Google Geo Developers Blog

Fab Friday: A view from the street

2012-01-20T11:08:00.001-08:00

It’s Fab Friday again! This is getting fun, I like doing this. This week’s theme is Street View. First up, Andres Ferrate from Maps Developer Relations (or MDR as some of us are calling it these days) produced this screencast on incorporating Street View and Custom Panoramas into your app. Check it out:

Next up, we have Historypin. Historypin is a site that lets you upload and view historic photos in Google Maps. Better, you can actually view them on top of current Street View imagery. Here’s a screenshot from Florence, Italy:

Finally, there’s the fabulous gta4.net fan site that uses the Google Maps API Custom Street View Panorama API to render Liberty City entirely in Street View. Let me be clear, not the Liberty City of Florida, but the fictitious city in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. Lots of fan hours went into doing screen capture, let me tell you.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations team

Introducing pyKML - a Python library for manipulating KML

2012-01-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

pyKML is an open source Python library for generating, parsing, and modifying KML, the geo-spatial data language used by Google Earth, Google Maps and a number of other GIS platforms.

I was motivated to create pyKML because I frequently need to visualize large, and often complex, environmental datasets. While the KML language has a wide range of options for styling, annotating and interacting with geo-spatial and temporal data, most programs that generate KML don’t take full advantage of these rich features. I created the pyKML library to address this problem by providing easy, programmatic access to all KML elements.

pyKML facilitates working with large and complex KML documents by leveraging the use of basic programming constructs (looping, branching, etc.). In this regard pyKML is similar to libkml, Google’s open source C++ library, but takes advantage of the highly readable syntax of the Python programming language and the processing capabilities of the popular lxml Python library.

As a simple example, check out this Python script that loops through a text string (“Hello World!”) and uses pyKML to create a series of KML Placemarks. You can download the resulting KML document, and below is a screenshot of how it looks in Google Earth.

This is just a teaser of what pyKML can do. For more complex examples, check out the pyKML documentation and the project’s Google Code site that includes sample code for: generating KML from CSV data, creating KML Tours, and visualizing ephermeris data for Stonehenge (e.g., orientation of the sun on different dates). pyKML can even be used to create “slides" for presentations!

To get started, browse the project’s documentation, install the library, try it out, and let us know what you think!

Posted by Tyler Erickson, Senior Research Scientist / Engineer, MTRI

Fab Friday: Feel the Heat

2012-01-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

We’ve been talking a lot recently around the Maps Developer Relations Team about heat maps. Heat maps use colors to represent the intensity of occurrence or certain values. Heat maps are a popular way to represent data. People often ask me how to create them themselves. So the other day when I ran across heatmap.js, with it's nifty Google Maps API Heatmap Overlay, I thought it would be perfect to share with you. Heatmap.js uses HTML5 Canvas to render the heatmap on top of the map. Apparently, it’s in early release, so feel free to help the developer, Patrick Wied out with some patches. Here's what it looks like:

On another note, we recently announced that several college campuses are now available in Google Street View, in areas outside roads. That data is now available to you in the Google Maps API. Here’s the Quad at Stanford:

Finally, if any of you are going to be at Strata, Chris Broadfoot and I will be presenting a workshop there March 1st called Beautiful Vectors. Check it out or just find us and say hi.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations team

Fab Friday: Happy New Year!

2012-01-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Scott Knaster over on the Google Code Blog, I’m starting a new tradition of Fab Friday on the Google Geo Developers Blog. On most Fridays I’m going to post about something cool going on in the world of Google Maps. Nothing formal! So please don’t wear a tie to read my posts.

I’ve got a couple of fun things today. The first one comes from a member of my team, Chris Broadfoot, who put together this great screencast on working with the Styled Maps feature of the Google Maps API:

I also found a cool map you might like. The Domesday Book was the result of a survey in England commissioned by William the Conquerer and completed in 1086. It was a survey of all the landholdings in most of England and parts of Wales. Open Domesday maps this survey. And it also has an API in case you want to play with the data yourself.

I originally found it on Google Maps Mania. I also find cool maps on a variety of sites, including Mapperz and the Google Earth Blog.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations Team

Using Maps to Optimize School Decisions with DiscoverBPS

2011-12-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

This is a guest post by Joel Mahoney, a 2011 Fellow at Code for America. Joel worked with the City of Boston on projects related to public education.

Every year in Boston, parents navigate the school selection process in an effort to get their kids into the best possible public schools. The process is complicated, and, depending on the outcome, can leave parents feeling frustrated and confused. DiscoverBPS was designed to make the process more intuitive, and to help parents make better choices for their kids.

Iteration #1 - Geocoded Addresses
In our first iteration, we used a home address and grade level to identify a student's eligible schools, and then displayed the results on a map. In the screenshot below, the green circle represents the student's "walk zone" (in this case, a 1.5 mile radius appropriate to a 7th grade student), the yellow polygon represents the North Assignment Zone, and the markers represent the schools.

With a little help from Google's Geocoding and Maps APIs, we seemed to be well on our way!

On closer inspection, however, we noticed one school that fell just outside of the walk zone boundary, even though – after zooming in and switching to satellite view – the school campus was clearly overlapping with the walk zone:

Obviously, if our goal was to build a tool to make the process more intuitive, we needed to avoid introducing new ambiguities into the system.

