Friday, November 30, 2007

Welcome to Newsmap

  • Clicking on a country/region retrieves news about that country.
  • Switch clickly to another continent by clicking on the continent links in the header.
  • Zooming in one level will retrieve news at the state/provincial level.
  • Currently state level news is available for US, Canada, UK(Home Nations) and Australia.
  • Zooming in a second time will retrieve city news for large cities.
  • Over 3000 large cities are in the database.
  • Zooming out again will retrieve news at the respective level.
source:
http://muti.co.za/static/newsmap.html

Sachin Tendulkar's Journey

Sachin Tendulkar's Journey to Record Breaking
Test Centuries on Google Maps

Begin by clicking Marker #1 or Marker #35. Once you close the popup
window, the map will recenter on to the next test century location.

Source: http://www.mibazaar.com/cricket/sachintestrecord.html

Men in blue mapped

Virender Ajmani maps the birthplaces of all players on the Indian National Cricket Team. Vital stats for each player and a YouTube video is available.

Source: http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/search/label/India


Thursday, November 29, 2007

Yahoo Maps API

8zero2Easy to use mashup for finding Free and Pay WiFi hotspots in the US. Search by address or browse by double clicking on the map. Extensive listings.  
AcidAcid is an enhanced Yahoo Local Services processor. It is an interactive way to gather services data in the U.S.  
ACME GeoRSS Map ViewerThis is a Google Maps app that displays Yahoo! Simple Maps files. It implements all of Yahoo!'s enhancements to GeoRSS, including address geocoding, plus a couple of things from basic RSS that Yahoo! missed. Use with your own GeoRSS and Yahoo Maps.  
Ajax Map ComparisonMap Compare allows you to evaluate which mapping service is best. All three maps are locked together so panning, zooming and changing map types will effect all maps the same. You can also use the tab pane to try out various map features.  
Apartments on Yahoo MapsCraigslist apartment listings plotted on a map, with answers to real-estate and apartment-related questions for your city.  
BatchGeocode.comGeocode addresses in bulk, plot multiple locations to a single map. Built using Yahoo Maps and Yahoo Geocoding API.  
Berkeley-area DoctorsFind doctors in the Berkeley CA area via very useful mashup of the Yahoo Maps API + screen scraped healthcare provider information.  
Bitter CyclistSee where to watch-out by viewing these details of bicycle accidents in San Francisco on a Yahoo Map.  
Blue Home FinderSearch all single-family homes, condos, townhouses, and commercial properties for sale and for rent in Florida. All properties have both information and photos.  
Blue One Realty Related DirectoryBlue One Realty is a real estate related directory. It is based on Yahoo Maps and Flex. People can submit their real estate related web site and company.  
blueorganizerThe blueorganizer is the smart browser extension for Firefox. With this organizer the web turns into everyday objects like books, cars, restaurants and movies. Collect things with 1 click, find new information and share what you find with your friends.  
California State Park FinderWant to find a California State Park? Select from a list of major areas including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Franciso to get a fully annotated Yahoo Map.  
Campus-based Mediation Services Locator MapThis map plots more than 200 college campus-based mediation services using a list from www.campus-adr.org  
Census DashboardA mashup using two StrikeIron APIs, Zip Code Information and Population Demographics By ZIP Code, plus Yahoo Maps to give detailed information for a specific US zip code.  
Chicago Area Blogger MapGreg Gershman's mashup plotting Chicago-area bloggers.  
CityServerAllows you to plot multiple Yahoo Services, in multiple categories, on a Yahoo Flash map.  
CitySlickUnique mapping search interface and drill-down, with lots of links to local resources. Builds a US city information profile from over 20,000 cities in the United States.  
Columbia SC Bike MapYahoo's description: Bike maps require back roads and out-of-the-way rest stops on roads don't have names or details for a rest stop. Elena did a Mashup that works around all those issues.  
CooqyA novel Flash-based interface to search eBay.  
CPI Media TrackerFrom the Well Connected project at The Center for Public Integrity, the Media Tracker is an online database that, aside from mapping broadcast towers, provides an array of data on the reach and influence of companies that control the flow of information.  
