian coast.

As well as amazing live TV footage of the voyage, for 134 hours users of the application could follow the position of the cruise liner live on a real-time Google Map. There was something truly amazing about being able to follow the ship live on Google Maps and watch the live TV broadcast as Norwegians came out in droves along the coast to celebrate as the ship sailed by.

So What do You Think?
So that's my personal choice of the best Google Maps of the Year. The chances are that most of you will disagree with my selection. So feel free to leave a comment about your personal favourite Google Maps of 2011 .....