Iteration #2 - School Parcel Shapefiles
To solve the overlap issue, we obtained shapefiles for all of the City's school properties, and used a PostGIS-enabled database to calculate distances between the home address and the nearest point on the school parcel. In so doing, we were able to calculate walk zone distances, which allowed us to properly identify schools with walk zone eligibility:

After a several weeks of deep-diving into the internals of PostGIS mapping, we seemed to be back on track.

Stepping back, however, a new consideration came to light: was it fair to assume that a 7th grader could walk from downtown Boston, across the Charles River, and to a school in Charlestown in less than 1.5 miles? A Google Directions search suggested otherwise (the route below is estimated at 1.9 miles):

If the purpose of the walk zone policy was to determine which schools a student could reasonably get to on foot (and to discourage parents from busing their kids to schools on the other side of town), our walk zone circle began to seem misleading.

Iteration #3 - Walkshed Mapping
In the end, we decided to use an open source project called pgRouting (which extends PostGIS to provide geospatial routing functionality) along with OpenStreetMap to derive a "walkshed" polygon and to calculate street walking distances. We also could have used the Google Maps Distance Matrix API to calculate walking distance, but opted to go with pgRouting based on the need to create the walkshed polygon. These tools allowed us to then visualize the walkshed in Google Maps:

Aside from being noticeably smaller than the walk zone circle, the walkshed conveys a representation of walkability that is customized to the home address. Notice how the walkshed area is confined by bodies of water that are not spanned by any bridges.

DiscoverBPS is now live at www.discoverbps.org. The walkshed map (which would require policy changes by Boston Public Schools) is being considered for use in 2013.

The power of visualization with the Google Analytics API and Google Earth

2011-12-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

[Cross posted from the Google Analytics Blog]

Does your organization have several websites, each serving a particular geographic region? If so you know how challenging it is to analyze the data across these regions in a meaningful way.

Visualizations can help, but they can be difficult to design. Newland communities, a developer of residential and urban home communities, manages numerous web properties for each community and is no stranger to these challenges. To address them, Newland used the query tool from ShufflePoint. The tool enabled the combination of data from Google Analytics and Google Earth, allowing Newland to visualize the data in new ways.

ShufflePoint implemented a pilot project after discussing the idea with Chief Ingredient and their client Newland Communities. Their goal: deal with some of the problems associated with clarifying large amounts of data in a visually appealing manner. The outcome of the project was an integration of Google Analytics data with Google Earth.

Using the Google Analytics API, the ShufflePoint query tool extracts metrics by location from Google Analytics for multiple Newland Communities web properties and creates KML representations viewable in Google Earth. The mashup provides advanced visual reporting on location based campaigns, showing their effect on pageviews, and highlighting any anomalies requiring further investigation. Additionally, the visualization is a great fit for promotional videos, or digital signage needs.

“ShufflePoint uses almost every feature and capability of the Google Analytics API. The API has all of the characteristics that a developer could hope for, including great performance, correct semantics, OAuth for authentication, and good community support. The Google Earth based application has given ShufflePoint recognition for doing innovative and challenging things with Google Analytics. This has been beneficial for promoting ShufflePoint’s offerings.” Chris Harrington, CTO

The ShufflePoint application can be found on the ShufflePoint website.

If you’re interested in developing solutions for the Google Analytics platform, visit Google Analytics Developer Program.

Posted by Pete Frisella, Google Analytics API Team

Map data updates for the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, and Sweden

2011-12-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest challenges of mapping the world is that the world is continually changing. At Google we aim to provide fresh, detailed, and accurate maps that evolve at the same pace as the world around us. As a consequence we’re happy to roll out updated maps for the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, and Sweden, accompanied by the launch of the "Report a Problem" tool for these countries.

The map updates we are rolling out today include a number of improvements, such as more accurate water bodies, and more comprehensive parks coverage. The “Report a Problem” tool allows Google Maps users, and Maps API developers, to notify Google of errors in our map data, with email notification when their error reports have been resolved. For more information, see our announcement on the Google LatLong blog.

As with previous map data updates, it’s important that any data you have cached for these countries that was obtained using a Maps API service such as the Geocoding API be refreshed following this update. Periodical refreshing of cached data will also ensure that you benefit from any updates and corrections that are applied in future. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult the relevant Maps API forum.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Four Tips for Improving Your Mobile Web Map App

2011-11-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

We've had several new feature announcements for the Google Maps API in the last few months, including high resolution static maps, the new Street View Image API, and the use of high DPI map tiles in the JS Maps API on mobile devices. I'm here to give you some tips for using these new features to improve your existing mobile JS map app .

Upgrade Your App to Use the v3 API
If you're still using the v2 Google Maps API it's time to change that. Period. This is one of the best improvements you can make to your map app. The v3 Google Maps API was designed for the mobile web and it is significantly faster than its predecessor. Not only is the v3 Google Maps API designed to load fast on mobile browsers, but your app will be upgraded immediately because your map will automatically access high DPI map tiles, which have better on screen fidelity.
Use the Static Maps API to Improve User Experience
Check your Google Analytics data (or server logs ) to see if your app is being accessed by devices with browsers that can't or don't fully support JavaScript. You can add logic to your app (e.g, server-side user agent checking) to determine whether you should serve your JS Maps API-based app or a static map image that shows the same or similar information. Although your users won't be able to interact with the map, they'll appreciate the ability to view the map. You can even add markers and other features to the static map . You'll also be able to take advantage of the high resolution Static Maps API.
Use StreetView Images to Provide More Context
Chances are your map app gives users access to all kinds of information, whether it's your own data and images or our very own Places API. Give your users some additional context by using the Street View Image API to provide a general idea of what a location looks like at street level. When you provide a location in your URL request, the API will snap to the panorama photographed closest to that particular location.
Use the JS Maps API Only When It Makes Sense
If all you need is a small map for context, you should be using the Static Maps API. This may seem obvious, but we've come across a few mobile apps that seem to use the JS Maps API to provide nothing more than a thumbnail. Use the Static Maps API to load a small image and, if needed, link that thumbnail to open up a larger map (whether your own page that uses the JS Maps API or maps.google.com).