CryoFindersCryoFinders lets you track flight status, flight departures, flight arrivals, airport delays and other flight and airport information in real time.  
Dynamic Visitor MapA dynamic Yahoo Map displaying the physical locations of site visitors.  
Earthquakes in Last 7 DaysReal-time, worldwide earthquake list for the past 7 days on Flash-based Yahoo Map.  
Easy One Loan and Home ValuesMashup of Zillow and Yahoo Maps as supplement to online mortgage service.  
eGoWalkFlickr photos + Yahoo! Maps. Click on a city to see your Flickr contacts and then hover over icons to get details.  
ePartyGuide.comNationwide bar, night club, and restaurant reviews. Use this map based search engine to find nightlife across the country.  
Equidistant EatsEnter 2 or 3 addresses and find centrally located restaurants to them. Marker popups include address and phone number info.  
Extreme WebcamsFind skiing and windsurfing webcams with this mashup integrating live webcam pictures with the Yahoo! Flash API. Nice use a banding widget to draw zoom area.  
FindJiraMulti-search engine, searches within many engines and web services and returns information grouped by relevance and media. Uses FindJira framework, open source middleware that simplifies search from different sources.  
Flash EarthZoomable mashup of Google Maps, Virtual Earth and other satellite imagery through a Flash application. Try rotating the compass or building a permanent link to a location.  
Flex, Yahoo Maps, and RSS FeedsDemonstration of a mashup using Yahoo Maps and the new AS3 Communications Kit for Flex 2. Maps GeoRSS or RSS feeds directly onto a map as well as displaying traffic or weather data. Source code available.  
Florida Real EstateBLUE ONE Realty real estate. Search homes in Florida. Search homes, condos, townhouses, and commercial properties by MLS or by city.  
GameTripping.com Ballpark GuideGameTripping.com lets you to share and collect your experiences visiting ballparks across the US. Features a guide and gallery powered by Yahoo Maps and Flickr. Ballpark Collection shows an array of all ballparks, highlighting ones you have reviewed.  
GangstaMapInteractive theme your own gangsta map using Yahoo Flash Maps and Google Video. Mashup Camp 3 contest entry.  
Geo!SuggestGeo!Suggest = Yahoo Geocoding API + AJAX. Geo!Suggest, an AJAX interface for the Yahoo! Maps Geocoding API showcases how flexible the Yahoo! Geocoding API is in working with limited input and returning results with floating response level. Source code of  
GeotagthingsSimple spatial bookmarking. Use a delicious style bookmarklet system to tag any url with location information.  
GeoURL Yahoo MappingInteresting application, or hack as author Premshree Pillai says, that shows you sites close to a given URL. Go to GeoURL.org for more examples.  
Google vs Yahoo MapsA nice way to see the any location side-by-side in Google and Yahoo Maps. Even dragging one map drags the other.  
Home LocatorSearch real estate listings with photos and maps. Winner of the Adobe Flex Developer Derby.  
HomethinkingHomethinking monitors real estate transactions to know what each agent has done and also customer reviews about the job they did.  
homeValence.comWeb site dedicated to housing appreciation rates. Several mapping mashups being developed but currently available to registered users only.  
Hungry ServiceSend an SMS to find restaurants offering special deals in your location, then make reservations. Integrates with TopTable.co.uk data.  
iamcaltrainGood use of Yahoo! Maps + Flickr to show CalTrain route and schedule data with station photos.  
iPod DirectionsGet driving directions on your iPod Video, Nano or Photo. Enter starting and ending address, verify, then export. Supports Mac and Windows.  
iWayUse your iPod as your guide through this service that creates downloadable iPod-friendly directions from Yahoo Maps.  
JauntletJauntlet is a tool for travelers to add travel plans and maps to many popular sites including MySpace, Facebook, and Blogger.  
JobsnFeedsJobs, feeds, and maps to get you the job.  
Libraries411Find public libraries in the US and Canada. Data for more than 20,000 libraries available. Choose Yahoo or Google Maps.  
LIME LocalCommunity-generated directory of Green places. Users are asked to submit and share environmentally friendly, sustainable and healthy businesses and services.  
Local eBay AuctionsSave on shipping with this Yahoo Maps + eBay mashup to show auctions within your local zip code.  