And again, if you're still using the deprecated v2 Google Maps API in any of your apps (mobile or otherwise), it's time to migrate your app to the v3 Google Maps API, as we're more than halfway through the three year deprecation period.

Posted by Andrés Ferraté, Developer Relations, Google Maps API

Understanding how the Maps API usage limits affect your sites

2011-11-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago we shared an update about the introduction of usage limits to the Google Maps API. Today I’d like to provide additional details about these limits, the types of sites that may be affected, and as promised, equip you with the means for measuring your site’s Maps API usage.

Usage limits and affected sites

Usage limits are being introduced to secure the long term future of the Maps API, while minimising the impact on developers. We have purposefully set the usage limits as high as possible - at 25,000 map loads per day - to minimise the number of affected developers, while ensuring that the service remains viable going forward. Based on current usage, only the top 0.35% of sites will be affected by these limits, meaning that the Google Maps API will remain free for the vast majority of sites.

We recognise that sites may occasionally experience spikes in traffic that cause them to exceed the daily usage limits for a short period of time. For example, a media site that uses a map to illustrate a breaking news story, or a map-based data visualization that goes viral across social networks, may start to generate higher traffic volumes. In order to accommodate such bursts in popularity, we will only enforce the usage limits on sites that exceed them for 90 consecutive days. Once that criteria is met, the limits will be enforced on the site from that point onwards, and all subsequent excess usage will cause the site to incur charges.

Please be aware that Maps API applications developed by non-profit organisations, applications deemed by Google to be in the public interest, and applications based in countries where we do not support Google Checkout transactions or offer Maps API Premier are exempt from these usage limits. We will publish a process by which sites can apply for an exemption on the basis of the above criteria prior to enforcement of the limits commencing. Non-profit organizations are also encouraged to apply for a Google Earth Outreach grant, which provides all the additional benefits of a full Maps API Premier license.

Evaluating API usage by your site

To help you measure your site’s Maps API usage, we have now added the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. The Google APIs Console is a centralised dashboard for Google’s developer offerings, and we encourage all developers, no matter how big or small your application, to create an APIs Console account.

We are initially introducing the limits for Maps API v2 and Maps API v3 map loads. The Maps Image APIs, and differentiated pricing and limits for Maps API v3 Styled Maps, are not currently included in the APIs Console, but will be added in the future. Once you’ve created an APIs Console account, please follow the instructions in the Maps API documentation to enable Maps API v2 or Maps API v3 on your APIs Console Project, and update your application to provide your APIs Console key when loading the Maps API.

After updating your Maps API application, you will begin to see your usage reported in the APIs Console. Monitor your usage over several weeks, and if your site consistently exceeds the daily usage limits, you will need to respond in one of the following ways:

Update your site to use the Maps API more efficiently, reducing your usage to below the limits
Contact the Maps API Premier sales team to discuss licensing options
Enable billing on your APIs Console Project

If you choose to enable billing, you will not be charged until enforcement of the usage limits begins in early 2012. Once enforcement begins, excess usage after your site has exceeded the limits for more than 90 days will be charged to the credit card you provided according to the rates listed in the Maps API FAQ.

We hope this additional information helps clarify the impact that the Maps API usage limits may have on your site, and recommend that you begin using the Google APIs Console to quantify your usage. For more information, please refer to the usage limits section of the Maps API FAQ. For further assistance, we encourage you to visit the the Google Maps JavaScript API v3 forum.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Make your map interactive with shape editing and drawing tools

2011-11-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

With a paper map, you can truly make it your own by getting out a pen or a pencil, and adding your own annotations to it. You could circle all the museums that you want to visit, or trace the route that you will take on your road trip.

Maps API applications can now offer users this sort of tactile interactivity using the new Drawing Library. The Drawing Library provides a toolbox which enables users to draw markers, lines, and shapes on the map, much as they would in any drawing application. The tools can be used for collecting annotations from users, or for selecting regions to search or highlight. Applications can listen for events when overlays are added and respond accordingly, such as issuing the search query or saving the annotations to a database.

Shapes on a map, including shapes users have just drawn using drawing tools, can also be made editable so that users can modify or correct them. For example, the user could change the bounds for a geospatial query with the drag of a mouse. The Polyline, Polygon, Circle, and Rectangle classes have a new editable property, which toggles the visibility of control points on these shapes.

For more information on using the drawing library and editable shapes, please refer to the Maps API documentation. The Maps API forum is a great place to discuss these new features, or raise any other Maps API issues that you may have. We hope that these new features will result in even greater interactivity for applications built on top of the Maps API.

Posted by Enoch Lau, Software Engineer, Google Maps API

Introduction of usage limits to the Maps API

2011-10-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

When the Maps API Terms of Service were updated in April of this year we announced that usage limits would be introduced to the Maps API starting on October 1st. With October upon us, I’d like to provide an update on how these limits are being introduced, and the impact it will have on your Maps API sites.

The usage limits that now apply to Maps API sites are documented in the Maps API FAQ. However no site exceeding these limits will stop working immediately. We understand that developers need time to evaluate their usage, determine if they are affected, and respond if necessary. There are three options available for sites that are exceeding the limits:

Reduce your usage to below the limits
Opt-in to paying for your excess usage at the rates given in the FAQ
Purchase a Maps API Premier license

To assist in evaluating whether your site is exceeding the usage limits we will shortly be adding the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. Once available you will be able to track your usage in the APIs Console by providing an APIs Console key when you load the Maps API. If you find that your site does exceed the usage limits each day you can opt to pay for your excess usage by enabling billing on your APIs Console project. We will then start billing excess usage to your credit card when we begin enforcing the usage limits in early 2012.

For very popular sites Maps API Premier is likely to be a more cost effective option. It also offers a number of additional benefits, including terms that permit for-fee and internal use, enterprise technical support, a Service Level Agreement, fixed and invoiced annual pricing, and increased quotas for the Maps API Web Services. For more information on how Maps API Premier could benefit your application please contact the Sales team using this form.

We will announce the availability of the Maps APIs in the APIs Console on this blog later this quarter, and provide more details on how to set up an APIs Console account and update your Maps API application with an APIs Console key. We will also provide at least 30 days notice on this blog before enforcement of the usage limits and billing for excess usage begins.

We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning. However with the continued growth in adoption of the Maps API we need to secure its long term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable. By introducing these limits we are ensuring that Google can continue to offer the Maps API for free to the vast majority of developers for many years to come.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

A grab bag of Maps API news

2011-10-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Although we normally post to this blog when we launch a major new feature, there are also smaller changes that we release from time to time that are easy to miss. Here’s a brief roundup of some of our recent updates:

Switch to googleapis.com

The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that we have updated all of our documentation to recommend that the Maps APIs be loaded from maps.googleapis.com rather than maps.google.com or maps-api-ssl.google.com. Services on googleapis.com are guaranteed to never set cookies, nor do they ever receive google.com cookies. This improves both the security of the API, and the performance on bandwidth constrained networks. We therefore recommend all sites switch to using maps.googleapis.com.

Faster reflection of MapMaker edits

Edits made using MapMaker are now reflected in the Maps API at the same time they are reflected on Google Maps. For many countries, including the U.S.A., this means that corrections made with MapMaker can reach the Maps API within 15 minutes.

Map coverage of Israel

We now have map data coverage in the Maps API for Israel across all services, including map tiles, geocoding, directions, and places. Try clicking on the below map to generate routes around Jerusalem:

Street View preview

We’ve added the preview thumbnail that pops up when you hover the Street View pegman over streets before dropping him on the map. Try it now by dragging pegman over this map:

Animated transitions between 45 degree headings

Take our new animated transitions for a spin! Simply load the below map using Chrome or Safari, and click the Rotate button. For extra spininess, click twice, then zoom out!

High DPI map tiles on mobile devices

Load the JS Maps API on a mobile device with a high DPI screen, such as the Samsung Nexus S or Apple iPhone 4, and the Maps API now uses double resolution map tiles for maximum on screen fidelity.

We’re keen to continue improving the API in ways both big and small. If you have any great ideas for ways we could make the API even better, we’d love to hear them! Just submit a Feature request using the Maps API Issue Tracker, and vote for any other ideas you’d love to see implemented. If enough people vote for your idea, we’ll look into implementing it!

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

5 Great Maps... That are just great!

2011-09-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

Each month I try to focus on 5 great maps within a certain theme, but this month Google Geo developers have really outdone themselves and I’ve been blown away by a flurry of great new Maps API applications across the board. I’ve been especially impressed by the new uses I’ve seen of Styled Maps, Fusion Tables, and our new Places API.

InstaEarth

Instagram is an exciting photography tool, but what really takes Instagram to the next level are applications like InstaEarth from Modea. InstaEarth is an easy way to search for and discover Instragram users and photos on a map. The application makes use of the Places API with Autocomplete to help users to search around a landmark or address. From InstaEarth, “InstaEarth is a way to discover and view beautiful Instagram photography taken around the world. View your feed, friends' feeds, popular photos, or navigate the map and explore the world through the eyes of Instagrammers everywhere.”

TeleGeography - Submarine Cable Map

When you make a phone call or send an email abroad, most of the time that data travels by way of submarine cables. Submarine cables are the backbone of the global economy, so it’s fascinating to spend time exploring a map that shows where these cables are located. In addition to being a really interesting, fun, and a great looking map, this map is also technically savvy application. Each line representing a submarine cable is clickable and when selected grays out the other cables for better visibility. The map also uses Styled Maps to help the cables stand out better and Fusion Tables to help manage the data on the back-end.

DART St. Louis

There are two things I love to geek out on: maps and photography. That’s why I love this map from DART St. Louis. From their website, “In April 2011 over 250 creative St. Louisans gathered to throw darts at a huge map of the City of St. Louis. Participants then had one month to visit the area where their dart landed and make a photograph. The resulting collection of photographs shows a snapshot of St. Louis as it is today, one random block at a time.”