LookLOCALLookLOCAL is a unique online mapping and local search service. View over 6,000 traffic cams, view travel related KML files and import your own, search or get directions, and compare Google Maps, Yahoo Local Maps, and Live Search Maps.  
Map of BucharestA comprehensive map of sites in the city of Bucharest, Romania.  
MapBuilderOnline tool to generate code for Google and Yahoo maps. Does not required knowledge of the APIs or JavaScript. Share your own maps and explore maps created by others.  
MappingtonA user-created atlas of the world. Search for a place and see maps, photos, videos, articles, and user opinions of that place.  
Maps by IDELIXGoogle Maps, Yahoo Local Maps, and Windows Live Local all in one location. Search for businesses, get directions, explore and discover using patented lensing technology from IDELIX.  
Maps for Photos and WikipediaFind various US locations and get weather forecasts, Wikipedia geo articles and Flickr photos.  
MetroMashYahoo Maps, Local Search, Traffic Reports and Upcoming Events all mashed together.  
Mile CalculatorAllows users to drag a path using the mouse on a mapped location and finds the miles or kilometers traversed over it.  
Mobile GMapsMobile GMaps is an application that displays Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Windows Live Local and Ask.com Maps and satellite imagery on Java J2ME-enabled mobile phones, PDAs and other devices.  
Molu The Search Spider PlacesDeveloped as an add-on to the search engine, Molu, enter a city and then view it mapped, along with Flickr photos, Wikipedia entries, weather, YouTube videos, and more about the location. Print the image on a custom goodie.  
MotelPointExtensive motel and accommodation directory. Find information on more than 12,385 motels and 47,831 accommodations.  
MP3 ArtistServer Music MapYou can browse and listen to music using a map. If you join ArtistSerer.com you can download the music for free. A listing of nearly 150 musical genres on left, a map and chat window on right.  
MusicTonicSlick music information mashup with photos, videos and news. Search or browse artists by name or genre.  
Nationwide What You Need MapYahoo! hacker Mike Heideman pulls a lot franchises together under one roof of Americana - fast food, wifi, diesel, hotel, and car rentals.  
NewsMaprBrowse the most popular news stories by category using Yahoo Maps.  
Nurse Facility LocatorSearchable application for nurse recruitment campaign. Users can narrow results with multiple search parameters and are provided with facility information, a map, demographics and the ability to save sites as favorites.  
NYC Movie LocationsScenes From the City is a great mashup. Find the locations of iconic Made in NY films with the Yahoo Map made for the 40th Anniversary of the Mayors Office of Film. Lots of ways to search including director and scene type.  
ocarto a meta map mashupCool way to create and save your own hybrid maps using several mapping APIs. This mashup layers Google, Yahoo, MS Virtual Earth, and Terraserver maps into one interface - similar to the way Photoshop layers work.  
Official Flickr MapMillions of Flickr photos have been geotagged and placed on a Yahoo Map. Uses the recently added Geo features of Flickr. Add a special tag for photos from Upcoming.org events and they will be linked to that page automatically.  
Ojor.comWorld Community, travel, photos, videos. Data from Yahoo Maps, Yahoo Travel, Flickr and YouTube.  
ParentographyMap-based parenting community.  
PhoneBackr PhoneBackr is a mashup that acts like a searchable reverse telephone directory. PhoneBackr simulates the functions of a reverse elephone directory using search data and various APIs. The results are then rendered on a Yahoo Flash Map.  
Potrero Hill Crime MapCrime mashup of the upscale San Francisco neighborhood.  
Provincial Capitals of Canadacan quiz you on your knowledge of Provincial Capitals of Canada. See if you can guess the name before you click on each icon.  
RDF CalendarRDF Calendar, which is a typical Events handling application, now supports Google Calendar API. It can retrieve events information from Google Calendar, eventful, and upcoming.org, can can map events.  
Red vs Blue MediaChoose your news stories based on your political preferences. Newspaper articles will appear spread on the US map in red or blue.  
RunningMap.comPlot a path on a map and the distance is calculated. Locations across North America are supported. Handy measurement tool for running or walking.  