Berliner Morgenpost - Berlin Elections Map

Last month I wrote a post about a 5 Great Maps from Germany and this month we have yet another great map from Germany. Using Fusion Tables, Berliner Morgenpost mapped out the results of the September 2011 Berlin elections. Voting districts are colored coded by which political party received the majority of votes. Additionally, you can click on any one of the voting districts which will display an infowindow with a chart of the full voting results. This an excellent example of Google Maps API supporting the democratic process and bringing better transparency to government.

Dodge Journey Search

To promote the new Dodge Journey, Dodge is running a competition on YouTube where users can win one of three brand new Dodge Journeys. Video clues are released on YouTube to help users track down the secret location of the vehicle and if they find it, they own it. The clues are related to places in the real world, so users can rely on Google Maps and Places to help them figure out where the car is located. The Maps API serves as the hub of information for this competition and uses Styled Maps to match Dodge branding along with the Places API with Autocomplete to help users follow up on clues.

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

Geo APIs Summer Learning Series: Map Your Business, Inside and Out

2011-09-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

The Maps API is incredibly flexible, allowing developers to venture beyond the basics of web mapping into very different ways of displaying geospatial data and imagery. One way we chose to highlight this flexibility was in the I/O session “Map Your Business, Inside and Out.”

In this session, we demonstrated techniques for displaying custom data over a map, starting with a selection of locations spread out over the world, then zooming in repeatedly, ending with placing a specific object within a room.

In the video you’ll see how features in the API can be used to organize and display custom data at different zoom and conceptual levels. We talked about a number of concepts, demonstrating the power and flexibility of the Maps API. These included:

Overlay Tiler, a tool being developed that makes georeferencing and creating map tiles from an image simple and intuitive
the MapLabel utility library, that provides functionality to label features on the map in a style that blends in with the standard Google Maps road and POI labels
a comparison of techniques to render floor plans on the base map
a simple UI control that allows switching between multiple floor plans over the base map
a simple search widget, that enables filtering over features on the map
a store locator, which uses Google Fusion Tables for geospatial storage, retrieval, and spatial queries
gathering and stitching imagery to create Custom Street View panoramas, linked to Google Street View panoramas.

Many of these techniques were used in the Google I/O 2011 Map. The source code for that project can be found on Google Project Hosting.

We hope that developers, armed with these techniques, can create compelling maps, enabling their users to navigate inside and outside the mapped locations.

Posted by Brendan Kenny and Chris Broadfoot, Geo Developer Relations Team

New KML features in Earth 6.1

2011-09-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

In the recently released Google Earth 6.1 we added two new features that will help you annotate line data and improve KML Tours that include Street View mode. As a part of Google’s ongoing commitment to innovation within the standard, these were added to the gx: namespace using the official extension mechanism for OGC KML.

Line labels

When Earth 6.0 launched last November we introduced line styling options to create more realistic roads that have a physical width, outer coloring, and text labels. Now with Google Earth 6.1 you can also add simple text labels at the midpoint of regular (screen <width>) lines by using the new <gx:labelVisibility> tag in <LineStyle>.

Caption: Labeled line between SFO and LAX airports. Download the KML.

Note: To preserve the current, unlabeled appearance of regular lines in existing KML files, we’ve turned off all line labels by default in Google Earth 6.1. Because labels for physical width lines were turned on by default in Earth 6.0, you will now need to explicitly enable in your LineStyles to display them in Earth 6.1+.

Better Street View experience in Tours

Last November we also introduced <gx:ViewerOptions> in Earth 6.0 so that KML Tours can activate the historical imagery, sunlight and Street View modes, allowing you to tell even cooler stories.

Street View mode uses a different field of view (FOV) than the regular navigation mode to provide users with a better experience. However, until now this special FOV was not captured while creating Tours in Google Earth. This meant that tour playback couldn’t faithfully reproduce the Street View experience as originally recorded.

To address this issue in Google Earth 6.1 we added the <gx:horizFov> tag to <Camera> and <LookAt>. These values are captured automatically while recording tours in Earth 6.1 but you can also add them directly to your KML.

Caption: Here’s an example of using <gx:horizfov> to create the classic dolly zoom effect, invented by cameraman Irmin Roberts and used in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. Download the KML here.

Note: Although Cameras and LookAts can also be used to provide a default view for your placemarks, please note that in Google Earth 6.1 custom FOV values are only respected within the <gx:FlyTo> tags in tours.

We hope that these new features will help you create better tours and better annotate your data!

Posted by: Sean Askay, Developer Advocate & KML Tech Lead

Quick and simple Street View with the Google Street View Image API

2011-09-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

The Google Maps API family includes the Google Static Maps API, which delivers maps as fixed images in PNG, GIF, or JPG format. It’s great when you want to quickly add a map to a page without writing a JavaScript application, when you need maps on a device with no JavaScript support, or for generating lightweight thumbnail maps or maps for printing. In fact we’re so delighted with the popularity of the Static Maps API that today we’re launching an accompanying service for Street View imagery.

The Google Street View Image API brings the simplicity of the Static Maps API to Street View, providing a way to add a Street View image or thumbnail to any application without the need for JavaScript. Simply construct a URL in accordance with the documentation, and the API returns the corresponding Street View panorama as an image in JPG format:

You can use the Street View Image API in both web based and mobile apps, and the size limits and daily quotas match those of the Static Maps API for both the consumer Maps API and Maps API Premier. You can display Street View images in your apps using this API without a corresponding Google map, but if you do choose to display a map it must be provided by Google. For more details on how to use the Street View Image API please refer to the documentation.

To make it easier to find help using the Street View Image API and Static Maps API, we’re also launching a new forum today dedicated to these services. If you have any questions regarding use of these APIs going forward we recommend you head over to the new Google Maps Image APIs group. We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Maps API for Flash deprecation announcement

2011-09-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

When we launched the Google Maps API for Flash in May 2008 we were responding to strong demand from ActionScript developers for a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications and exploit the performance and cross-platform strengths of Flash.

However use of the Maps API for Flash remains a small percentage of overall Maps API traffic, with only a limited number of applications taking advantage of features unique to the Maps API for Flash. In addition, the performance and consistency of browser JavaScript implementations has progressed, making the JavaScript Maps API an increasingly suitable alternative.

Consequently we have decided to deprecate the Maps API for Flash in order to focus our attention on the JavaScript Maps API v3 going forward. This means that although Maps API for Flash applications will continue to function in accordance with the deprecation policy given in the Maps API Terms of Service, no new features will be developed, and only critical bugs, regressions, and security issues will be fixed. We will continue to provide support to existing Google Maps API Premier customers using the Maps API for Flash, but will wind down Developer Relations involvement in the Maps API for Flash forum.

We understand that this decision will be disappointing for Maps API for Flash developers. We hope you will consider migrating your applications to the Maps API v3, which offers many additional benefits such as Street View, Fusion Tables integration, Places search, and full support for mobile browsers. Our Developer Relations team and many skilled members of the JavaScript Maps API community are available to assist you in doing so on the Google Maps JavaScript API v3 forum.

Google remains supportive of Flash as a development platform for Rich Internet Applications for Chrome, Android, and other devices. However by consolidating our development on the Maps API v3 we can focus all of our resources on delivering great new Maps API features for the benefit of as many developers as possible.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

5 Großartige Karten aus Deutschland

2011-08-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Google Maps API is truly an international product with coverage from Hanoi, Vietnam to Lahore, Pakistan and everywhere in between. Like the extensive coverage of Google Maps (thanks in part to user generated edits via Google Map Maker), our developer community is internationally extensive as well! Google developers exist in just about every country and our Google Technology User Groups (GTUGs) have over 253 chapters around the world! To celebrate the global nature of Google Geo APIs and its developers, this month we’ve decided to highlight five great Geo API implementations from developers aus Deutschland! (that’s ‘from Germany’ for non-German speakers :)

Street View Live from Lufthansa

Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline, flies to many destinations in Europe. To help travelers discover Europe and encourage them to plan a vacation, Lufthansa has plotted all their destinations out on a map and linked them to famous spots via the Street View API. For example, by clicking on the Paris icon, users will be taken to Street View imagery of the Eiffel Tower to entice them to travel to the City of Lights.

Bikemap.net

Bikemap.net, built by Toursprung from Austria and Germany, allows cyclist to view and share bicycling routes from all over the world. Users can rate routes, mark their favorites, send the GPS coordinates to a mobile device, suggest changes to routes, and even share the routes on social media sites. Each route includes details about the distance, surfaces, and difficulty. To help cyclists better understand the terrain the site has an interactive elevation bar. A similar effect can be achieved using the Google Elevation API.

McDonalds Store Locator

The German online destination for McDonald’s features a very nice store locator built on the Google Maps API. Very similar to another store locator built by German company, Hugo Boss, this store locator uses the map as both its background and focal point. The store locator also features custom icons, category filtering (24hr, wifi, drive through, etc), and custom controls.

Mare Verlag - Interactive World Map

Maps become very powerful when they are used to add geo context to information. German magazine, Mare, is using the Google Maps API to geotagged their stories and display them on a map. You can use the map to focus in on a particular part of the world and the application will populate the map with the stories that occurred in that region.

Munich S-Bahn Live Tracking on Google Maps

What’s great about this map is that it shows Munich S-Bahn transit system in real time as the trains travel through the city. There are clickable custom icons for each train, representing their line and when clicked on display stop information in an infowindow. The Google Maps API is a great solution for real-time asset tracking for both transit and business applications. To find out more about using asset tracking for business applications, visit the Google Geo Enterprise website.

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

Latitude API helps your users find themselves

2011-08-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Reposted from The Official Google Code Blog

With the recent addition of OAuth 2.0 support for the Latitude API, it is now easier than ever to start writing applications that utilize users’ location history or current location if they have opted in to sharing this information.

This post includes some examples of how you can use the powerful Latitude API to make compelling location-based applications.

Location History

There are many interesting ways you can use location history to create an interesting app. For example, Latify shows my location history on my Android phone so I can easily keep track of where I’ve been. You can use location history to answer questions like "Where was I on September 17th?" or you can analyze location history to show interesting stats. You can also export location history to Google Fusion Tables.

The possibilities expand when you use location history in conjunction with other data sets. For example, you can show location history lined up with transaction history, RSS feeds, or photo albums so users can see exactly where they were for a particular purchase, news event, or photo.

Current Location

The Latitude API allows you to access a user’s current location from a mobile device or a web server. For example, Moveable Weather allows users to call a phone number that tells them the weather based on their current Latitude location.