San Diego Road ConstructionA Yahoo Map of the San Diego road construction projects with details, cost estimates and completion date.  
San Diego Trolley MapJeffrey McManus from Yahoo!'s Developer Network created this nice interactive map of San Diego's trolleys.  
San Francisco Traffic CamsCollection of traffic webcams plotted on a Yahoo! Map.  
ScheeduleScheedule is a registration website that allows students to schedule for classes by showing them all of their possible schedules.  
Schmap Customizable WidgetsCustomizable widgets that combine maps with photos and points of interest like restaurants, hotels, attractions, and shops for 200 destinations throughout the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  
Seattle Italian Foodin the Captitol Hill neighborhood. From food206.  
SF Bay Area Home SalesFrom Yahoo Maps: Jamie Glenn plotted home sales data for 200+ zip codes in the Bay Area from May 2004 to May 2005. Blue means going up month over month, orange means going down. Click on them to see the year over year details.  
SF Caltrain MapClick on station location to get details including full schedules.  
Small Yahoo Maps in FlexDemonstrates the workaround provided by Yahoo for using Maps in Flex 2. Uses some sample code as base and adds some simple features like plotting geoRSS, regular RSS, and traffic and weather by zip code.  
SMS GeoBlogging ServiceBlog based on your location. Users can request posts based on their location or subscribe to RSS feeds. It also provides a way for users to enrich their blogs with Yahoo Pipes.  
Soccer Fields in PhoenixA Yahoo! Map to help players and parents plan their soccer outings.  
Stuff a BlogThis webapp for bloggers to create content-rich blog posts. Type in keywords, select content, and it returns the HTML. Returns relevant data from Flickr, Yahoo Maps, Amazon and others.  
Table Tennis Tourney MapFrom Yahoo Maps: Here is a mashup plotting the USATT-sanctioned table tennis tournaments in Pacific Region by Sudhish Iyer.  
TagMapsTagMaps is a toolkit to visualize text geographically on a map. Check out the sample applications, where we use Flickr tags on a map to build a world exploration tool.  
Thailand DetailsShows 76 Changwats in 6 zones of Thailand. Provides information in Thai.  
The Center of Silicon ValleyToni Schneider mapped the 10 most valuable Silicon Valley tech company locations and then computed their average location weighted by stock market valuation.  
TownKingsMap and local based social community.  
TownPup UK Village GuideThe most lovable pooch in the UK is collared up and barking at the door, ready to take you on a mashed-up guided tour of United Kingdom towns and villages. It is built on an ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005, and uses APIs from Flickr and Eventful.  
Trip OrganizerA 360 degree view of a location while organizing a vacation or business trip. Uses 8 different APIs.  
U.S. of AjaxThe United States of Ajax allows you to visit 20,261 Cities within 3,140 Counties in the United States. Data is available for each State, County and City. Dozens of data sources linked.  
Unthirsty.comHappy hour finder mashup with Google Maps. Happy hours sortable by drink specials, food specials, wifi, and patios. Also, what is happening right now.  
USGuidezGuide to events, attractions and businesses for cities across the United States.  
Verkoops.com SearchVerkoops.com is a search engine for classified ads. You can search products, jobs, housing, and more using a novel faceted search interface. Verkoops.com allows users to search by keywords or use a dynamic navigation control.  
Weather BonkRich mashup with live weather, forecasts, webcams, and more on a Google Map.  
Wildfires in CaliforniaPresents wildfire news stories, using a map. Uses Yahoo Pipes to offer RSS feeds from southern California newspapers, Flickr, and MSN video of the disaster.  
WorldGeoMapClick anywhere on the world map and drill down for country, state, city, and street geo data.  
Yahoo MapMixerAllows other maps to be layered over a Yahoo. Map to show additional detail of a location. Now you can mix together the detail of a point-of-interest map — such as airports, college campuses, sports arenas, historic maps and others.  
Yahoo Maps WidgetOfficial Yahoo Map widget for Yahoo Widgets.  
Yahoo Weather+Yahoo MapsGet the weather via this all-Yahoo! mashup.  
Yahoo! APIs Example with Code Example Yahoo! Map with overlay of Local and Traffic information. With link to article on how this was programmed. By Dan Theurer.  



Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Location Masti

http://mobiance.com/func/location-masti.htm

Mobiance announces "Location Masti" - inviting all hackers for a month long celebration of innovation, creativity and technology.

Location Masti is an opportunity for hackers to use Mobiance's pioneering mobile location technology with other sources of data/ APIs and build innovative applications

What

Location Masti is a location hack event to build innovative mashups based on Location based services using Mobiance's location technology. The event organized by Mobiance is aimed at exploring the countless avenues to build useful and relevant location aware applications by hackers in a spirit of innovation, creativity and masti.

Mobiance will be inviting hackers to take part in this 30 day event building innovative location enabled applications in the fields of social networking, navigation, local search and a whole lot more. In addition to Mobiance's unique technology to determine the location of mobile phones, hackers can aggregate multiple sources of data, make use of various available APIs and tools to deliver their next "killer" application!

Registrations would be open on the 1st of December, 2007. The event will stretch for a period of 30 days from 15th January, 2008 where the developers will be able to use Mobiance's location feeds and build applications that are useful and relevant to individuals by using their location.

When

Announcement of Location Masti: 26th November, 2007

Registrations: 1st December, 2007 to 31st December, 2007

Event run dates: 15th January, 2008 to 15th February, 2008

Final demo and submission: 15th February, 2008

Announcement of results: 1st March, 2008

Live pilots with winning applications: Second quarter 2008

How

Hackers at Location Masti will have simulated location feeds of 20 people available through a web service that they can use in building their applications. The web service will allow requests for both real time location and the archived location of the person at every quarter of an hour for the past day for use by the applications.

If the participants would like to have live location of privacy approved phones instead of simulated feeds, Location Masti allows that too. Just a form to be submitted online and the location feed will be available.

Details of Mobiance's Location feed APIs and web services will be made available to registered hackers at the time of registration.

Participation

Location Masti is open to all people above 15 years of age and who are accepted by Mobiance as "hackers". Hackers can participate

  • as individual "hacker" or
  • as a "team" of hackers with upto 10 members. Hackers can belong to only one team.
  • Corporate hackers may join in the fun

Number of entries

Hackers or teams can submit any number of hacks but will need to specify their hacks at the time of registration.

Accessing Mobiance location Feed

Hackers will be provided a unique access code for each application at the time of registration. This code will be needed to access Mobiance's APIs and/or web services by the applications. Hackers will be required to maintain the privacy of this access code.

Submission of entries

The hackers can make their application available through a URL for demo purposes subject to presentation rules. For submission of entries, the code will have to be uploaded with documentation and instructions through a mechanism communicated to the hackers by Mobiance.

 

We are locationmasti on twitter.
Follow us for updates and announcements.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Whereis

Love Maps?

We do.