If you’re writing a mobile group messaging app, you can use the Latitude API to let users opt in to location sharing, allowing everyone in the group to see everyone else’s current location, without needing any location logic in your app.

These are just a few examples of the features of the Latitude API, which also includes storing location history, accessing city level location, and deleting location history. Check out the documentation to get started, or try browsing featured applications to get an idea of what you can build.

Posted by Kenneth Leftin, Software Engineer

Go large, with high resolution support in the Static Maps API

2011-08-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

The Static Maps API is a great service for when you need to quickly generate a static, lightweight map. Following the updates to the Maps API/Earth API Terms of Service earlier this year, mobile application developers are now free to use the Static Maps API in native mobile apps, providing the map links to the Google Maps app or website for the same location. However the high pixel density of some mobile screens can make the labels and icons on such a static map unreadably small.

For this reason, we're introducing a new feature of the Static Maps API that smoothly doubles the size of the whole image including labels, icons, and overlays, to suit high resolution screens. To apply this upscaling to an existing Static Maps API image, simply append &scale=2 to the URL.

The image returned will contain the same level of detail, but be twice as wide and tall without the stepping or blurring that results from upscaling an existing image:


`scale=1` (default)	`scale=2`

Note that when using the scale parameter the pixel size of the returned image is the product of the size and scale values given in the URL. The size parameter therefore now specifies the size of the required image in Density-independent pixels or Points, as they are known in the Android SDK and iOS SDK respectively.

Web based apps can also benefit from higher resolution Static Maps by adding a scale=2 image to the page with a CSS width and height that matches the size parameter. By default, the browser on many mobile devices upscales images in web pages by a device specific factor based on the pixel density of the screen. However these devices will preserve additional detail in the image if the image pixel : CSS pixel ratio matches or exceeds the scaling factor, which can be found by querying window.devicePixelRatio in JavaScript.

For example, below are the above two maps side-by-side with the same CSS size. On a desktop screen with a window.devicePixelRatio of 1.0 these will look almost indistinguishable. However open this blog post on a device with a high resolution screen, such as a Samsung Nexus S or Apple iPhone 4, and the image on the right will look significantly sharper.


`scale=1`	`scale=2`

As an added benefit, Maps API Premier developers can also request maps with a scale factor of 4. Although this exceeds the maximum window.devicePixelRatio of current mobile devices it does facilitate generating maps for printing at high quality:

scale=4

Note however that the largest image pixel size that the Static Maps API can generate for Premier customers, regardless of the value of the scale parameter, is 2048x2048. Consequently at scale=4 the largest available value for the size parameter is 512x512. Note also that any use of the Static Maps API for generating maps to print must comply with the Permission Guidelines for Google Maps and Earth, which apply equally to Maps API Premier customers.

For more information on the scale parameter, and the other great Static Maps features, check out the Static Maps API documentation. We hope this feature helps your apps enjoy the full benefit of the high resolution screens that are increasingly popular, and makes them just that little bit easier on the eye!

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Geo APIs Summer Learning Series: Speedy Maps

2011-08-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

When you're developing for the web, every last second counts. The ever-present "back" button can sometimes be a developer's worst nightmare: a fraction of a second can be the difference between the user engaging with your content, and abandoning your site before it finishes loading.

Speed is something that Google takes very seriously; in fact, “Fast is better than slow” is ingrained in our company philosophy of Ten things we know to be true. It’s not just loading the page that needs to be fast; the interactive content of the page needs to be fast too. Only when the content is fast and fluid can your users fully immerse themselves.

In our session Speedy Maps, we dove into some of the techniques you can use when developing your site to make it really fly. We also talk about some of the lessons we’ve learned while developing the Maps API, and how we’ve used our learnings to improve the maps experience on both mobile and desktop browsers.

The API team is embracing new browser technologies whenever we can to help improve page rendering speed. For example, if you have large graphic-intensive displays on your website, you might consider using the <canvas> tag to paint the display, rather than many individual <img> tags. A demo is always worth a thousand words – click the two buttons below to see how much more quickly the canvas element renders the content:

Watch the video of the talk, and explore all the demos in our slides to discover some of the techniques you can use on your site to make it fast. You should also check out http://code.google.com/speed/ – the home of all Google’s speedy resources.

Good luck, and may all your pages be fast ones!

Posted by Dave Day, Software Engineer, Google Maps API

Business icons and styling across map types coming to the Maps API

2011-08-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

When visiting an unfamiliar city for the first time, I often pick up a tourist map when I check-in to the hotel. Tourist maps are distinctive because they apply equal emphasis to the landmarks of the city as they do to the street names and intersections. Landmarks can be extremely valuable for navigational purposes, and for this reason we add icons for prominent businesses and points of interest on Google Maps as you zoom in. These business icons can be clicked to view additional information about the business, such as the rating, address, and phone number.

At Google I/O this year we began integrating access to business information into the Maps API v3 with the launch of the places library, which adds Places Search and Autocomplete. As part of our ongoing effort to extend this integration, deliver a detailed and complete map, and offer a consistent user experience between Google Maps and the Maps API, we will shortly be adding these clickable business icons to the Maps API v3 as well.