And so do a lot of other people. Did you know:

  • Whereis.com first went live in December 1997
  • Whereis.com is visited over four million times per month (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings SiteCensus average monthly sessions Aug 06 - Jan 07)
  • Whereis.com has experienced growth of 53% in average monthly unique browsers in the past 12 months (Source: Average monthly unique browsers 2006 v 2005: Nielsen//NetRatings SiteCensus Jan 05 - Dec 06)
  • 99% of whereis.com users surveyed indicated that they intend to return to the site (Source: Whereis Consumer Experience Survey, 2 Degrees Research Pty Ltd 2006)
  • Whereis.com has three times more brand awareness than any other online mapping service ( Source: Nielsen//NetRatings Australian Internet & Technology Report 2006)

Whereis.com sources its digital maps from UBD who are Australia's leading brand in street directories. All of the maps are computer drawn which produces clarity and usability that are second to none. UBD is Australia's largest publisher of mapping and travel related products. Its publishing program includes street directories, guides, maps and road atlases.

Visit www.ubd-online.com for more information.

Not only can you pinpoint the precise location of a street on whereis.com, you can also:

  • View high-quality photos of Australian cities with the ability to see to better than 15cm resolution using the "Photo" button
  • Get point-to-point directions between (up to) three specified addresses
  • Search for key points of interest on the map including train stations, public toilets, picnic areas and many more.

Finding your way has never been easier or more convenient.

GPS Navigation and Digital Maps - powered by Whereis®

Whereis® provides a leading map database for Australian and New Zealand navigation systems. Whereis® products include a range of data products suitable for in-car and portable navigation consumers, through to large corporations managing routing and scheduling of fleets.

For more information visit http://poweredby.whereis.com.

Whereis® Navigator

Whereis® Navigator is the low-cost wireless GPS navigation solution for mobile phones and pocket PCs.

With real-time turn-by turn vehicle navigation and access to regularly updated maps and points-of-interest, you'll always know where you are and where you're going.

For more information visit http://navigator.whereis.com.


Whereis.com is apart of the Sensis network of web sites. Visit the Sensis Corporate site for more information http://about.sensis.com.au/

Monday, November 19, 2007

MapDesk

MapDesk is a UMN MapServer based map editor and viewer.
The built-in map file editor supports syntax highlighting, context-sensitive help and a preview function.

Screenshot

Features

  • Standalone application, no need of UMN MapServer CGI
  • Built-in map file editor
  • Built-in viewer with map file preview, zoom, pan, etc.
  • Preview of the legend
  • Platform-independent architecture

Download

You can download the fully functional MapDesk binaries, now in the version 0.7.0:
The RPM and the Windows packages are not fully tested! Please give us feedback.

Links

Saturday, November 17, 2007

MapServer Getting Started Tutorial!

GETTING STARTED TUTORIAL
Welcome to the MapServer Getting Started Tutorial! The Maptech MapServer provides you with access to over 65,000 topographic maps, nautical and aeronautical charts, aerial photographs and satellite images covering the United States.  Browse, view, print and email the maps for free. 
The Getting Started Tutorial takes 10-15 minutes to complete.

Click here to start the tutorial.

Click   previous and next    at the top of each page to step through the tutorial.  Or, select one of the lessons below by clicking on it, then follow the step by step instructions.  When done close this window to return to the MapServer.

Tutorial Lessons:
  Selecting a map location
  Selecting maps, charts or photos
 Moving around on a map - panning
 Changing zoom level - on same map
 Choosing a scale - different map

  Making "My Map" with location symbol
 Saving in a personalized My Maps list
  Printing MyMaps to take with you
 E-mailing MyMaps to friends and colleges 
 Buying maps, charts and software with
    advanced GPS, 3-D, and printing

Related Pages:
 MapServer Help - descriptions of each MapServer feature
  About My Maps - learn about making, saving and sharing personalized maps
 More about the maps and charts available from the MapServer
 Reference guide to topographic maps symbols
 Reference guide to nautical chart symbols

Links: Glider Towing, 3D Bonanza, John Hanke Presentation, Google Maps Profiles, Virtual Earth 3D Modeling


  • Glider being Towed in Google Earth

    Glider Towing - GoogleSightseeing highlights a great plane in flight find showing a glider being towed to altitude in southwestern England. See it here . The amazing thing is that this aerial photo is clear enough to see the tow cable - probably due to the right sun angle glinting off the cable. The sighting was discovered by Noisette at the GEC.