If your application does not specify a specific version of the Maps API to load these icons will appear on the map by default from early next week, unless you are a Maps API Premier customer. The business icons will be classified with the poi.business Styled Maps feature type. If you would prefer that your Maps API application not include these icons, you can remove them ahead of next week’s release by setting visibility:off on the labels element of poi.business for your map. Maps API Premier customers who would like their maps to include these icons can enable them today by setting visibility:on.

You can preview these icons, and the InfoWindow that is shown when they are clicked, on the map below:

In order to allow you to control visibility of these icons, and other features, across all the default map types, you can also now specify styles for your map in MapOptions. This enables you to selectively restyle roads, labels, and other features on Hybrid and Terrain maps in addition to Road Maps. Note however that the base satellite imagery (for Satellite and Hybrid maps) and base relief imagery (for Terrain maps) cannot be restyled.

For more information on setting map styles across map types, please see our updated Map Styling documentation. The Styled Maps Wizard has also been updated to apply styles across all maptypes. As always, if you need assistance applying styles to your Maps, or have any other Maps API questions, we recommend you post your questions to the Maps API v3 Forum.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Geo APIs Summer Learning Series: GIS with Google Earth and Google Maps

2011-08-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

This session at Google I/O demonstrated how developers can take advantage of new and little known GIS capabilities in all of our geo services.

We started out showing some of the GIS capabilities in Google Maps API, which amongst other features, lets you calculate distances and angles and overlay map tiles in arbitrary projections.

Moving onto some new and upcoming products, we showed off some of the capabilities of Google Earth Builder, a new platform to manage and publish large amounts of raster and vector GIS data.

In the world of data visualization, previous sessions had showed off new styling features for Fusion Tables. In this session, we showed how you can enable spatial queries on your data, displaying maps and statistics for the closest set of features to a location, or all features within an arbitrary radius.

Google Earth Builder is not the only new product that provides access to our infrastructure for working with large GIS datasets - we also talked about Google Earth Engine. This Google.org project is designed to help scientists easily access massive archives of satellite imagery, and run image analysis and other algorithms on the data within Google’s datacenters. Complex analyses that might take months or years to run on a single machine can now be completed in hours or minutes.

Finally, we showed off some ways you can integrate open source technology, and finished off the session with Brian Flood from Arc2Earth, who demonstrated a great example of the kind of GIS services that developers can build using Google’s Geo API’s.

Check out the video to see for yourself, and thanks for reading our Geo API’s Summer Learning Series.

Posted by Josh Livni, Geo Developer Relations Team

Geo APIs Summer Learning Series: High Performance KML for Maps and Earth

2011-07-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an open standard for geographic data presentation. There are over one billion KML files on the web, and yet the vast majority of these files are points on a map.

In High Performance KML for Maps and Earth, Sean Askay and I covered advanced techniques for using KML in Google Earth and the Earth API, as well as introduced other Google platforms that support KML. Our hope is that developers will discover the power of using KML on Google’s platform.

Some of the topics we discussed during our talk:

An Introduction to KML

A quick history and some facts and figures about KML.

Advanced data visualization techniques

We demonstrated two new animation techniques using under-utilized KML tags that make for powerful data visualizations.

First we showed a time-animated thematic map of U.S. Census data using the <gx:altitudeOffset> and <gx:AnimatedUpdate> tags to animate the data using a KML Tour. See this post on unchartable.com more information.

We also demonstrated also a proof of concept for pushing near real-time GPS data updates to Google Earth via a <NetworkLink> that uses <NetworkLinkControl> and <Update> tags to inject new location data into a pre-existing GPS track <gx:MultiTrack>.

You can download this KML file to see these two techniques in action and the other KMLs demonstrated during the talk.

Developer environment

People often ask us about a developer environment for creating KML, so we covered various options. We looked at editors, validators, and libraries, including the open source library PyKML.

KML on other platforms

We showed how to use KML in the Google Maps API and Google Fusion Tables.

So check out the slides and the video and start bringing the power of KML to your presentations.

Posted by Mano Marks, Geo Developer Relations Team

Geo APIs Summer Learning Series: Designing Maps Applications for Usability on Mobile and Desktop

2011-07-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Maps API applications are accessed on desktop and mobile devices of many shapes and sizes with each application having unique goals for conveying information effectively and for facilitating user interactions.

In this session, we wanted to address some common usability problems that many maps developers run into and to suggest possible solutions that could correct the behaviour. We hoped developers would utilize and build upon these suggestions as they encounter problems in their own projects.

Here is an overview of what was discussed in the talk:

Why is usability important and why you should care.
What are the differences between mobile and desktop and how do they relate to map applications.
Techniques for changing the way data is represented on the map and how can change the experience.
Ideas for improving user interaction with the map.
Techniques for storing geospatial data.
Why incorporating sharing into your application improves usage and user happiness.
How changing the appearance of the map can dramatically change the user's understanding and interpretation of the data.

Justin O’Beirne joined us onstage to talk about map styling and how even the most subtle changes to the map can drastically change the user's experience. Below is an example of what can be achieved by using styled maps. The two maps are at the same location and have the same data points but the map on the left has had a custom style applied.

Drag the bar to show more or less of each map

By removing the map labels and decreasing the saturation and lightness we are able to emphasise the importance of the data, make it more visually appealing and build a application that is truly our own. If you would like to play more with map styling check out the styled map wizard.

So watch the video, check out the slides and make your map application user experience rock!

Posted by Luke Mahe, Google Developer Relations