  • 3D Bonanza - The 3D Warehouse can help you find all kinds of interesting model collections in Google Earth. Some 3D building collections are amazingly detailed. Fly to " Beaver Creek, Colorado " and turn on the 3D Buildings layer for a very detailed model of this ski village. Even the chair lifts are models (and there's no lift lines! Hmmm). Note: depending on your connection and computer, this collection may take a while to load due to the detail.

  • John Hanke Presentation - John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps at Google, and the CEO of Keyhole before it was bought by Google, spoke at Berkeley where he got his business degree (video here - Real Player required). This is a fascinating lecture as it tells the story of his several business ventures and the challenging history of Keyhole before it was acquired. Also, at the end he shows some interesting slides about the success of Google Earth. I especially liked the heat map showing all the placemarks on Earth in their search index on a map. He also shared a photo of the fleet of cars Google is deploying to take Streetview imagery which was taken by a blogger. Well worth watching if you want to know more about the history of Google Earth. Video discovered via this blog post.

  • Google Maps Profiles - Google is increasingly adding social networking elements to Maps. This week they announced you can make a real profile of yourself in Google Maps (picture photo, pseudo, and other info), plus when people look at your photo they can see your reviews, photos, links, and the My Maps you've chosen to share. They also made a video talking about the new profile features presented by SketchUp newsletter Googler Tasha.

  • Virtual Earth 3D Modeling - There haven't been many blog posts about this, but when Microsoft released their big update to Virtual Earth this week they also released a free application for building 3D models. This is not a SketchUp killer or anything, but it was yet another move to have the same suite of tools Google has created for Google Earth (gee, is this a competition or something?). Earthware Blog has three posts mentioning, showing a video demonstration, and comparing Microsoft's 3D tool to SketchUp.

Google Earth 4.2 - Release notes wanted, new icons

Google still hasn't updated the release notes for the new Google Earth 4.2. So I'm still discovering little things which have been updated in 4.2 from the last beta. We are well aware of some of the big changes like the new Sky and the new 3D photo viewer. But, I'm sure there are lots of smaller changes like the bug which kept the navigation gadget from going away when on automatic in 4.1 is now fixed. Last night, I noticed that the standard icons used for placemarks have changed. They are now more similar in style to the icons used in the layers and in Google My Maps. The image below shows the new choices (if you create a placemark and click on the icon button, this is what you see).

Compare New Icons in Google Earth to old
Click on the image above to see a comparison of the new images to the old.






WMS Javascript Library

A Web Map Server (WMS) will return a static map image if given the required parameters in the URL.
For example, the URL:
http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&LAYERS=BMNG&FORMAT=image/jpeg&bbox=20,10,80,45&height=150&width=200&srs=EPSG:4326&styles=
will return this image
However, this image is static and any change requires typing in a new URL.
The purpose of the WMS Javascript Library wmsmap.js is to facilitate the creation of dynamics maps using freely available WMS servers. For example to create the dynamic equivalent of the image above, include the javascript files, define the Layer object, create a new map object, and associate it with an html DIV element.
// define layer object
var myLayer = {
URL: 'http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?',
LAYERS: ['BMNG'],
FORMAT: 'image/jpeg',
BBOX: [20,10,80,45]
};
// create new map object with layer
var myMap = new WMap('map_div',[myLayer]);
Where map div is defined in the HTML as:
<div id='map_div' style='width:300px;height:200px></div>

The WMS Javascript Library provides an API to allow the creation of dynamic maps including simple zoom functionality, clickable googlemap-like overlays, and GetFeatureInfo queries by clicking the map (coming soon).
See the examples for details.
This EXACT code will create the pan-able map below
Try it: click and drag to pan the map
All of this is done without any server side scripts (no PHP or Perl) Two more lines of code adds zooming capabilities.

Includes

In addition, this code currently uses the incredibly useful prototype library.
Prototype may be overkill for the implementation in wmsmap.js, but provides a lot of tools for cross-browser web development.

This library also uses dragdrop.js and util.js from the script.aculo.us library, which is overkill and these may be removed if their functionality can be encompassed in a tighter script targetted for the dragging in wmsmap.js

Influences

This code borrows from ideas in:

Related Sourceforge Projects :

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Map Icon Factory!



Hi Friends if anyone is interested in creating map icons for google maps, yahoo maps, this weblink will help you attain that goal, simplifying your work. Just follow simple steps, choose colors and there you go...

nJoy!!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Google map Icon Creator, Applications and the Future

If you've ever done any development work that includes Google maps and you're not a genius with Photoshop then this should certainly help - Terra IMS' Mapicon Factory.

It has a great UI and has a free option, it's great for creating unique icons for your Google maps.

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at the kitchen table, when Elliott and I haven't been coding we've been discussing the future and more to the point our plans for Roomstr. The conversations have been the usual mix of frank debate and down right excitement about what the project has become.

Yesterday we came to our decision over the application and the future.

The outcome was that we are not going to release Roomstr as a downloadable application, we will be initially launching it as a UK property search site. We know it has huge potential to disrupt the UK property market as some of the user generated map based features will bring a whole new set of benefits to house hunters.

To achieve this will mean some big changes to our own organisation, we'll have to grow and focus, this will mean divesting some of our current projects and so Folkstr will be put up for sale.

We will also be looking at building the team, to add the necessary new skills and once the site has gained enough traction probably look at finding the right equity partner.

Roomstr's unique use of maps, video, sms, mobile and user content has huge potential, it's going to take a lot of phone calls and shoe leather to get Estate Agents on board but we're ready for that

GPlotter : Make Google Maps Easily

GPlotter is a Javascript object which provides a simple interface to plot markers onto Google Maps using a simple XML file. The interface allows the user to write a few of lines of Javascript to provide this cross-browser functionality. It has been tested and works with MSIE (6 & 7), Firefox and Safari. [ See Documentation ]

Example: Locations in Milwaukee, WI, USA

Map data ©2007 Tele Atlas - Terms of Use
Map
Satellite
Hybrid
1. The Gig
1132 E. Wright Street
Milwaukee, WI 53212
414 562-0219

2. Trocadero
1758 N Water Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414 272-2050

3. County Clare
1230 N Astor Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414 272-5273

Usage

Using the GPlotter requires the Google Maps API and Prototype (1.5.0), a cross-browser Javascript library providing AJAX and object inheritance functionality. Simply reference them as is normally done with Javascript. Then reference GPlotter. This page is a working example and can be used as your starting point.

Extending GPlotter

The Prototype object inheritance model can be used to extend GPlotter with your own custom object. Either add your own custom methods or override the GPlotter behavior. This clean separation will reduce to work to integrate your changes with a future release of GPlotter.

var MyMapper = Class.create();
Object.extend(MyMapper.prototype, GPlotter.prototype);
var mapper = new MyMapper();
mapper.plot("map", "labels", "milwaukee.xml");

Downloads

Free Map Icons

These free icons are in red, green and blue numbering 1 to 25 each as well as an empty one for each color. Please host these icons on your website, just download Google Maps Icons.zip.

XML Format

The XML format is currently marked as 0.9 and the GPlotter object is designed to support this version and future versions. The root element must be named locations and include the version attribute. Child elements may change with each new version. As new XML format version are defined new versions of GPlotter will be published. Also, The XML format is also intended to remain neutral to the mapping system while GPlotter will remain specific to Google Maps.